Wine kit help needed

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stevieblob

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Hello everyone
I have just messed up.
I have just put 4kg of sugar in a red wine kit & topped up to 5 gallons sounds okay? No.
The wine kit did not need sugar and I can't even get an hydrometer reading.
Any ideas?
Thanks in anticipation
 
Which kit is it?

I have made a few kits and they all required sugar i know you can get ones that do not but i imagine they are few and far between.

.
 
If the kit would have had a S.G. of 1.080 (which is normal for most kits that don't require sugar) the extra 4kg of sugar would give you a S.G. of around 1.145. If you wanted to get it back down to 1.080 you'd need to split it into two 23l (5 gallon) batches but it would be lacking in flavour. You could always add extra things to it such as fruit juice or grape concentrate etc.
 
Another idea would be to use a yeast with a high alcohol tolerance such as GV4. With a bit of luck it would leave you with a strong % wine with a sweet port like taste.
 
It is a Prestige wine kit from Amazon the instructions do not mention sugar. Led Zeps maths seem to make sense so this could be an opportunity for something different. My local home brew shop will be open soon I might go and see what yeast he has. If not I might try the GV4 thing. Anyway not a disaster yet I will let you know what I end up with and than you all.
 
It is a Prestige wine kit from Amazon the instructions do not mention sugar.



I found this so as you said no sugar to be added -


A complete wine kit with about 7 kg of grape concentrate - No added suger nedded - just add water!
English label and instructions - Contains all the ingredients you need - First class nutrual ingredients
Fermation time: 14 days - Makes 28 bottles of wine - Only sold through Amazon
Several wine making kits are available (See Our Other Listings)
This wine making kit is a purley natural product - Easy to use.
 
4kg of sugar will add around 10% (ballpark) ABV to the kit, if its over 12% with the juice and another 10% with added sugar even gv4 may well struggle a bit and it would need a decent amount of nutrient added to give it any chance. Dividing it into two or 3 batches and adding more grape concentrate along with water to bring the gravity down to a more healthy environment for normal wine yeasts may well be the best course to take. Just adding water alone will make it a very thin tasting wine and would be best avoided.
 
Hello people and thank you very much for all the advice.
What I have done is split it into thirds. See picture.
I borrowed some stuff from a friend to do it but I will reward him if it works out?
One is the original cock up with the suppliers yeast and nutrient should be strong but no idea what strength?
The other two are diluted with water and grape juice from Lidl to 1090.
One has red wine yeast and the other is a 7g bag of bread yeast and yeast nutrient.
They are all bubbling but the the most bubblier? is the bread yeast if that matters I do not know.
Anyhow I will let you know the outcome, the only tricky one will be when to stop the undiluted one I suppose just taste it?
BTW the trickiest thing was to keep them all warm as I brew in a outhouse I have aquarium heaters, vivarium mat and a heat belt (most on loan) and just pushed them all together, it might have been cheaper just go and buy some wine, but no where near as much fun.
Kind regards
Steve
 
One has red wine yeast and the other is a 7g bag of bread yeast and yeast nutrient.
They are all bubbling but the the most bubblier? is the bread yeast if that matters I do not know.

I don't want to ruin your day but this post may stop other members from using bread yeast -


This brings us back to the bread yeast. Most bread yeast will ferment alcohol up to about 8% with ease, but when trying to produce alcohol beyond this level, the bread yeast begin to struggle, very often stopping around 9% or 10%. This is short of what we’d like to obtain for almost any wine.

Another reason making wine with bread yeast is not a good idea is that bread yeast do not clear out very readily or settle very firmly, either. They typically will form a low layer of hazy wine in the bottom of the fermenter that will never completely clear out.

Even more importantly, bread yeast produce alcohol that is plagued with a lot of off-flavors. The bread yeast becomes so stressed and has to work so hard that off-flavored enzymes and fatty acids are produced along with the alcohol.

There are several other issues with using bread yeast to make your wine, but these are the big ones: the alcohol, the clearing, and the flavor.

Read full article - http://blog.eckraus.com/wine-making-bread-baking-yeast
 
Being a cheapskate Yorkshireman i tried using bread yeast in a turbo cider when I first started brewing, it was disgusting, went straight down the sink. Cider yeast for cider, wine yeast for wine is the only way to go for me.
 
Thanks for the heads up on the bread yeast.
But anyway on Sunday I had gloop, today I have hope and if it fails I will have knowledge.
I will let you know in a few weeks
Ta
 
Just to let you know
The bread yeast batch was drinkable but I will not be repeating it the other two were lovely. Al good really
 
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