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If Kwik clear is taking 4 days you are not degassing the wine enough mine have all cleared in 24 - 48 hours.
@Chippy_Tea , That's a good tip, As I am using DJ's so degassing is by using muscle power only, so might not be perfect..!

Another question, Advice is to top up with water to fill the DJ after 2-3 days of fermentation. However I am wondering if I can top-up with some juice ?
 
Couple of quick questions re degassing

1. do I rack into a different DJ first or do it whilst in the first one and still one the yeast?
2. doesn’t agitating the wine risk introducing Oxygen? And, if so, isn’t that a bad thing?
 
If you are using the shake method don't top up until you move it to the second DJ for clearing you can then degas it properly before adding stabiliser and finings, if you are going to regularly make wine i would recommend either making a degassing wand (see guide below) or buying one they make degassing a minute job.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/how-to-degas-wine-with-a-home-made-degassing-wand.48971/
However I am wondering if I can top-up with some juice ?

Top up with water as using anything with sugar in it can start fermentation again.
 
Top up with water as using anything with sugar in it can start fermentation again.

Strong fruit tea works quite well as well.


At least I think it does, it seems to add more flavour than just water at any rate. Although the strawberry tea turned my pineapple wine an interesting colour for a while til it cleared.
 
I faced a issues with my second batch . I used the following recipe

1 Litre RGJ from Lidl
1.5 Littre Apple Juice
250 ML Pineapple Juice
900Gms of sugar

OG was close to 1.1

Fermentation seemed to start fine as there was lot of bubbling, However no yeast colony was formed on the top, Also fermentation kept on going for 2 weeks and no sediments were dropped on the bottom of DJ. Fermentation stopped after around 17 days and bit of deposits at the bottom and wine was quite cloudy. When I opened the DJ, there was quite a strong smell.

In the beginning I felt the batch has gone bad but then I thought I will go through the process and rack it. So racked it, Degassed and added stabilizer and finings. Wine cleared in 24 hours and most of the smell is now gone. I have racked it for second time now and hoping that it will be fine in few days ?

Not sure what I did wrong as my first batch was quite good.!
 
I've been thinking of making a fruit juice wine thusly.....

5 litres of Tesco mango and apple 100% juice from concentrate
x grammes of sugar (tbc)
Teaspoon pectolase
Teaspoon tannin
Yeast and nutrient

Chuck into barrel for primary and rack into a demijohn to ferment out. De-gas, fine and bottle.

Does that sound like it would work? At what point would you add glycerine if using?

TIA
 
I've been thinking of making a fruit juice wine thusly.....

5 litres of Tesco mango and apple 100% juice from concentrate
x grammes of sugar (tbc)
Teaspoon pectolase
Teaspoon tannin
Yeast and nutrient

Chuck into barrel for primary and rack into a demijohn to ferment out. De-gas, fine and bottle.

Does that sound like it would work? At what point would you add glycerine if using?

TIA
Sounds good. Glycerine at the same time as rest of using.
For sugar amounts I always aim for 1100g total so 1100 - total from juice = sugar amount.
Apologies if teaching you to suck eggs.
 
I've been thinking of making a fruit juice wine thusly.....
5 litres of Tesco mango and apple 100% juice from concentrate
x grammes of sugar (tbc)
Teaspoon pectolase
Teaspoon tannin
Yeast and nutrient
Chuck into barrel for primary and rack into a demijohn to ferment out. De-gas, fine and bottle.
Does that sound like it would work? At what point would you add glycerine if using?
TIA

Follow the videos in post 1 below you really don't need to use 5 litres of juice especially if its 100% juice go with 3 and see how it turns out (top up with water)

As Nev said a total sugar content of 1100g is what most of us aim for this'll give you 13% (approx)

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ne-how-to-guide-and-recipes.49462/post-456519
 
Follow the videos in post 1 below you really don't need to use 5 litres of juice especially if its 100% juice go with 3 and see how it turns out (top up with water)

As Nev said a total sugar content of 1100g is what most of us aim for this'll give you 13% (approx)

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ne-how-to-guide-and-recipes.49462/post-456519
It was mostly the don't really need 5 litres bit I was wondering about. What difference does using 100% juice as opposed to 60% juice 40% water?

I did make a wine from 100% black grape juice a long time ago. It has good body but tasted ****, which I attributed to juice grapes rather than wine grapes.
 
It was mostly the don't really need 5 litres bit I was wondering about. What difference does using 100% juice as opposed to 60% juice 40% water?

I did make a wine from 100% black grape juice a long time ago. It has good body but tasted ****, which I attributed to juice grapes rather than wine grapes.
Many members found if you use more than 3 litres of juice it gets a bit like alcopop (way too strong tasting) as we are trying to mimic wine give 3 litres a try you can always add more ;)
 
Many members found if you use more than 3 litres of juice it gets a bit like alcopop (way too strong tasting) as we are trying to mimic wine give 3 litres a try you can always add more ;)
Funny, with wine being 100% grape juice you'd think using the same with fruit juice would be winter than adding water. I suppose there must be other factors at play as well like the actual type of fruit etc.

I'll go with 3 litres for this batch (the pectolase arrived today) and see how it ends up. If I don't like it I can vtry another one with more or with different juices. I suppose that's the beauty of this method. It's cheap enough that if doesn't matter too much if the end result is rancid as it's cheap to make.
 
Funny, with wine being 100% grape juice you'd think using the same with fruit juice would be winter than adding water. I suppose there must be other factors at play as well like the actual type of fruit etc.

I'll go with 3 litres for this batch (the pectolase arrived today) and see how it ends up. If I don't like it I can vtry another one with more or with different juices. I suppose that's the beauty of this method. It's cheap enough that if doesn't matter too much if the end result is rancid as it's cheap to make.
I'll be I interested in how this one turns out. As lots of members have said 3 ltrs may be better. Please let us know your thoughts when all done, also as Chippy says you do don't have to age it for long.
😎🍷
 
I suppose that's the beauty of this method. It's cheap enough that if doesn't matter too much if the end result is rancid as it's cheap to make.
Spot on, we have never made one we haven't finished although my first and only original orange wine was a challenge and we nearly didnt make it to the end. :laugh8:
 
Okay, I need to check my maths here. The apple and mango juice contains 11.7g of sugar Per 100ml, so 117g per litre. 3 litres of juice is 351g leaving 749g of sugar to add.

So, the plan is, I put 3 litres of juice in a DJ and dissolve 750g of sugar into a litre of water then add that to the DJ, add yeast, nutrient, pectolase and glycerine and let it do it's thing.

Once the initial potential foam all over the floor stage is done I'll top up to the neck of the DJ and let it ferment out, hopefully avoiding another floor ruining mess (at least the carpet that got the several gallons of cider soaked into it is now in the skip and the floor is bare wood now.... Chipboard though)

Quite looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I'm going to have to do it tomorrow instead now as I took advantage of some nice weather on the way home from work to flog the river for a couple of hours.
 
Looks like you have the quantity of sugar needed spot on.

As you have found out the hard way (we all do) don't fill the DJ any higher than this you can top up later.

Dont top up to the base of the neck leave a space for degassing you can top up to the neck when you rack for stabilising and clearing.

1657049305237.png
 
As you have found out the hard way (we all do) don't fill the DJ any higher than this you can top up later.
I realised when filling the DJ this evening that they only hold 4.5 litres not 5 (which throw off my sugar calc) and I was going to be overfull for foaming.

Luckily it's only ever happened to me once, years ago, with an elderberry wine but a foam explosion really makes a mess! The cider incident was a faulty tap on the pressure barrel 😥

Anyway, I ended up reverting to my original plan and cowped what was in the DJ into a bucket and added the extra litre of water. It can foam to its heart's content and I'll rack to a DJ in a few days once it's calmed down.
 
Ooookkkaaaayyyy. So I took the SG's of all my wines tonight to see what progress has been made in the last few weeks.

First was the apple and mango WOW. It was put on 8 days ago..... SG was about 890... The hydrometer sank further than the scale! There was a heavy sediment in the bucket and the wine is completely crystal clear!

Taste test..... Imagine emptying your hoover bag into a teapot and brewing up a lovely pit of Vax..... That's what it tastes like. Vile! Not a hint of either apple or mango flavours, or even alcohol. Zero good points to balance out the hoover bag flavour. Possibly a hint of a taste version of that smell you get in a brand new pair of work boots after your first day of hot sweaty labour.

I'll rack it into a demijohn and forget about it for six months or so and see if it improves.

What went wrong? My only thought is that it got too warm sitting on the heater pad (despite the warm weather it's only ever got to about 18° I'm the house and only for two days). The 5 gallon batch next to it went on before it (I think) and it's still sitting at 1030.
 
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