Second try at a WOW !

Roddy · Nov 29, 2014

Right... second try making a WOW...

Was going to use the Asda chilled Red Grape juice but went to get it today and they only had 2 litres of it, leaving me 3 short... doh..

so used 2 litres of that and 3 x 750ml packs of Welches purple grape juice and 5 x tropicana apple and raspberry.

Fingers crossed for this one, last time I forgot to put fermentation stopper in it grrr (ended up binning it)

OG of 0.900

Chippy_Tea · Nov 29, 2014

Keep us posted.

Roddy · Nov 30, 2014

proper dark already but it's krausening up nicely..

View attachment uploadfromtaptalk1417355678022.jpg

Chippy_Tea · Nov 30, 2014

That's a dark one where did you get the RGJ ?

Roddy · Nov 30, 2014

it was the asda rgj you recommended but I could only get 2l of that so used welches purple gj for the other grape juice element

Roddy · Dec 3, 2014

bit different colour wise already !

View attachment uploadfromtaptalk1417635808132.jpg

Scaff · Dec 3, 2014

Wow. That's like a smoothie

I've looked at that wenches stuff, I think I'll be buying a few ltrs of that, now what to mix it with

Scaff

Chippy_Tea · Dec 4, 2014

Roddy said:
bit different colour wise already !

I think that will turn out more like a white than a Rose

Roddy · Dec 5, 2014

Chippy_Tea said:
I think that will turn out more like a white than a Rose

how come ? I didn't think that would be possible when it's based on red/purple grape juice ?

Chippy_Tea · Dec 5, 2014

When it's in the DJ it is dark red, as the sediment settles even before you rack and add finings you'll notice it gets lighter in colour, when you add the finings it changes a lot, if you watch the second video in the first post in this thread you will get some idea.

Roddy · Dec 14, 2014

racked it off into a carboy tonight and added campden, wine stopper and finings...
watch this space !

BruinTuns · Dec 14, 2014

Roddy, sorry, I'm late to this thread and new to Wows..
Why did you bin the last batch just for failing to stop fermentation? Are the consequences of letting it ferment out so dire?

Roddy · Dec 15, 2014

I suppose I could have just waited to see what would happen, but a conbination of impatience and lack of experience (ie not knowing for sure if it would have ever come good) led me to bin it !

BruinTuns · Dec 15, 2014

I don't know why but I seem to be struggling to understand the Wow procedure. I thought letting them ferment out was what to do.
So at what point should they be stopped? How would one judge, by taste alone? And is it done just by adding potassium sorbate?

Chippy_Tea · Dec 15, 2014

I don't know why but I seem to be struggling to understand the Wow procedure. I thought letting them ferment out was what to do.
So at what point should they be stopped? How would one judge, by taste alone? And is it done just by adding potassium sorbate?

Normally you let it ferment out then back sweeten to taste using your hydrometer, the advantage to this method rather than stopping it early is the yeast gets time to clean up after itself, not allowing this extra week after fermentation has finished can lead to a wine that will give you a bad head and worse bad guts.

You cannot really do it by taste alone but if you wait until its only bubbling once every couple of minutes then leave it another week (as mentioned above) you can be fairly confident it'll be below 995 (i no longer use my hydrometer as they were always below 995, usually 990)

Wine stabiliser (potassium sorbate) kills the yeast before bottling and also allows you to back sweeten, you also need to add a crushed campden tablet to each DJ, the cambden tablet helps stop the wine spoiling while ageing.

Wine sweetness guide.
0.990 dry
0.995 medium-dry
1.000 medium
1.005 medium-sweet
1.010 sweet.

BruinTuns · Dec 15, 2014

Thanks Chippy.
That's more or less what I thought but I got confused by the OP. So Roddy's mistake wasn't in failing to stop fermentation but in thinking he'd gone wrong and tipping a perfectly good Wow down the sink?

Chippy_Tea · Dec 15, 2014

BruinTuns said:
Thanks Chippy.
That's more or less what I thought but I got confused by the OP. So Roddy's mistake wasn't in failing to stop fermentation but in thinking he'd gone wrong and tipping a perfectly good Wow down the sink?

I think the problem was it wouldn't clear, having tried 3 times and stirring the sediment up 3 times, he gave up and started again.

I rack into a second DJ or FV as it clears a lot faster that way.

Roddy · Dec 16, 2014

Chippy_Tea said:
I think the problem was it wouldn't clear, having tried 3 times and stirring the sediment up 3 times, he gave up and started again.

I rack into a second DJ or FV as it clears a lot faster that way.

yes that's right, should have added that vital piece of info !

My second attempt is looking much better and starting to clear slowly, put finings in on sunday night, sediment has all but sunk to the bottom too

made the slight mistake of siphoning up some of the **** from the primary fv when racking as I had set up my autosiphon/bucket clip at full stretch as if I was going to use it from the carboy which is a bit taller than my primary..doh. I think I got away with it, just have a bit more sediment than I'd like in the carboy

I must admit that the process so far is taking a bit long for an impatient type like myself, so I'll probably revert to a few kits to build some stock up before considering making another (unless it tastes phenomenal of course!)

Roddy · Dec 22, 2014

Latest update, seems to be taking longer to clear than I'd hoped...

after racking and adding finings on 14/12, I repeated the finings on 17/12 (box said was OK to do), it's now clearish overall and starting to go crystal clear from the bottom (?) so I can see the centre of the sediment pretty clearly

I thought it would have cleared from the top ?

I'm now just going to leave it until it bloody clears, presumably that's the next step ?! another week or so maybe ?

Too used to a 7 day kit I think haha

Chippy_Tea · Dec 22, 2014

You seem to be having more than you fair share of problems with clearing, I use kwik clear and it only takes a couple of days to clear.

How do you degas?

Which finings do you use?

Do you use pectolace?

Second try at a WOW !

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

Landlord.

Administrator.

Landlord.

Administrator.

Landlord.

Landlord.

Regular.

Administrator.

Landlord.

Administrator.

Landlord.

Landlord.

Landlord.

Landlord.

Administrator.

Landlord.

Administrator.

Landlord.

Landlord.

Administrator.

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!