Have demijohns, will brew, but what to start with?

[Two_Sheds]

fruit tea bag wine. Quick, easy and tasty

If you've never made wine before, I'd def. recommend starting with this one. You'll learn the basics & get a drinkable product at the end.

Store your fruit in the freezer (weigh it and label it first) until needed.

[MrsCordial]

I found the book for something daft like £2.75 with free P&P so it's on its way. Until then, could someone please give me words of one syllable guidance on this grape juice issue?

If I can't find ornery, no-preservative grape juice, for the quantities given in the tea bag wine recipe how much fruit would I need to add, and apart from pineapple (which my husband particularly doesn't like) what fruits could I add? I do understand about pectin and so on from jam-making, but I'm struggling to join the dots from that to wine.

Thank you. Oh btw, my Ribena wine is blooping and blopping in the DJ now *excited*

[Kirk]

Pectalose simply neutralises the pectin - you don't want it in a wine.
Otherwise the pectin remains and can cause a haze in the wine.
So with apples, plums and others it is best to add a teaspoon of pectalose.
Usually what most do is add the stuff immaterial of the fruit, sort of better safe then sorry.

Not sure about Grape Juice, not actually read of anyone using 100% grape juice to make wine from, if that is the idea.
What many do is add 1 or 2 litres of grape juice to the mix in place of water.
It adds more "body" to the final wine.

There is another option called "Late Addition Wine" which uses grape juice as a base with sugar that is fermented first, the fruit is added late in the fermentation. Different and best at present to ignore. I have had mixed results.

Fruits to add, well almost anything. Cherry's, Peach, Orange, Raspberry's, Redcurrents, Blackcurrents, Gooseberry's. If you want to visit tesco and buy a bag of frozen fruit mix. Although having read the recipe mentioned the idea is no fruit just a box of something like Blackcurrent Tea bags. The term "fruit" is not refering to actual fruit, it is refering to the leaf that makes the tea.

I have never bothered with fruit juices, simply just as easy to use straight fruit at some convenient time. The local market has at present loads of cherries on it. I can get 3 lbs for £3-4 so why get a juice.

Someone used a tropical fruit mix juice and reported good results.

[jamesanddee]

Instead of buying the glass Demijohns (they can be quite pricey) - we have about a dozen from car boot sales etc, I tend to use the 1 gallon water bottles to store my wines. They are just as good as the glass, easy to clean, less fragile and much much cheaper! Only thing they lack is that element of class to them. You can't beat a glass demijohn for style!

Blackberry season is nearly here, and there are many recipies for Blackberry wine. . . makes for a great day out collecting. They make a brill heavy dry red, and if you add honey and leave for 2 years to mature you end up with a brilliant port (style) wine

[Two_Sheds]

If I can't find ornery, no-preservative grape juice

It's not hard to find.

Aldi and Lidl sell it, in tetrapak cartons



Tesc0 has it in the fridge



so does Asd@

[Two_Sheds]

how much fruit would I need to add, and ... what fruits could I add?

follow the instructions in the recipe you're using

I've got this book, is it the one you mean?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Step-Guide-M...th+wine+making

not actually read of anyone using 100% grape juice to make wine from

There are lots of them out there Home Brew Forum • View topic - Grape juice wine help

but I've never had success from a 100% juice wine ~ it's always come out kind of thin & watery (no body)

What many do is add 1 or 2 litres of grape juice to the mix in place of water.
It adds more "body" to the final wine.

Yep, that's what I do now, it makes a much nicer wine, imo

I've also found that a handful or two of elderberries gives any wine a bit of oomph


I use apple juice sometimes in place of the grape juice

[MrsCordial]

Fantastic, thanks everyone. Just to clarify, I wanted to follow the tea bag wine recipe that many people have linked to, but I tried two supermarkets (we don't have a LIDL or ASDA - not too well off for choice out here in the sticks!) and couldn't get straight grape juice so was asking how I would substitute fruit for it, as the recipe specifically states 2L of grape juice rather than 'real' fruit. As I'm a complete newbie I don't have the know-how to make substitutions. There's a significant difference in texture, volume and chemical make-up between 2L of juice and a pile of fruit and I didn't want to screw up the recipe. I'm always conscious of the chemistry of cooking and obv the same thing applies here.

Two Sheds thanks for that book link. The one I've bought is First Steps in Wine-making by, um, a man, but I can't remember his name. Our hydrometer has arrived today, hurrah. We have no dedicated home-brew shops any nearer than Ledbury, an hour's drive away, but a chemist in Leominster sells a few supplies.

For now I'll let the Ribena wine carry on bubbling away, then when I have more time in a couple of weeks I'll give the tea bag wine a go.

[BigV]

Brew absolutely practically anything.Parsnips are good,grapes,apple orange dandelions ,and the good old elder,both flower and berry.I have brewed the lot in the past.My father made a very powerful brew with grape and apple known as grapple.We found a demijohn under the floor boards after he had died.No it was not the grapple!

[Two_Sheds]

I use apple juice sometimes in place of the grape juice

I tried two supermarkets ...and couldn't get straight grape juice

OK,use apple juice instead

a pile of fruit

wait until you get Judith Irwin's book, then start using your fruit as per her recipes

The one I've bought is First Steps in Wine-making

I've got it too, most people seem to start with that one, but imo it's awful for beginners. Far too complicated, and some of the info contradicts itself.

Seriously, save it until you're more experienced (then he will start to make sense: it is a good reference book, just not best for beginners)

[Two_Sheds]

I'd like to make elderberry wine as elderberries are so abundant

OK, back to your original question

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ine_52825.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ine_38389.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ere_22424.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...wine_2352.html


However, I'd still suggest you start off with the Teabag Wine & Judith Irwin's book, before you do a 'proper' fruit wine, because problems do occur:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ion_63667.html

When I was a Brighton student I made wines out of 'basics' fruit juice, using CJJ Berry's book: the stuff was so awful not even students would drink it. I gave up.

Then I got my allotment, and a fruit glut, and thought I'd give it another go, with Hazel-on-the-Hill's excellent tuition, and Irwin's book (esp. her port recipe on p.87). Success

Elderberry wines are my total favourite: they make a port-like wine, and we love port (the LBV port that is, not white, ruby or tawny ports)

[MrsCordial]

Oops, missed that - thanks Two_Sheds I sort of accidentally bought Judith Irwin's book too yesterday (at tuppence ha'penny and free postage on Abe Books it's hard to resist) so I'll be good to go when I get back from a few days away next week.

I'll definitely give elderberry a go this year. My husband is a port fanatic!

[Farmer_Gyles]

I tried two supermarkets (we don't have a LIDL or ASDA - not too well off for choice out here in the sticks!) and couldn't get straight grape juice

some recipes say to use grape juice concentrate - wilkos supply this in 220ml bottles - advice i've read online (and used) is if you can't get any concentrate, you can use currants (for red wine) or sultanas (for white wine) - simmer a 500g bag of currants or sultanas in 3 pints of water for 30 minutes - as i tend to ferment in buckets now, i simmer and then bung the whole lot in the bucket with the fruit

if you need ordinary grape juice rather than concentrate, just use fewer currants or sultanas

you can also bung a handful (rather than a whole bag) of currants or sultanas into the bucket just to add some body (which is what grape juice will do)

the recipe specifically states 2L of grape juice

you can use currants or sultanas - just fewer of them - might be worth searching online
https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=cr#...of+grape+juice

I didn't want to screw up the recipe

one of the biggest attractions of winemaking to me is that you can make it up as you go along - you don't need to follow recipes to the letter - you'll find loads of different recipes for the same wine - they'll all work, but all produce a different result - some will be stronger than others, some will have more body than others - they are what someone else has done and enjoyed - you might like the flavour of a wine, but you might prefer more body or less alcohol - so what someone else enjoys might not be the same as you

the basic chemistry of winemaking is the same for any wine: juice + sugar + yeast = wine
so long as you remember that basic chemistry, you can't really screw it up - you'll just make a different version of the same wine

give it a go, keep a record of what you did - then either make more of the same or adjust your recipe

[Mr Bones]

Just for info, I once made wine using only (Lidl) red grape juice, a teaspoon of yeast and a kilo of sugar per gallon. After fermentation the result was so acidic it was undrinkable so I bottled it and stored them in the coolness of the garage. After a few months crystals formed in the bottom of the bottles which I think may have been malic acid, and the wine turned very sweet.

I did use the same recipe a few times using apple juice instead of grape and that always turned out like a sweet apple sherry.

[MrsCordial]

Thank you Farmer Gyles and, again, Bones! I'm sure I'll be making it up as I go along just like everyone else eventually, but to begin with I want to get a handle on relative quantities of yeast and sugar and so on, which I know will come with trial, error and experience. As harvest hoves into view this feels like a good time to be in possession of seven demijohns!

[Farmer_Gyles]

to begin with I want to get a handle on relative quantities of yeast and sugar and so on,

the hydrometer is your friend - use it!
each fruit has different amounts of sugar in it - even each batch of fruit will have different quantities of sugar depending on how ripe it is etc (fruit juice cartons may have different amounts of sugar too) - therefore the amount of sugar to add will change according to each recipe
so begin filling your demjohn - when you get to about 4 litres (not quite full), measure the SG with your hydrometer - i use a turkey baster to suck juice out of the demijohn and squirt it into the test tube
if it reads high (which is when it floats high in the liquid), say 1.100 or above, just top up the demijohn with water - this will thin it out a bit and another hydrometer reading will be lower, maybe 1.080
if it reads any lower, you may need to add sugar and water
ideally you should look for a full demijohn to have an SG reading about 1.080 to 1.090 before adding the yeast
if it's any higher than that, you may need to use a high alcohol yeast (yeast turns sugar into alcohol, but alcohol kills yeast - suicide!!) - but easier to just stick with a normal yeast and control the sugar content for the time being
my first wines (raspberry) started with an SG of 1.135 - they came out like rocket fuel - they were lovely, just got tipsy very quickly! someone on another forum showed me how to calculate the alcohol level - it worked out to something silly like 16%, maybe even more - not that it matters much - i'm making wine, the wife is drinking it - keeps her happy!

As harvest hoves into view this feels like a good time to be in possession of seven demijohns!

i have a chest freezer and loads of margarine tubs / ice cream tubs etc - i save fruit in the tubs, freeze it - i can then start wines whenever i want to, which means i don't need loads and loads of demijohns and buckets

having said that, at the moment i have:
20 gallons fermenting in 8 buckets,
8 gallons still fermenting slowly in demijohns,
9 gallons maturing / ready for bottling in demijohns,
2 demijohns with "stuck" wines that i'm fixing,
2 demijohns of "oversweet" wine that i stopped too early
at least 8 empty demijohns (after a big bottling session last week)
and the chest freezer is almost full of fruit so need to crack on with using some of it!
i'm no expert tho - i just love the home winemaking!