Wilko's 6 Bottle Chardonnay Starter Kit (Dessert Conversion)

[boozehound]

Hi Everybody, I'm new to this game and looking forward to hopefully spending many years attempting to master the art of home made wine & beers. A family member recently bought me the kit for my birthday and thought I'd attempt to adapt the wine to a 'Sauternes Style' if possible but without buying sauternes yeast as I wanted to get cracking asap as a trial run.

Here's what I've done so far...

6/11/2013 - 16:00 hrs

Added the following to a sterilized 4.5L Demijon.

Can of concentrate chardonnay.

The instructions call for 1.8L of cold water, I opted for the below...

150 ml tropicana orange juice
1 ltr cloudy applejuice (non-concentrate / pure apple press)
250 ml peach juice (54% peach and the rest puree and preservatives)
10 ml honey
1 banana crushed in bit of water

I then swirled it around and gave it a mix and added 440g of brewing sugar.

Then I added a nutrafine sachet and wine yeast sachet.

It started bubbling within around 3-4 hrs and this morning, it's bubbling every two/three seconds through the airlock.

My plan is to leave it for a total of 72 hrs, then re-rack and then take the starting gravity. I'm not sure whether it looks right atm but it's got a layer of white with black flecks at the bottom, mildly-cloudy juice in the middle and then a yeast layer that's bubbled up and is about an inch high. There are dark brown patches in places but I'm putting that down to some of the banana being slightly lumpy and a result of the yeast breaking it down.

ALL HELP VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!

 

[iceo]

im not sure if it will clear as the apple juice was cloudy. i might be wrong

 

[boozehound]

Thanks for the reply.

I can live with it being cloudy. Won't the wine stabliser and finings clear it though?

The instructions say that I should top it up to 4.5L with cooled boiled water on day three but I'm ignoring that and will add whatever I need to get a S.G of 1130 to 1140 then re-rack in to another demijon with some oak chips to end up with a wine with a finished gravity around the 1040 mark. Hopefully... lol

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Sounds delicious!

The one problem I can foresee is that the banana, apple, orange and peach all contain pectin, and banana contains starch, both of which can cause a haze. You'll need pectolase and amylase to deal with them.

 

[boozehound]

Cheers Tim, I'll grab some tomorrow from town.


I guess I add the pectolase at the end of the fermentation? at the same time I add stabliser and finings?

 

[graysalchemy]

Sauternes is made from Sémillon, Sauvignon blanc, and Muscadelle grapes that have been affected by Botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot. This causes the grapes to become partially raisined, resulting in concentrated and distinctively flavored wines.

My guess i would add raisins to it and stop fermentation at desired sweetness, I don't see what the other fruit is going to add apart from flavours not akin to Sauternes. :wha: :wha:

 

[boozehound]

I was under the impression that raisins would impart a sherry flavour - have you attempted a dessert wine yourself?

 

[graysalchemy]

Plenty of ports. The distinct sherry flavour comes from the oxidation more than the raisins.

 

[boozehound]

Cheers. I thought that was the case (oxidation) - it does however mean that every home made wine i've encountered to date has pretty much been spoiled as a result of oxidation.

 

[alanwh]

Where required I have add sultanas to whites, raisins to rose, dried elderberries & raisins to Reds