Has white grape juice become extinct?

[the_kitchen_brewer]

I've been wanting to make a WOW for a while.

But I've just been to Aldi, Tesco Extra, Asda (admittedly a medium sized one) and Farmfoods and none of them have any White Grape Juice.

I also looked in Costco last week - no joy. I've ordered it with the weekly shop from Asda a couple of times and they've substituted and now they've taken it off their website.

I found some online, but at around £5 inc delivery I might as well get some grape concentrate from the LHBS, but it kind of negates the whole point of doing a WOW.

I noticed Sainsburys have Welch's WGJ and Peach on their website, but it's only 30% juice?

Does Lidl / Morrisons / Iceland / Home Bargains / ??? tend to have it?

btw I did find some red on my travels, but it's a white I want to make.

 

[DrD]

My local Asda still stocks WGJ in the warm section. Has red in the cold section.

Lidl does red, not sure if it still does white.


Asda could well be slowly doing away with it, I hope not.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

We find WGJ hard to find yet there always seems to be a stock of red grape juice so we started using that instead, the wine doesn't come out red or taste like red wine its very similar to white, if you cannot get white give red a try.

 

[steviec_lj]

I've found the opposite.



RGJ is difficult to find, having been to Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Lidl, Aldi, Farmfoods. I haven't tried Morrisons though.



I'd almost given up on WGJ too, until I stumbled upon it in Asda warm section.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Asda were only charging £1 for a delivery slot at certain times of the week, a good saving if you don't have one close to you.

 

[the_kitchen_brewer]

Asda were only charging £1 for a delivery slot at certain times of the week, a good saving if you don't have one close to you.

Yeah I ordered this one a couple of times but it got substituted, now it no longer even appears on their website: http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/asda...da_100_pure_pressed_white_grape_juice_1l.html

I hadn't thought about giving red a try, so if I use 1 litre of red grape juice and 2 litre of apple juice say, will it turn out white rather than rose?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I doubt it but to be honest the colour is very light even with one litre of each, the picture below shows a DJ of this juice wine on the left, i took this approximately 5 hours after adding KwiK Clear so you can imagine how much the colour fades after 2 days.

 

[Firemanstalker]

have you tried waitrose? they stock it at around £1.75

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Asda have red grape juice in stock -

 

[the_kitchen_brewer]

have you tried waitrose? they stock it at around £1.75

Yeah I noticed it on their website, but they don't seem to think Liverpool is posh enough for a Waitrose nearest one is in Fomby 12 miles away.

I've had deliveries from Ocado before, but I think the minimum order is £60 or something like that.

 

[the_kitchen_brewer]

Asda have red grape juice in stock -

Yeah I was going to do one red and one white, but I'll just do reds until I can find a supplier of white.

Wonder if the supermarkets have correlated an increase in demand for white grape juice with a decrease in sales of wine

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I rarely make WGJ based wine i much prefer the RGJ with red type juice drink versions.

 

[the_kitchen_brewer]

I rarely make WGJ based wine i much prefer the RGJ with red type juice drink versions.

Yeah my sister-in-law's only really drink white, and they love the Solomon Grundy medium dry (about £1 a bottle) so was curious what they'd make of a WOW.

I used to drink a lot of white when I was younger, but only tend to drink red these days.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Tesco and Asda are advertising £1 delivery at certain times of the day/week.

 

[the_kitchen_brewer]

In the end I put on the white using grape concentrate from Wilkos - bit more expensive, but not to worry! It's bubblling away nicely.

For the red I got 1 litre of Tescos not from concentrate Red Grape Juice and 1 litre of their Apple and Raspberry not from concentrate, half of a bottle of the polish raspberry syrup, 800g Sugar, cup of strong tea, tsps of pectolase, yeast nutrient and wine yeast. Topped up to about 3.5 litres (with the intention of adding more water once the initial fermentation calms down).

However... 48hrs on and other than a bit of a foam there's no activity to speak off. I've checked the seals and used vaseline, neither of the tesco juices had any ingredients on the label other than juices, I can't read the syrup label but someone on here said there are no stabilisers in it so doesn't need boiled.

It's been fairly stead 22o give or take a degree. I used the same yeast batch as the white which is bubbling away so can't be a duff batch.

Any thoughts what it could be? Maybe I just need to be more patient, but in all my brews so far Iv'e never known it take more than 24hrs to start bubbling away.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have made many gallons of Red grape juice and apple/raspberry and never had one not start within 24 hours even in winter, if the DJ is airtight i can only assume there was preservative in the polish juice, tbh the polish juice was not needed as a litre of red grape and a litre of apple make a decent wine without extras.

You could try giving it a really good shake (airlock out hand over the neck) to get some air into it and the sugar mixed in if it has settled a little.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[the_kitchen_brewer]

I have made many gallons of Red grape juice and apple/raspberry and never had one not start within 24 hours even in winter, if the DJ is airtight i can only assume there was preservative in the polish juice, tbh the polish juice was not needed as a litre of red grape and a litre of apple make a decent wine without extras.

You could try giving it a really good shake (airlock out hand over the neck) to get some air into it and the sugar mixed in if it has settled a little.

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks, I gave it a bit of a shake yesterday, and this morning there's about 1 bubble every minute - still doesn't seem very active considering it's now the 3rd day!

That said, the white is bubbling, maybe once every 10-15 seconds so I'm wondering if I've got duff yeast, it was own-brand stuff from my local shop because that's all they had.

I found the ingredients for the syrup:
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/...fWXuxY&ddkey=http:AjaxAutoCompleteDisplayView

Doesn't look like anything to worry about there. I'll just have to be patient and see what happens!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

No preservatives added is the main thing, strange how its going so slow, its getting cooler in our houses and that adds to fermentation time but i only find its a day or two extra.

 

[the_kitchen_brewer]

No preservatives added is the main thing, strange how its going so slow, its getting cooler in our houses and that adds to fermentation time but i only find its a day or two extra.

Yup it's strange because I've got a little thermostatic radiator which keeps the temperature fairly steady around 22o and the Merlot kit I started the day before went off like a rocket.

It's speeded up to once every 40 seconds now so maybe it is just slow starting for some reason.

I think I read somewhere that the first thing yeast do is multiply themselves until there are enough to cope with the amount of sugar- that being the case I wonder if I've overdone the sugar content with the half bottle of syrup.

 

[Gorty]

Sainsbury's are listing their RGJ 3 for £2.50 :

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/sainsburys-red-grape-juice-1l