Supermarket Juice Wine How To guide and Recipes.

[Scots_Pagan]

Scots_Pagan posted -

HI all. Having a stab at a WOW-style wine.
Recipe:
1Ltr Peach juice (not from conc.), found in Tescos
1.5Ltr Tescos WGJ
700g sugar
1tsp yeast nutrient
1tsp youngs super yeast
1tsp pectolase
1/2 squeezed lemon
1 cup of strong Earl Grey tea
Handful of raisins for body.
SG was 1.100 at about 4.5ltrs, so I'm guessing about 1.9 when topped to the gallon, which if stopped at 1.00 will realise about 13.3% ABV.

Thought I'd update (I'll do the thread as well, with photos, but for reference here), this actually kept going all the way to 0.991, and it was VERY fast...
Whether it was all the pulp in the peach or what I have no idea, but I put it on, and sampled it 7 days later, expecting it to maybe need a few more to get it to 1.00. Nope it was 0.991, and worked out at roughly 14.5%
Just finished clearing it, and have already stole a bottle for a friend that was visiting, who didn't mind cloudy wine. Very drinkable, all be it obviously very dry. I think I will back sweeten; my pal might like them ultra-dry but I like a sweeter wine so I'll probably add up to about 1.010 or something.
Very nice white wine though, with a healthy peach aftertaste, but nothing too in-your-face. For a wine that was basically done in a week (I was trying to clear it naturally without finings, hence the month+ in the tank), and costs under a £5, bloody impressed...

 

[Padster]

Let us know how you get on. :thumb:

Will do!

 

[Pjam]

it was 0.991, and worked out at roughly 14.5%
Just finished clearing it, and have already stole a bottle for a friend that was visiting, who didn't mind cloudy wine. Very drinkable, all be it obviously very dry. I think I will back sweeten;

I too thought I'd have to sweeten but once it had conditioned (2 months for mine) I didn't feel the need to, the dryness seemed to be less so, the harshness had gone! Twas really nice

The recipe I follow is very similar, though I do use 800gms of sugar and some of mine have gone down to 0.986

 

[El Draco]

got all the ingredients together now... will be starting the wow probably tomorrow :party:

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Let us know how you get on.

 

[El Draco]

yeah will do mate, im actually nervous and excited to get it done :)

theres a thought, may be a stupid question but can you use bread yeast for wine making?
Ive got a few tubs of youngs super yeast.. is this decent yeast?
Also would the wine be better if you used squeezed oranges? (not that i am like :) )

many thanks

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I may be wrong but think bread yeast is not up to the job of making high alcohol wines.
I have used youngs super wine yeast compound from day one and have never had a wine stop fermenting early.
I only make juice drink wines so don't know about using oranges, the only problem I can see is how would you know how much sugar to add, its easy using cartons as it is in the ingredients.

 

[Pjam]

I may be wrong but think bread yeast is not up to the job of making high alcohol wines.

That's my understanding too. It will make alcohol but as the strength increases the bread yeast can't live in that environment and dies off before it's reached the AVB level we like.
Tis a different strain.

 

[El Draco]

Ive decided to try the wow but im a bit confused in which juices to buy...
Im going to try the orange/wgj and the apple/wgj versions... do i need the 'from concentrates' juice? or the other?

You can use anything as long as it doesn't have preservative in it, preservatives kill the yeast so avoid Ribena cordials etc.

As has already been said if you cannot find a litre of 100% juice use 2 litres of 50% (or less) juice to make it up.

If you look through the thread there are many recipes with the sugar content and all the bits you need to add and how much of each. :thumb:

There are a couple of great videos below on how to make the orange wow, use this method and swap the orange for something else to make a WOW variant.

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpkXCowv2Ys

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJQQdkS0JAw

quick update... got a gallon brewing on the 9th.. didnt get the orange explosion like on the video... its bubbling nicely away.. question though.. the top of the liquid got a thick lighter coloured scuzz on it (similar to day 3 on video 1) which seems to be settling/heading towards the bottom of the dj. Its about 2 inch down from the top.. almost like its on a layer of warmer liquid if you know what i mean? Is this ok? or should i give it a shake/stir?
many thanks learned sirs :wha:

 

[Chippy_Tea]

When the hard looking crust forms i always give it a shake, im not sure if it actually helps but i have never had one finish early or taste awful.

 

[El Draco]

When the hard looking crust forms i always give it a shake, im not sure if it actually helps but i have never had one finish early or taste awful.

just gave it a gentle shake... looks ok..smells awesome :)
Gonna make some more at the weekend i reckon

 

[Pjam]

Quite normal Draco

That crust can get big sometimes, I did a pineapple WOW that came charging up through the airlock :lol:
Eventually it should end up on the bottom and form part of the sediment.
The lava lamp effect sometimes happens, sometimes not. I can watch it work for ages :) :) :)

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I am finding the 100% apple and mango and apple and raspberry juice from Tesco tend to finish fermenting with a lot of sediment at both top and bottom of the DJ, so if anyone else seed this it is normal. :thumb:

 

[samcatbear]

What do you normally do with it, Chippy_Tea? Try and shake it down to the bottom or just syphon around it?

 

[El Draco]

Quite normal Draco

That crust can get big sometimes, I did a pineapple WOW that came charging up through the airlock :lol:
Eventually it should end up on the bottom and form part of the sediment.
The lava lamp effect sometimes happens, sometimes not. I can watch it work for ages :) :) :)

its lava lamping today :)

 

[Chippy_Tea]

What do you normally do with it, Chippy_Tea? Try and shake it down to the bottom or just syphon around it?

I syphon as normal, you always get some of the floating sediment in the clean DJ as its impossible to stop it entering as the surface level gets to the top of the sediment trap, when I use my home made coat hanger degassing wand it turns it ftom solid pieces into a haze which drops out when I add finings, I am finding the apple and wgj type wines the easiest to clear.

 

[El Draco]

wow update..

After initial blast, the wow has been nice and steady bubbling away.
I topped up in 2 stages (last stage last evening) and no problems.
It smells lovely.
How long should i leave it before the racking, campden and stabiliser additions?

My plan was to leave it another week or so until the fermentation has stopped then rack etc then leave for another couple of week before a final rack and bottle or is that too much? :wha: :lol:

 

[Chippy_Tea]

How long should i leave it before the racking, campden and stabiliser additions?

My plan was to leave it another week or so until the fermentation has stopped then rack etc then leave for another couple of week before a final rack and bottle or is that too much?

Once fermentation has finished leave it for 7 days then rack into a sterile DJ onto a crushed campden tab, add stabiliser and finings if required, once clear you can age it in the DJ under airlock or bottle it.

I forgot to add if you don't want fizzy wine you need to degas, you can shake it and release the gas which i found hit and miss at best or you can make a wine degassing wand that fits into a cordless or corded drill which reduces the time to about a couple of minutes, video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMwq3TpkqCE

 

[Pjam]

Wait until it's stopped, it'll slow down a lot and in my book one bubble from the air lock in 45 secs is stopped enough for me.
Then I rack it off into a similar size demi, add campden and stabiliser and give a couple of brisk shakes to de-gas. (check video's to see this)
If you find more sediment rack off again, if not then allow to clear, however long that may take. Bottle.

Damn, chippy beat me to it. lol

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have just used a litre of Rose grape juice with a litre of 100% Apple/Raspberry juice for the first time and made another DJ with a litre of 100% Apple/Raspberry but with WGJ so i can compare the two.

Update.

I bottled this on Thursday and had a glass of each to compare, the Rose grape juice does change the flavour slightly and we prefer it to the WGJ version, this is good news if you find WGJ difficult to find in the supermarkets.