After my 2 kit wines my first project is this

[dwabbit]

After my 2 kit wines my first project is this

have embarked on my first project
a mixed fruit wine
from a juice found in my local poundshop. each bottle is 1.5lt for £1.00. So i bought 9 bottles.

looking at the sugar content it showed 5.3g per 100 ml
this worked out at 79.5grams per 1.5lt bottle

So following a guide on fruit juices

my demijohn is 4.5 litres

So the maths

demijohn is 4.5lt so i need 3 bottles

I put 4.5 litres in a big pan to bring to boil to remove any preseratives. Before i turned on the heat i checked its gravity

SG was 1030 confirming 5.3g per 100ml or 53g per litre


I boiled the juice after cooling i took 250ml to make a yeast starter added Bakers yeast and some nutriants


for extra sugar i went for 11.6% which required 209g sugar per liter
as i already had 53g per litre i needed and extra 156g per liter

4.5 litres of juice= 4.5*156= 702g of extra sugar needed

so i warmed up the juice in the big pot and disolved 702g of sugar in to it and let it cool again

once cooled I put this juice 3.5 litres of it into demijohn and left to cool to 20c the rest went back in to juice bottle to use to top up with later
once cooled added the yeast starter bottle that was well going.
fitted air lock and left

checked next day all looked good fermenting well lots of bubbles and no foaming. so i added some of the spare juice from bottle.
2 days later checked again still bubbling away so added more of the juice to top up now demijohn is full
now its fermenting away very nicely


my maths working out was this


5.3g per 100mlx10=53g per litre

53g per litre = 2.9% alc
for 11.6% require 209g per litre
209x4.5 =940.5g for 4.5 litres

sugar in juice

1.5 litres x3 =4.5 litres x 53g of sugar= 238.5g for 4.5 litres

start with 238.5g require 940.5
940.5 - 238.5= 702g surar for 11.6%

after all sugar added and before yeast starter added checked SG which was 1085 a little lower than expected.
so started ferment at 1085.
now i am just waiting

The next batch will be the same but plan on using a white wine yeast. instead of a bakers yeast
total cost is £3.99 £3.00 for juice and 0.99p for yeast

 

[dwabbit]

First demijohn should be ready tomorrow
Though just bagged this lot for £2 at local shop

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I would put that in a bucket as you have filled it to the neck, i will be surprised if it doesn't make a break for freedom on day two :lol: Its best to fill to the shoulder and top up after racking to be on the safe side. :thumb:

You may have a problem with taste when its fermented as there is only 35% juice in each 1.5 litres and with only 10% grape juice per 1.5 litres it definitely wont have any body.

I hope i am wrong on the taste but its worth bearing in mind if you are going to make another before this one has finished and you have tasted it.

 

[dwabbit]

It's been going since the 18th started low and have topped up since it calmed down. Just had a taste nice but still sweet

 

[dwabbit]

I started a 2nd one few days ago but used a brew yeast from youngs instead of a bakers yeast
Think going to be an alcopop.

Will probably do another one but add some 100% red grape juice and do a compare between the 3

 

[Frogbrew]

I tried a turbo cider using bread yeast and it was rank! I'd stick to the wine yeast if I were you, I doubt the bakers yeast will make it to 11.5%.

 

[dwabbit]

i read many time not to use bakers yeast but came across this blog posting and found it very interesting
http://wijnmaker.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/bakkersgist-baking-yeast.html

so its a bit of an experiment for myself as well

for me if someone says you cant. I ask WHY. most of the time they dont know why so i will try. but if someone say you cant because and gives me a good reason. then i know they have tried..
if it was not for trying the earth would still be flat and there would be no beer and we would still be drinking water

 

[Chippy_Tea]

for me if someone says you cant. I ask WHY. most of the time they dont know why so i will try.

if it was not for trying the earth would still be flat and there would be no beer and we would still be drinking water

If enough people tell you something is not suitable for a specific purpose surely giving it a try just out of curiosity is both a waste of time and money, a tub of wine yeast is cheap and makes many gallons of wine.

This is the first website i found when searching "bread yeast for wine making"

There are so many advantages to using wine yeast and so many disadvantages to using bread yeast that I can't imagine why anyone would want to use it. The only conclusion I can come up with is that there is a strong misunderstanding about what yeast really are and what they do.

Yeast are what turn sugar into alcohol. They are living organisms that consume and digest the sugars. As a result, they excrete alcohol and CO2 gas. Along with these two compounds also come various trace amounts of enzymes, oils, acid, etc. These are the things that give different alcohols their different characters.

The thing to understand here is that all yeast are not the same. How one strain responds to the sugars varies from the next. There are literally thousands of different strains that have been identified or developed as hybrids, all with varying characteristics that make them suitable or not-so-suitable for performing a particular task.

This brings us back to the bread yeast. Most bread yeast will ferment alcohol up to about 8% with ease, but when trying to produce alcohol beyond this level, the bread yeast begin to struggle, very often stopping around 9% or 10%. This is short of what we'd like to obtain for almost any wine.

Bread yeast do not clear out very readily or settle very firmly, either. They typically will form a low layer of hazy wine in the bottom of the fermenter that will never completely clear out.

Even more importantly, bread yeast produce alcohol that is plagued with a lot of off-flavors. The bread yeast have to work so hard to produce the alcohol that off-flavored enzymes and fatty acids are produced along with the alcohol.

There are several other issues with using bread yeast, but these are the big ones: the alcohol, the clearing, and the flavor.

eckraus

 

[dwabbit]

I have just racked off to a 2nd demijohns
SG was 1085
FG is 994
That comes out at 12.1%
Tastes very nice. Just leaving it out in the shed to clear now