Pearlfisher
Landlord.
Found this recipe on the internet and decided to give it a try , 30 days in now and still fermenting well , anyone else tried it? , if so , any tips please?
"Before I explain how easy it is to make wine with ribena let me give you a little basic
wine information. I might point out that this famous syrup of excellent quality could well
be added to fermenting 'musts' made up from of the fruits to get special results. The rate
to add it would be one to two bottles per gallon.
When making wines from dried fruits the addition of one or two bottles of Ribena per
gallon would make a vast improvement to the flavor and quality of the wine.
Similarly, when making wines from fresh fruits that give a red wine, one or two bottles or
Ribena could well be added to make up for other fruits in this way, you may disregard the
SO2 preservative (more about this later) because the amount in the Ribena will not be
enough to stop fermentation, but it would be best to add it at the vigorous fermentation
stage-during the first ten days.
If you propose to use Ribena in this way, bear in mid that each bottle contains
approximately eight ounces of sugar, so you should reduce accordingly the amount of sugar
in whichever recipes you are using.
Undiluted Ribena is not readily fermentable, because it contains just over seven pounds of
sugar per gallon and is preserved with 350 parts per million SO2-either of which is
capable of preventing fermentation.
Obviously, our aim when making wine with Ribena will be to reduce the amount of sugar to
about three and a half pounds per gallon, by using half Ribena and half water. In doing
this, we shall reduce the SO2 preservative to around 175 parts per million. This amount is
unlikely to prevent fermentation, though it could do so.
My trials with ribena were carried out with the above point borne in mind and it will be
seen that I began with a good deal less than equal parts or Ribena and water, gradually
bringing them up to equal parts.
Because I did not want to overwork the yeast by giving it too much sugar to work on at the
start, and because I wanted to reduce the SO2 content to below 175 parts per million
(without heating with the risk of spoiling the flavor of the syrup), I decided to work to
the following method. The method, incidentally, met with the approval of V. L. S. Charley,
B.BC., PH.D., technical director of the Royal Foresty factory of the Beecham group and
one-time director of the Long Ashton Research Station, Bristo. All water used in the
process was first boiled and allowed to cool naturally.
STAGE 1: Two bottles of Ribena were diluted with twice the amount of water (four Ribena
bottles full). Yeast in the form of a nucleus was added and the mixture allowed to ferment
for ten days.
STAGE 2: After ten days' fermentation, two bottles of ribena and one Ribena bottle of
water were added and the mixture allowed to ferment for a further ten days.
STAGE 3: After a total of twenty days' fermentation, two bottles of Ribena and one more
bottle of water were added. Fermentation was then allowed to carry on to completion,
taking, in all, three months.
The result was a good, round wine flavored delightfully but not too strongly of fresh
blackcurrants.
At stage 3 it was borne in mind that, while most of the SO2 would have been driven off
during fermentation by adding those last two bottles, I was, in effect, bringing the total
SO2 content up to 175 parts per million. fearing that the yeast might be just a little
weakened at this stage I decided to drive off the SO2 in the last two bottles by raising
the temperature of the to 70 deg. C. If you want to do this and have no suitable
thermometer, stand the bottles in a saucepan of water and slowly raise the temperature
until the Ribena in the bottles has increased in volume enough to reach the rims of the
bottles. The temperature is high enough to drive off the SO2 and the heat should be cut
off at once. The caps of the bottles must be removed before heating. The whole of
fermentation was carried out in narrow-necked bottles plugged with cotton wool,
fermentation locks being fitted after ten days.
Racking was not carried out until one month after the last addition. Monthly racking
followed until fermentation ceased. Even at this early stage the wine was nice to drink,
but it had improved vastly at the age of six months.
At first it might seem expensive to make wine with Ribena, but against the cost one should
set the fact that no sugar need be added and that one has a top-quality product all ready
for the job in hand. Apart from this, there is no expensive fruit to buy, no messy
crushing-in fact nothing much to do at all. And, most important of all, Ribena has been
treated with a pectin-destroying enzyme, which means that you could boil it if you wished
without fear of pectin clouding the finished wines. Such boiling would, of course, drive
off the SO2 and give you a wine flavored slightly to cooked blackcurrants.
It will be seen that a sweeter wine may be made by using one bottle more of Ribena or one
less of water, while a dry wine would result if less Ribena were used. A dry wine would
lack the fuller flavor, but this would be offset to some extent by to dryness.
If eight bottles of Ribena are made into one gallon by adding water, the gallon will
contain roughly four pounds of sugar and the equivalent of four pounds of blackcurrants.
This amount of fruit is ample for a gallon of wine and, provided one likes a fairly sweet
wine, this proportion of sugar to fruit is not too much. On the whole, I feel that seven
bottles of Ribena would be the limit you could use to make a gallon of wine without it
being too sweet.
It will be clear that my trials with Ribena, using six bottles to make just under a gallon
of wine, have been most successful and I do urge readers to have a go.
A point to bear in mind is that a good light wine is often made with as little as two
pounds of blackcurrants to the gallon, therefore, if you made four bottles of Ribena into
a gallon of 'must', you would have used the equivalent of two pounds of blackcurrants and
two pounds of sugar. This would give you a wine of about twelve percent of alcohol by
volume. Such a wine would be dry, but by adding half a pound of sugar during the process
you would get a sweeter wine of one or two percent more alcohol. "
"Before I explain how easy it is to make wine with ribena let me give you a little basic
wine information. I might point out that this famous syrup of excellent quality could well
be added to fermenting 'musts' made up from of the fruits to get special results. The rate
to add it would be one to two bottles per gallon.
When making wines from dried fruits the addition of one or two bottles of Ribena per
gallon would make a vast improvement to the flavor and quality of the wine.
Similarly, when making wines from fresh fruits that give a red wine, one or two bottles or
Ribena could well be added to make up for other fruits in this way, you may disregard the
SO2 preservative (more about this later) because the amount in the Ribena will not be
enough to stop fermentation, but it would be best to add it at the vigorous fermentation
stage-during the first ten days.
If you propose to use Ribena in this way, bear in mid that each bottle contains
approximately eight ounces of sugar, so you should reduce accordingly the amount of sugar
in whichever recipes you are using.
Undiluted Ribena is not readily fermentable, because it contains just over seven pounds of
sugar per gallon and is preserved with 350 parts per million SO2-either of which is
capable of preventing fermentation.
Obviously, our aim when making wine with Ribena will be to reduce the amount of sugar to
about three and a half pounds per gallon, by using half Ribena and half water. In doing
this, we shall reduce the SO2 preservative to around 175 parts per million. This amount is
unlikely to prevent fermentation, though it could do so.
My trials with ribena were carried out with the above point borne in mind and it will be
seen that I began with a good deal less than equal parts or Ribena and water, gradually
bringing them up to equal parts.
Because I did not want to overwork the yeast by giving it too much sugar to work on at the
start, and because I wanted to reduce the SO2 content to below 175 parts per million
(without heating with the risk of spoiling the flavor of the syrup), I decided to work to
the following method. The method, incidentally, met with the approval of V. L. S. Charley,
B.BC., PH.D., technical director of the Royal Foresty factory of the Beecham group and
one-time director of the Long Ashton Research Station, Bristo. All water used in the
process was first boiled and allowed to cool naturally.
STAGE 1: Two bottles of Ribena were diluted with twice the amount of water (four Ribena
bottles full). Yeast in the form of a nucleus was added and the mixture allowed to ferment
for ten days.
STAGE 2: After ten days' fermentation, two bottles of ribena and one Ribena bottle of
water were added and the mixture allowed to ferment for a further ten days.
STAGE 3: After a total of twenty days' fermentation, two bottles of Ribena and one more
bottle of water were added. Fermentation was then allowed to carry on to completion,
taking, in all, three months.
The result was a good, round wine flavored delightfully but not too strongly of fresh
blackcurrants.
At stage 3 it was borne in mind that, while most of the SO2 would have been driven off
during fermentation by adding those last two bottles, I was, in effect, bringing the total
SO2 content up to 175 parts per million. fearing that the yeast might be just a little
weakened at this stage I decided to drive off the SO2 in the last two bottles by raising
the temperature of the to 70 deg. C. If you want to do this and have no suitable
thermometer, stand the bottles in a saucepan of water and slowly raise the temperature
until the Ribena in the bottles has increased in volume enough to reach the rims of the
bottles. The temperature is high enough to drive off the SO2 and the heat should be cut
off at once. The caps of the bottles must be removed before heating. The whole of
fermentation was carried out in narrow-necked bottles plugged with cotton wool,
fermentation locks being fitted after ten days.
Racking was not carried out until one month after the last addition. Monthly racking
followed until fermentation ceased. Even at this early stage the wine was nice to drink,
but it had improved vastly at the age of six months.
At first it might seem expensive to make wine with Ribena, but against the cost one should
set the fact that no sugar need be added and that one has a top-quality product all ready
for the job in hand. Apart from this, there is no expensive fruit to buy, no messy
crushing-in fact nothing much to do at all. And, most important of all, Ribena has been
treated with a pectin-destroying enzyme, which means that you could boil it if you wished
without fear of pectin clouding the finished wines. Such boiling would, of course, drive
off the SO2 and give you a wine flavored slightly to cooked blackcurrants.
It will be seen that a sweeter wine may be made by using one bottle more of Ribena or one
less of water, while a dry wine would result if less Ribena were used. A dry wine would
lack the fuller flavor, but this would be offset to some extent by to dryness.
If eight bottles of Ribena are made into one gallon by adding water, the gallon will
contain roughly four pounds of sugar and the equivalent of four pounds of blackcurrants.
This amount of fruit is ample for a gallon of wine and, provided one likes a fairly sweet
wine, this proportion of sugar to fruit is not too much. On the whole, I feel that seven
bottles of Ribena would be the limit you could use to make a gallon of wine without it
being too sweet.
It will be clear that my trials with Ribena, using six bottles to make just under a gallon
of wine, have been most successful and I do urge readers to have a go.
A point to bear in mind is that a good light wine is often made with as little as two
pounds of blackcurrants to the gallon, therefore, if you made four bottles of Ribena into
a gallon of 'must', you would have used the equivalent of two pounds of blackcurrants and
two pounds of sugar. This would give you a wine of about twelve percent of alcohol by
volume. Such a wine would be dry, but by adding half a pound of sugar during the process
you would get a sweeter wine of one or two percent more alcohol. "
