First attempt at wine

[Trucker5685]

Hi guys

Bought a Solomon Grundy 7 day peach wine kit to try as it's my first attempt at wine, although it's taken longer than 7 days, didn't rush it.
Just racked it off the sediment and gonna bottle it soon. Doesn't taste too bad either but I'm amazed at the strength!

From the readings I've taken it's 14.6% :drunk:
I'm thinking of running my car on it lol

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Planning. Open to suggestions

Have a look at this thread, supermarket juice wine in my opinion is as good if not better than cheap kits and its much cheaper to make. viewtopic.php?f=41&t=39846

 

[Trucker5685]

Planning. Open to suggestions

Have a look at this thread, supermarket juice wine in my opinion is as good if not better than cheap kits and its much cheaper to make. viewtopic.php?f=41&t=39846

Thanks for that Chippy, I'll try one of those in the near future, SWMBO came in with strawberry wine kit today so that's gone into the spare dj, I'll have to get some more

 

[Trucker5685]

Planning. Open to suggestions

Have a look at this thread, supermarket juice wine in my opinion is as good if not better than cheap kits and its much cheaper to make. viewtopic.php?f=41&t=39846

How do these turn out? SWMBO likes a medium wine rather than dry

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If you have a hydrometer you can stop it early it will be sweeter and a little less strong or you can let it ferment fully then stabilise and add sugar to sweeten it to taste.
.

 

[Trucker5685]

If you have a hydrometer you can stop it early it will be sweeter and a little less strong or you can let it ferment fully then stabilise and add sugar to sweeten it to taste.
.

Thanks for the advice, I've got a hydrometer, what would be ideal to stop it at?

I may PM you when I start it if that's ok, just to make sure I'm doing it right, newbie at wine

 

[Boatbrewer]

Personally I would let it finish its fermentation then sweeten it to taste. Trying to stop it at just the right sweetness is a bit hit and miss and I believe you can get a few off flavours too.

If you have used a fermentation stopper/stabilizer then you can use sugar to sweeten. If not then use a non fermentable sweetener like Splenda.

 

[Trucker5685]

Personally I would let it finish its fermentation then sweeten it to taste. Trying to stop it at just the right sweetness is a bit hit and miss and I believe you can get a few off flavours too.

If you have used a fermentation stopper/stabilizer then you can use sugar to sweeten. If not then use a non fermentable sweetener like Splenda.

Thanks for the info

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If you have a hydrometer you can stop it early it will be sweeter and a little less strong or you can let it ferment fully then stabilise and add sugar to sweeten it to taste.
.

Thanks for the advice, I've got a hydrometer, what would be ideal to stop it at?

I may PM you when I start it if that's ok, just to make sure I'm doing it right, newbie at wine

Feel free to PM me i will help if i can. :thumb:

As OldPeculier says its better to let it ferment fully than to stop it early, the yeast needs to clear up the nasties and that is why we leave it an extra 7 days after it has stopped bubbling (or at least to when we only see one every few minutes)

You can then back sweeten using your hydrometer to check the sweetness.

This is from Moleys WOW guide -

Back-Sweetening

If you have racked from a 5 litre to a gallon there really shouldn’t be much space to top up, just give it a splash of cooled, boiled water, then sweeten later after final racking. If you have racked to the same sized vessel then there will be a headspace, so you may wish to sweeten and top up at the same time now.

If you want a crisp, dry white wine I would suggest white grape juice plus apple juice and follow the same method as above. I think this recipe is best suited to something slightly sweeter.

As I’ve said before, a hydrometer takes out the guesswork. For a guide, 0.990 is dry, 0.995 is medium-dry, 1.000 is medium, 1.005 is medium-sweet and 1.010 is sweet. If you don’t have a hydrometer yet, just take a sip. Your wine will be young and sharp with no finesse whatsoever but you should be able to tell where it falls on that range. To sweeten between each step requires about 2 oz or 60g of sugar, so from dry to medium needs 4 oz, 120g. Boil the sugar in a minimal amount of water, allow to cool, add it to your wine and shake gently. Alternatively, I prefer to just sweeten from dry to medium-dry, and would add about 250ml of white grape juice.

 

[Trucker5685]

[quote="Chippy_Tea":nijjiy5s]If you have a hydrometer you can stop it early it will be sweeter and a little less strong or you can let it ferment fully then stabilise and add sugar to sweeten it to taste.
.

Thanks for the advice, I've got a hydrometer, what would be ideal to stop it at?

I may PM you when I start it if that's ok, just to make sure I'm doing it right, newbie at wine

Feel free to PM me i will help if i can. :thumb:

This is from Moleys WOW guide -

Back-Sweetening



If you have racked from a 5 litre to a gallon there really shouldn’t be much space to top up, just give it a splash of cooled, boiled water, then sweeten later after final racking. If you have racked to the same sized vessel then there will be a headspace, so you may wish to sweeten and top up at the same time now.

If you want a crisp, dry white wine I would suggest white grape juice plus apple juice and follow the same method as above. I think this recipe is best suited to something slightly sweeter.

As I’ve said before, a hydrometer takes out the guesswork. For a guide, 0.990 is dry, 0.995 is medium-dry, 1.000 is medium, 1.005 is medium-sweet and 1.010 is sweet. If you don’t have a hydrometer yet, just take a sip. Your wine will be young and sharp with no finesse whatsoever but you should be able to tell where it falls on that range. To sweeten between each step requires about 2 oz or 60g of sugar, so from dry to medium needs 4 oz, 120g. Boil the sugar in a minimal amount of water, allow to cool, add it to your wine and shake gently. Alternatively, I prefer to just sweeten from dry to medium-dry, and would add about 250ml of white grape juice.[/quote:nijjiy5s]

Many thanks Chippy, I'll bookmark this to refer back to :thumb:

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I just noticed you quoted my post after i had edited it, i have quoted below the bit you missed -

As OldPeculier says its better to let it ferment fully than to stop it early, the yeast needs to clear up the nasties and that is why we leave it an extra 7 days after it has stopped bubbling (or at least to when we only see one every few minutes)

You can then back sweeten using your hydrometer to check the sweetness.

If you decide to venture into the juice wines you will find some are much dryer than kit wines, my first WOW (the original orange version) went down to 992, this was far too dry for me and Mrs Tea so we back sweetened to taste, the apple/Raspberry & WGJ ones i am now making (and the pomegranate or Cranberry with WGJ ones) are done in 14 days and taste what i would call medium, i have never had to back sweeten these.

 

[Trucker5685]

I just noticed you quoted my post after i had edited it, i have quoted below the bit you missed -

As OldPeculier says its better to let it ferment fully than to stop it early, the yeast needs to clear up the nasties and that is why we leave it an extra 7 days after it has stopped bubbling (or at least to when we only see one every few minutes)

You can then back sweeten using your hydrometer to check the sweetness.

If you decide to venture into the juice wines you will find some are much dryer than kit wines, my first WOW (the original orange version) went down to 992, this was far too dry for me and Mrs Tea so we back sweetened to taste, the apple/Raspberry & WGJ ones i am now making (and the pomegranate or Cranberry with WGJ ones) are done in 14 days and taste what i would call medium, i have never had to back sweeten these.

Once again thanks for all the info mate, it's a minefield of knowledge lol