Over sweet Ribena wine

[hill1649]

I have made a Ribena wine - starting gravity of 1.095, finishing gravity of 0.994 giving me a 13% wine. The wine has a nice fruity flavour with a dry undertone but is very sweet due to the artificial sweeteners in the Ribena.

Has anyone any suggestions for how I might reduce/tone down this sweetness?

I am planning to oak the wine and was thinking of adding heavy roast American oak chips for a smoky flavour, any advice or suggestions?

This isn't a 'bad' wine just too sweet for me, although I know people who like sweet wines!

 

[MashBag]

Are you sure it's the sweeteners? Had it finished?

 

[The Baron]

I can not think of anyway to remove the artificial sweetener. It is best to avoid using anything with artificial sweeteners in them as only the sugars will ferment out

 

[hill1649]

Are you sure it's the sweeteners? Had it finished?

Yep, SG 0.994

 

[jof]

Ah, a quick Google says ribena swapped out a lot of sugar for sweeteners back in 2018.

Might be time to look at competitor products that still use sugar, but likely to be more expensive. (Eg one from Rocks)

 

[MashBag]

Yep, SG 0.994

OK.

What you need is some tartaric acid. To mask the sweetness. Add by taste in 100ml in a glass.

Citric is OK but will add a zing, that you don't want with red fruit.

Lemon juice is very basic, but will do the job and defo add a flavour.

 

[hill1649]

OK.

What you need is some tartaric acid. To mask the sweetness. Add by taste in 100ml in a glass.

Citric is OK but will add a zing, that you don't want with red fruit.

Lemon juice is very basic, but will do the job and defo add a flavour.

Thanks, will give this a go. May also try fortifying some of the wine with brandy and added oak chips to create a Port like wine.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Did it have preservative, i made one years ago and it stopped at .1010 it was so sweet it ended up down the drain.

 

[hill1649]

Did it have preservative, i made one years ago and it stopped at .1010 it was so sweet it ended up down the drain.

Yes, it had preservative which I boiled off. My wine had fermented down to 0.994. The sweetness is, as expected, due to the artificial sugars. It actually has a nice, fruity flavour with some residual dryness. If you like sweet wines, you'd like this.

 

[hill1649]

Ah, a quick Google says ribena swapped out a lot of sugar for sweeteners back in 2018.

Might be time to look at competitor products that still use sugar, but likely to be more expensive. (Eg one from Rocks)

Will be looking this out.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Yes, it had preservative which I boiled off. My wine had fermented down to 0.994

There are many threads here from a few years ago that suggest boiling preservative doesn't get rid of it maybe they use a different preservative now or less of it, .994 is bone dry how long did it take to get to .994 mine took over a month to get to .1010 then failed.

There used to be a popular saying here back in those days it went "The best place for juice containing preservative is on the supermarket shelf"

 

[MashBag]

Thanks, will give this a go. May also try fortifying some of the wine with brandy and added oak chips to create a Port like wine.

Try it, as a regular to 'porting' you might find it's not big enough to start with.

400 g sugar 400 ml brandy in DJ. Top upto with wine. You can buy liquid French oak in little bottles. Add 5ml.

 

[MashBag]

There are many threads here from a few years ago that suggest boiling preservative doesn't get rid of it maybe they use a different preservative now or less of it, .994 is bone dry how long did it take to get to .994 mine took over a month to get to .1010 then failed.

Should be about 10 days, add ribena in two half's if you want it sooner. 25c

 

[MashBag]

Apple paste instead of 1kg sugar is nice.