Fruit tea bag wine taste

[simon12]

Just bottled my 1st ever batch 2 days ago so it not aged at all yet. The taste was lie a very fruity red wine and very drinkable but the acid (not sure if thats really the right word) taste you get with cheap sub £5 a bottle wine you don't get with £8+ wine was like a £3 bottle doubled. I just wondered if this is purely down to age or something else.

Ingredients were
1 box sainsburies fruit tea bags
250ml wilko red grape juice concentrate
1 sachet wilko wine yeast
1tsp yeast nutrient
sugar to 1.085 sg (just over 1kg)
1/2 tsp pectolase
water to 4.5L total (after topped up)

Left to ferment for 1 week, racked (with a campden tablet added) and topped up then left for 2 weeks never stabilised.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I think it will 'mellow', Simon. Leave it for 3 months and have another taste.

[Stu8706]

Drink one bottle a week and decide which one is best😄


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[rustylady]

I really don't think you left it long enough fermenting. One week is not a lot. I usually leave mine until it stops bubbling before racking, and I've never known a wine yet that is fully fermented in one week.

[Two_Sheds]

Just bottled my 1st ever batch ...

Left to ferment for 1 week

Watch out for exploding bottles, if the yeast starts fermenting again

[simon12]

Thanks for the posts I am sure it is fully fermented as the sg was under 1 before I bottled it. It may not have been after 1 week but it was another 2 before it was bottled so 3 weeks total before bottling (sorry when I said racked I mean't into another demijohn just to loose the sediment). I will try another bottle in a month and see what difference it makes and decide how long to leave the rest.

[ohbeary]

Fruit T bag wine can be completely finished in three weeks but benefits from another month or two bulk maturation under airlock just to be sure that fermentation really is complete, it is not going to be a great vintage however long you keep it but it does make a nice light table wine, you can add more depth by using a couple of regular tea bags as well as the fruit ones for extra tannin, inverting the sugar in some of the water with a teaspoon of tartaric acid @ 85C for 5-10 mins converts the sucrose into fructose and glucose saving the yeast from producing an enzyme called invertase that can cause off flavours.

[simon12]

Thanks ohbeary, I couldn't resist and tried another bottle a few days ago and it was much better.

[Samurailord]

Drink one bottle a week and decide which one is best��

The only problem with this is that the last bottle is always the best, but unfortunately it is the last

Andy

[goodolpete]

The acid is coming from the red grape juice. Perhaps you can try a different brand next time. I found that the better the RGJ, the better the wine. From now on its going to be difficult to keep the fermentation temp down to prevent off flavours developing during the ferment. Modern yeasts don't mind cool, they just work slower, but if it gets too warm........