Where did you pick up this kit from guys? It sounds very promising! My flat is a bit cold so it won't be 19 degrees in the house for long and I need to get my brew on while it is.
Habbsy - normally you can just buy grape juice in supermarkets right next to the apple juice. This is probably going to be a better option than the concentrate I would have thought which is generally used to add some flavour or when you fear you've diluted your brew too much.
I've made it and it's perfectly nice, but not really loads of cherry going on. Depends how much you want a smash of cherry flavour in it really.
Be careful when adding juices - as you've pointed out if you add Cherry juice it will push the ABV up but it won't turn into syrup or anything. Sugar...
Are you guys using the ready to drink style of Ribena or cordial that's been boiled? I guess it's the latter as the former would be too weak and not shine through?
If you're using 'light' juices then they generally make up for the shortfall with artificial sweeteners buddy which don't ferment. Even if you let it ferment right out I will wager it will still be fairly sweet because of this.
I would be tempted to water down with a bit of strong strawberry...
I'd tip a touch out for what it's worth. Your only problem you're likely to run into is it foaming up and spilling out of the airlock. Best avoided I think even if it's going into the garage as it will only encourage infection etc I think.
Alternatively you can attach a blow-off tube instead.
Popped to the shop to buy water (we're in a hard water area) for a quick 5L of the Robinsons Squash summer alcopop.
Anyway it must have been in the wrong place because I picked up bottles of SPARKLING water instead of flat. If I use this am I going to stuff up fermentation? My initial thoughts...
Could well be it. When the other comes I'll do a similar test but with 25 degree or cooler water. I think I possibly do have a bit of a mental block in place about things needing to be warm - but I honestly don't remember the actual brews being subjected to anything even approaching those temps...
Yep, it's a newbie question but recently I had a disaster with some Youngs Super Wine Yeast compound. Brewed a couple of juice wines (Ribena ready to drink & Polish Syrup) and they did absolutely nothing (checked via gravity). I've had nothing but success with actual kits and even put on a...
Are you using yeast that's worked for you before? I took delivery of some Youngs Wine Yeast recently from eBay and I swear it's dead as a dodo. Perhaps worth pitching with an alternate yeast + nutrient if you have something around?
Anyone ever had a bad batch of yeast delivered? I bought the Youngs Super Wine Yeast Compound from a seller on eBay and setup two brews (one fresh Ribena & one Lowciz Syrup).
After a week the gravity had not changed at all. 1 bubble every 10 seconds or so and pretty much no froth on top at all...
Yep, that's the boy.
It's the first time I've used this yeast as well but got it as everyone seems to rate it extremely highly. Unless I got a 'bad one' :)