Planning my first wine making.

[Kinleycat]

when you get chance Tony, try and make the little lady a tea bag wine.
Twinings Blackberry and Nettle...20 of the bags boiled 20 mins with a little water,2 litres red grape juice, 2 pound bag o sugar, add spoonful of tannin malic acid and yeast nutrient. make up to a demi john full
In six weeks she will be drinking a sparkling clear red wine that has plenty of taste and a nice kick.

1) Who's Tony, PD?
2) She doesnt like red wine (she's a heathen) or nettles!!!
3) That doesnt help my present predicament!
4) Thanks for your help!
5) Have you been in touch with candirect yet??????

 

[PD]

Ian...sorry....

Not yet wifes wanting a new fridge first, I get the old working one then cornies.....

 

[Kinleycat]

Ian...sorry....

Not yet wifes wanting a new fridge first, I get the old working one then cornies.....

:thumb:

 

[Kinleycat]

Batch #2 is wracked off so I'm after a nice rose recipe that I can do in a 23 litre batch.
Is it just a case of replacing some of the WGJ with RGJ?

 

[Juggerluggs]

Batch #2 is wracked off so I'm after a nice rose recipe that I can do in a 23 litre batch.
Is it just a case of replacing some of the WGJ with RGJ?

I'm watching this with interest as I'd like to make a rose wine next, sparkling preferably..I've got a very scenty rambling rose due to flower in the coming months but wondered about using this stuff... :geek: http://www.uncleroys.co.uk/Concentrated ... tracts.htm

Here is the rose recipe I plan on using http://homebrewedwines.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... -brew.html

I'm knew to this, keen to know what people think of the extract of rse going into the brew. They have lots of other flavours too, could be interesting :hmm:

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I wouldn't use that particular oil, as it's not pure essential oil (it's mixed with sunflower oil) so you can't be sure of how much you're using.

Even then, I wouldn't use essential oils as it's hard to judge quantity. With the petals you know how much you need for the recipe, and slightly more or less won't make a huge difference. With the essential oil you don't have a quantity - how much is equivalent to 2 pints of rose-petals? - and you need to be much more precise in the amount you use.

 

[Juggerluggs]

I wouldn't use that particular oil, as it's not pure essential oil (it's mixed with sunflower oil) so you can't be sure of how much you're using.

Even then, I wouldn't use essential oils as it's hard to judge quantity. With the petals you know how much you need for the recipe, and slightly more or less won't make a huge difference. With the essential oil you don't have a quantity - how much is equivalent to 2 pints of rose-petals? - and you need to be much more precise in the amount you use.

:thumb: good points, I think I'll stick to grabbing those petals off my rose bush!

 

[Kinleycat]

Anyone back sweetened with grape juice?
My White Wow is too strong for Mrs KC so i though i could dilute and back sweeten at the same time, also by adding red grape juice instead of white would that make a rose of sorts or would that have to have been done during fermentation?
Cheers :

 

[Kinleycat]

Faint heart never won fair maiden etc etc.
Wow version 2.0 has been back sweetened with grape juice.
The batch made 32 x 75cl bottles; 10 were diluted/sweetened with 10cl Morrisons red grape juice and 22 with Welch's white grape and peach juice.
The final gravity was a shade under 15% (too strong for Mrs KC!!) so I'm thinking we might have lost a couple of % with the dilution but the added sweetness will be welcomed by those not taking lemonade with their tipple!!

 

[Kinleycat]

Version 2 of Mrs KC's vino.

It's fairly quaffable!!!

 

[Kinleycat]

Version three had 2 litres of apple and elderflower juice added instead of the straight 2litres of apple although I imagine that will be swamped by everything else.
I'm thinking of cutting the sugar content down on version four and adding a couple of litres of elderflower cordial to the mix; there doesn't appear to be anything in it that will harm the fermentation.
Anybody used it before and how did it brew?? :

 

[Wasabi]

I started some WGJ wine 5 days ago before spotting the advice here that it's a bad idea! I simply used 4L grape juice (16.8% sugar according to the label) plus wine yeast & nutrient. With the hot weather I struggled to keep it under 25°C, and after 2 days it seemed to be pretty much done. I checked it yesterday and it was 0.996 and tasted extremely acidic, almost like vinegar, I am wondering if it has gone wrong or whether this is what was being warned about re. not using supermarket white grape juice by itself. Is the flavour likely to mellow when it clears? The original grape juice tasted much like sugar water, no strong flavours.

 

[Kinleycat]

Not sure temp wise with wine yeast but i try to keep it within 18-22c same as beer yeast, and my previous two batches have turned out fine.
Like you i assumed that just grape juice would do the trick, but the other juices are to add a more rounded flavour that you wouldnt get from just grape juice.
At .996 you have a very dry wine, maybe back sweeten it during racking or bottling with some fruit juice (i use 100ml of white grape and peach per 750ml bottle: taking my wine from 14.75% down to 13.4%)
Got one racking and one fermenting at the minute, Mrs KC can't sup enough of it!!!!!!!

 

[Wasabi]

Just to update on my awful WGJ wine which initially tasted like vinegar, it is now 7 weeks since I bottled it (at which point it was no longer vinegary but still tasted somewhat worse than the cheapest-of-the-cheap acidic Spanish dry white wine I used to buy as a cash-strapped student), and I've decided to see how it has matured. To my surprise it is now eminently drinkable, and although the bouquet remains somewhat reminiscent of pine disinfectant it tastes no worse than many a bottle of cheap plonk I have had. Given that it cost about 60p a bottle to make it is not bad value if your only aim is to get some alcohol down you! Not that I intend to repeat the exercise!