Hello, already working on my own calc...

[BigDaveK]

I wouldn't bottle yet!
As a rule of thumb, if there's no change in SG for three days fermentation is probably done. Probably. Bulk aging under airlock until it's crystal clear would be wise. Another rule of thumb, don't bottle cloudy wine. I bulk age a minimum of 6 months but I'm in no hurry - usually it's longer.
If you bottle too early fermentation can restart - it happens - and with the built up CO2 you'll potentially have bottle bombs.

 

[HomeBrew]

Cheers BigDave, but I did bottle it before coming back to this thread!

I shook the newly racked bottle vigorously several times to let the gas out and took an SG reading... the SG is at 0.996 now! I nearly had to pinch myself but yes, it's finished in just under 4 days.

Popped it in the fridge to settle, then I'll probably be drinking (some) tonight.

I ended up getting 1625ml from the 2L I started with so, lost about 1/5th of it to sediment, but that might be partly because I was making this (test) stuff directly in the plastic juice bottle. In a demijohn, the sediment would be much more spread out. I just did this the "ghetto" way, with the cap slightly loosened as a makeshift airlock.

The hardest part about all of this is getting things clean and dry again like the syphon tube.

The taste? Far better than I was expecting! Quite tarty but not in a bad way, it's obvious it came from orange juice, I like it. The slight vinegar taste it does have, is nothing like as apparent as the £3.89 Aldi Merlot red wine I bought recently, that was honestly not a wine I enjoyed, more tolerated.

I thought mine would come out pretty rough but it's not. Since nearly all the sugar is gone, it's a bit like grapefruit juice, quite sour - but it's certainly drinkable and I won't be adding any sugar to sweeten it.

Even if I added sugar... it's going to get drank before the bottle could explode anyway.

It's still in a plastic 2L milk bottle.

I'm so glad I did this and will get a bigger setup on the go soon, with 2 demijohns.
I'd do 4 if I had them but I've only got two at the moment.

Bottoms up!

 

[HomeBrew]

I discovered today that a £2 coin is exactly the same size as the narrow bottom of a standard rubber demijohn bung. I drew around the coin and cut a circle in a plastic bucket lid (it was a dog food container) then I sanded the hole smooth, cleaned the dust away and plugged a rubber bung in, then checked it's water tight. It came out better than I thought it would! Now I can plug my (also DIY) blow off tube into it

The plastic lid is thin so it flexes, but if the blow off tube is in a container put at the right distance away, it would keep the bung vertical.

The (5L) buckets are scratched but I guess with proper cleaning, they will be OK.

I put the offcuts of plastic in neat alcohol just to make certain the plastic is OK to use, but it has a triangle and "PP" (Polypropylene) on it, which is apparently OK to use.

The ideal tool to use would be a 29mm hole punch but they are a bit pricey for what this is. It's possible to get a near-circular hole by just cutting it.

Around the hole, it looks like there's cracks in the plastic but those aren't cracks, they are just scratches from the scissors I used

Pics: