Just checking.

[dave60]

Hi all.
I've just made two kit wines for the first time in over 25yrs and all seems to be going to plan. Going so well that I thought I'd try something different, for me. I had three ltr of pure red grape juice and one ltr of pure apple juice and an empty demijon. After cleaning everything, I mixed the juice up, washed chopped up and added some raisins, added about 700gr of sugar, added some yeast nutrient, added some yeast, added a couple of tablespoons of black tea. Shook it all up, topped it up and checked the s.g. 1.118. Put an airlock on and shook it every day for a few day. It's been bubbling away nicely and the s.g. is now 1.010. Have I missed anything? It's all going too smoothly, I'm suspicious.

 

[Rocky]

Sounds like all is going well. Your ABV right now is something greater than 14% and your wine is probably very sweet at this point. What did you have in mind for the wine? For example, are you making a dessert wine? How far down do you plan to take the SG?

From what you posted, I gather that you are not in the US. You refer to liters, demijohn and grams, so I would guess somewhere in the UK. Welcome to the forum.

 

[dave60]

Hi Ricky.
Thanks for the welcome, I'm in Scotland.
The kit wines were just something to do during the lockdown here and this one was just a try it and see what happens type thing. A learning exercise for me.

I was hoping for something around the 13% mark. If it was a bit lower, fine, a wee bit higher, fine. I was going to let it get to about .990 but I might have to intervene if that's going to take it to a much higher %. When I tested it the other day it was quite sweet.

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi dave60 - and welcome. I'm an expat Scot (from Aberdeen via Glasgow) . It's possible that your wine might hit .990 but more likely it will finish around .995. An SG of 1.118 has a potential ABV of closer to 15% and depending on the yeast you used you may find that that is what you'll get even if the wine finishes at 1.000. In my book, a wine at 15% might be more alcohol-rich than flavor-rich. I might have avoided the added sugar (adds to gravity and so to the alcohol but nothing to the flavors. One trick you might try if you want to boost both the starting gravity and the flavor - and this ain't inexpensive - is to freeze the juice solid and then collect the juice as it slowly thaws. The first 1/3 of the thawed juice will contain all the sugar and flavor but only 1/3 of the water.... So 3 liters of juice will give you 1 liter of must with all the sugar that was in the 3 L. If the starting gravity of the juice was 1.050 the juice you will have collected will be about 1.100.

 

[dave60]

Hi Bernard

I have realised my mistake by not checking the SG before measuring and adding the sugar. I was just using a recipe I had read somewhere online that asked for 4 ltrs juice add the rest of the ingredients and top up with water.

I like the freezing idea but its a little confusing. If I have to use the first third of the thawing liquid do I make the wine by freezing 15 ltrs of juice to give me 5 ltrs of must for a 1 gallon demijon?
This business has a steep learning curve sometimes lol.

 

[BernardSmith]

You could if that does not seem too expensive and/or if you have room in your freezer to freeze 15 liters of juice. Alternatively you could freeze part of the juice. This is simply a technique I sometimes use if I want to increase the flavor and sugar content of a wine and I know the fruit juice has low sugar content. Wine grapes, for example, are likely to have about twice the sugar content of most table fruit. So, if I wanted to make a pear e wine I might freeze the pear juice rather than add more sugar, because pears themselves (in my opinion) are flavor -poor in the US. Same with watermelon wine.

 

[dave60]

Your right. I was thinking that would take the cost way up and there's Def not enough room in the freezers lol. I'll maybe try it with one next time and see how that turns out.
I'm not expecting miracles with this one just hoping for something pleasant.