Supermarket Juice Wine How To guide and Recipes.

Chippy_Tea · Nov 26, 2014

I have just started a couple of DJ's of wine and they took two days to show any sign of fermentation and thats with a fresh pot of youngs super wine yeast compound.

As it's only cheap I would sack the old stuff and get some new for the price it's not worth the hassle.

BruinTuns · Nov 27, 2014

Ok: the next day the Young's yeast in sugar water had produced a patch of froth on the surface. Most (all?) of the yeast granules were lying on the bottom.
I bought a fresh tub of Wilko's wine yeast and repeated the sugar/water/yeast test. Again, no reaction until next day, when there was an identical patch of froth on the surface. Again, most/all of the granules were lying on the bottom.
Not only the reactions but the Young's/Wilko's granules themselves look 100% identical. By end of day 2 the froth had died away and there is no visible sign of activity. So either:
1) They're both stale
2) Wine yeast is always subdued in its reaction to sugared water
3) I didn't use warm enough water (just above room temp)
If anyone can confirm which of the above is correct I - and I'm sure some others with similar experiences - will be eternally grateful. Otherwise I'll continue to use both tubs and hope for the best.
Chippy/lads, thanks for your indulgence and advice.

Scaff · Nov 27, 2014

I've just started 2 DJs of redgrape and apple rosÃ©. It took 24hrs to pop the airlock and even now it's slow on bubbles

Scaff

BruinTuns · Nov 27, 2014

Scaff said:
I've just started 2 DJs of redgrape and apple rosÃ©. It took 24hrs to pop the airlock and even now it's slow on bubbles
Scaff

That sounds familiar. What type/brand of yeast did you use, and is it well within 'Best Before'?

steviec_lj · Nov 27, 2014

Youngs super wine yeast. Also used the Wilko sachets too.

Takes 24 hours for any activity to be seen, then it starts out slow. Day three of the Toffee Apple Cider and its up to a bubble a second almost.

I tend not to control the temperature of the room either, solid walled house, no insulation on the walls, so heat is zapped quickly. Main thing is to make sure the water isn't too hot for the yeast as you'll kill it off.

Also if using campden tablets for any reason, leave it 24 hours after these were introduced before adding yeast as the CT kill off yeasts.

Keep yeast in the fridge too, it'll last longer, but try to get a new tub every couple of months after the seal has been broken.

pookiehair · Nov 28, 2014

Just a thought but are you keeping your demijohn in a warm place? I keep mine in the airing cupboard while they are fermenting.
Are your bungs in tightly? Could the gas be escaping around the bung and not setting off the airlock?

BruinTuns said:
Ok: the next day the Young's yeast in sugar water had produced a patch of froth on the surface. Most (all?) of the yeast granules were lying on the bottom.
I bought a fresh tub of Wilko's wine yeast and repeated the sugar/water/yeast test. Again, no reaction until next day, when there was an identical patch of froth on the surface. Again, most/all of the granules were lying on the bottom.
Not only the reactions but the Young's/Wilko's granules themselves look 100% identical. By end of day 2 the froth had died away and there is no visible sign of activity. So either:
1) They're both stale
2) Wine yeast is always subdued in its reaction to sugared water
3) I didn't use warm enough water (just above room temp)
If anyone can confirm which of the above is correct I - and I'm sure some others with similar experiences - will be eternally grateful. Otherwise I'll continue to use both tubs and hope for the best.
Chippy/lads, thanks for your indulgence and advice.

BruinTuns · Nov 28, 2014

Not 'warm' exactly but the temp has been at a steady 19 degrees. Not using bungs, got balloons pulled over the tops of the 5l plastic water containers (unprofessional but it works).
There is activity, I can hear it if I remove the balloon and listen, just that it seems very slow and half-hearted. What concerned me most was the unenthusiastic reaction with the sugar water, somewhere or other I've seen pictures of this test that showed the froth climbing out the dish.
But from what some of you have said (similar experiences) maybe it's ok after all. I'll use an airlock on the next one as it might be easier to judge activity level; meantime I'll leave it alone and just wait to see how they turn out.
Thanks again for all the replies

BruinTuns · Nov 28, 2014

Just got two more on the go, WGJ + 2 X 1l Cherry juice drink, and WGJ + 2 X 1l Apple & Blackcurrant to which I'm going to try adding a bottle of Malina as a primer. Hopefully this late additionn will kill two birds with one stone, infuse a rasperry flavour and carbonate the wine. I'll taste it periodically and stabilise when the taste/fizz are at the right balance. Of course it may not be that simple but that's the plan anyway. I'll give it a bash and post the results.
As for using balloons, for these latest WOWs I finally got around to boring holes in two Ashbeck caps for bubblers. The problem - which you don't get with ballons - is that with bubblers in place every time you lift the full DJ it creates a suction that slurps the water out of the airlock down into the brew! Not good and I'm thinking about swapping them for balloons..

Chippy_Tea · Nov 28, 2014

If you have the type of airlock on the right i found only filling half way up the first bubble stops that happening, i now only use the Wilko handy airlock on the left.

Wilko handy airlock (Click here for more info and price)

ilikesabeer · Nov 29, 2014

Wow rgj and orange juice. Bottled and drinking. Can't describe flavour but it's an aquired taste not awful. Warm in the back of the throat slight orange after taste. Left to clear naturally no finings used. Nice clear peachy colour. Not bad for first attempt would like to do again with wgj if I ever find any lol.

goodolpete · Nov 29, 2014

Chippy_Tea said:
If you have the type of airlock on the right i found only filling half way up the first bubble stops that happening, i now only use the Wilko handy airlock on the left.
Wilko handy airlock (Click here for more info and price)

Chippy, havent used any sort of airlock on my PETs for ages. I have the cap
loosely on with a small freezer bag over the neck held tightly over the neck
and handle with a doubled up rubber band that the posties drop everywhere.
Never had an infection.

Scaff · Nov 29, 2014

BruinTuns said:
That sounds familiar. What type/brand of yeast did you use, and is it well within 'Best Before'?

new youngs yeast

its goin mad now, passin thru the airlock

scaff

Chippy_Tea · Nov 29, 2014

ilikesabeer said:
Wow rgj and orange juice. Bottled and drinking. Can't describe flavour but it's an aquired taste not awful. Warm in the back of the throat slight orange after taste. Left to clear naturally no finings used. Nice clear peachy colour. Not bad for first attempt would like to do again with wgj if I ever find any lol.

I haven't tried orange with RGJ as i didn't like it with White Grape Juice, if you use pomegranate, cranberry, raspberry or apple with the Red Grape Juice you cannot go far wrong

Chippy_Tea · Nov 29, 2014

goodolpete said:
Chippy, havent used any sort of airlock on my PETs for ages. I have the cap
loosely on with a small freezer bag over the neck held tightly over the neck
and handle with a doubled up rubber band that the posties drop everywhere.
Never had an infection.

I like to see the bubbles. :wink:

BruinTuns · Nov 29, 2014

Is it crucial at which stage the glycerine is added? I've been putting it in at the beginning but if one forgot, or decided a a particular wine needed a drop more, could it be introduced when racking to secondary or even at bottling?

Chippy_Tea · Nov 29, 2014

You could add it when racking as you are going to stir the wine when you add the stabiliser.

BruinTuns · Nov 29, 2014

Thanks Chippy

pookiehair · Nov 29, 2014

BruinTuns said:
Is it crucial at which stage the glycerine is added? I've been putting it in at the beginning but if one forgot, or decided a a particular wine needed a drop more, could it be introduced when racking to secondary or even at bottling?

Are you adding more glycerine for extra sweetness or more body?
I add some sugar solution to back sweeten my wine just before bottling, if its too dry. Never thought of using glycerine. Is that a better option?

Chippy_Tea · Nov 29, 2014

There is a thread about using glycerine as a sweetener - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48503

BruinTuns · Nov 29, 2014

pookiehair said:
Are you adding more glycerine for extra sweetness or more body?
I add some sugar solution to back sweeten my wine just before bottling, if its too dry. Never thought of using glycerine. Is that a better option?

Tbh I'm just following the recipes at the moment but I wondered if glycerine miight be a useful way of tweaking an overly dry or thin WOW at a later stage without affecting fermentation. I guess it's just possible that my first efforts will be delicious just as they are but I'm certainly not going to count on it :pray:
Thin and dry describes my ginger beer perfectly. It's just about ready to bottle so I'll add a few teaspoons of glycerine (there's 20l of GB) which will - hopefully - improve both issues.

Supermarket Juice Wine How To guide and Recipes.

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