RJ Spagnols Starting Mist Wine-Raspberry White Zinfandel aka Rockin' Raspberry

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beggarsu

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This is Cru Orchard Breezin' Brand (Mist Wines)

New Name for Raspberry White Zinfandel is Rockin' Raspberry Rose

The wine kit has been renamed for business reasons. I have the old style labels with the "CRU" brand stamp which I prefer to use.

Summer is coming and I'm going to start making several fruit wines including some mist wines.

5-6% ABV is too low for me so I want to fortify this. I've heard many say they add sugar so the result will be 9 ABV , some say 12 ABV. I would prefer 11-12% but I heard some say the taste retains best at 9 ABV.

Any opinion on this?

Generally I prefer higher ABV, I mean what's the use of drinking unless you are drinking? I don't see the point of making expensive fruit juice unless it's got a kick - and I don't drink that much oh well I didn't before I started making wines :).

I noticed in a review here there is also some split opinion on whether to add the F-pack completely at the end or to split it and add half at the half-way point?

Any opinion on this as well?

I got a tablet now and I will go take some snaps of the kit later tonight and post it or attach to this post.

Cheers.
 
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Pics

Box Kit ($60.00)
"Blush" Mist Wine - makes 30 bottles, yeast is EC-1118, includes F-Pack.




Labels bought separately - got the old name double sticker peel off.
 
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I would add half the f-pack at the very beginning and add sugar to bring your sg to around 1.070 - 1.080.
 
5-6% ABV is too low for me so I want to fortify this. I've heard many say they add sugar so the result will be 9 ABV , some say 12 ABV. I would prefer 11-12% but I heard some say the taste retains best at 9 ABV.

I think you'll find that this is all more a matter of opinion than hard facts. If you want maximum flavor/sweetness, then add sugar/syrup to raise the SG closer to 1.09 while saving the f-pack for post-fermentation addition. If you do not want the final product to be as sweet, then add part of the f-pack before fermentation and save the rest. There no 'wrong' way to do it
 
Thanks Julie and SC.

I decided to add about 4.5 - 4.8 lbs of sugar. Used this chart for conversion cups to pounds

http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/sugar_amounts.html

"Two cups a pound is sound"


-----

*** SG with sugar is 1.76. Fermenting to at least 1.0 is 10.33 percent ABV.

Juice alone was about 1.047 SG - fermenting to 1.0 is 6.39 % ABV

Using this calculator:

http://www.grapestompers.com/calculations.aspx

Research showed that many people used high ABV with no problem - "Joeswine" said he had no problem with 1.10.

I didn't really want to take it away from being a cooler. so I am adding the complete F-pack at the end so it doesn't ferment. I don't mind sweet.
I'll use this as my benchmark, If I think it is too sweet or to much ABV I can act accordingly next time.
---
I had made natural fruit wines last summer - rhubarb (two kinds -ginger spiced and regular) crabapple, strawberry- banana (Fortified with some cans of concentrate - not much but now I know I can make from concentrate).

I found the fruit wines very drinkable so I am going to mke a lot of fruit wines this summer. Also the idea of fruit flavoured coolers sounds good to me, I may make the next batch with less ABV for the hot days of summer.

:db

*** My hydrometer is off by -.007 in water, I adjust the figures accordingly. I'm never really sure of SG with my pathetic, unreliable instruments so I go mostly by relative SG.
 
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Hi i have made a few of the Breezen kits and find its all about the sweet. The thing i find is starting with the ABV i like mine higher around 11 to 12 % so i add 4 LBS sugar and about 1/3 of the fpack except for the strawberry i make for the wife it gets the full fpack she is the boss so :h happy wife happy life and all that .

What i do with mine to pump up things a bit is add grape concentrate i have both red and white in my stock i also have used welch's in a couple of kits while in the clearing stage and have turned out something good in so much as cutting the overly sweetness of the wine.

Like many say and its true its all about what you like i have made 15 kits in just over a year and have given lots to different people to get some other thoughs and find people to be honest all say its to sweet not sweet enough and all like the higher ABV hope this helps.

Shane
 
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Thanks Littlefoot,

Today I stabilized the wine, I put it in the carboy 3 days ago because I didn't like it in the open air primary so long .So I re-racked it today and stabilized it.
I got 1.5 litre about in various sizes pop bottles as reserve to make an extra bottle and a half.

..
I added all the F-pack.
SG's 1.090 - .994 = ABV 13.04!!! so I think I need all that F-pack.

I didn't intend the alcohol that high, I calculated my hydrometer wrong in the beginning, the offset is .007 and I subtracted instead of added !OUCH! - anyway caught my mistake later on.


I haven't taken SG after F-Pack addition, I'll do that later.

Question first - I wonder if I should add more Sorbate - the kit was designed for a different ABV. I don't know if i need it - but there might be more yeast cells in there than was supposed to be for standard.
..
Any advice on this? Can over-sorbate be a problem? - perhaps better over than under.



I read someone else said they always add a pinch more sulphide to kits for longer life - i might start doing that.
 
Hi Beggarsu ok follow the kit instructions if you plan on having this wine around for awhile use some extra sulphide like 1/4 tsp but i dont and i keep it for about 6 months tops.

People here have said its not good to keep longer than a year because it does not age well and i can see that given the sweetness of the wine kits. Myself i choose to bring up the abv because i like it a bit higher but find the sweetness a matter of taste not because of upping the abv.

The idea of taking the SG after adding the fpack is to get an idea of how sweet it is it really has no affect on abv. I did a pear that was horrid sweet and the abv was % 11 it was the sweetness of it i had to make a low end white kit to cut it with and it turned out very good.

Shane
 
Hi Beggarsu ok follow the kit instructions if you plan on having this wine around for awhile use some extra sulphide like 1/4 tsp but i dont and i keep it for about 6 months tops.

People here have said its not good to keep longer than a year because it does not age well and i can see that given the sweetness of the wine kits. Myself i choose to bring up the abv because i like it a bit higher but find the sweetness a matter of taste not because of upping the abv.

The idea of taking the SG after adding the F-pack is to get an idea of how sweet it is it really has no affect on abv. I did a pear that was horrid sweet and the abv was % 11 it was the sweetness of it i had to make a low end white kit to cut it with and it turned out very good.

Shane

Yes, I decided I will use 1/4 tsp more of sulphide just before bottling - because I stirred it so much and I will re-rack it again so that is to prevent oxidation.
As for the sorbate , I put in 1 tsp now. That is based on using usually 1/4 tsp per gallon so that is 4 gallons worth.
My reasoning was I upped the ABV by two times as much so there are two times as much yeast cells - the sorbate coats the yeast cells so they can't reproduce anymore so I calculated to use twice as much sorbate as was in the kit.

---->

As for the final ABV , the ABV certainly will change after the addition of 1.4 litres of F-pack.
That is because ABV =- Percentage Alcohol by Volume and the F-pack adds 1.4 litres of volume, Scientifically that must change the ABV.

Taking the SG I think does not work to calculate the final ABV because the type of liquid added is different.
Therefore I used math to find the final ABV

Here it is:
The final volume was 22.50 litres (carboy) - 1.4 liters = 21.1 litres (1.4 taken out as reserve) at 13.09 ABV (which was determined by starting and ending SG's)
Total alcohol content of that 21.1 litres = (13.09 * 21.1) divide by 100 = 2.76199 litres pure alcohol in the batch.

New volume after add 1.4 F-pack = 22.5 litres
New ABV = (2.76199/22.5) * 100 = 12.27 ABV



---
Taking the SG after F-PAck was 1.010 - this gives 10.87 ABV by online calculator which obviously is incorrect as the previous math is correct.

Therefor SG method after F-Pack is inaccurate (probably because it is a different liquid - it's just not the same thing any more relative to the starting must.

Therefore final ABV = 12.27 not 13.09 as just using the starting and ending SG of the fermentation.
...
Which sounds about right - a small difference , not quite one percent for diluting with 1.4 volume of another liquid.

The above calculation can be used to calculate final ABV for any kind of back-sweetening as in adding volume (cups of sugar of simple syrup for instance).
 
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Yup it does but i dont over think i just make what i like the reason i do this firstly is because i didnt like what i was buying the cost was a nice addition also but not the reason.

I am not of the mind set that adding something will not change the overall end i just think 1 or 2 points are not really important when making something like a mist kit.

I am doing a primeur kit from rjs now that will be done more to the way it should be but still with that and the grand cru kits i still do them to the standard i like even the RQ kit i am going to start soon will be changed so doing wine is every bit according to taste if nothing else thats something i have learned well in my many hours of reading and doing.


Shane
 
Last day in Primary March 24. I didn't go the whole 14 days, it was unnecessary - this is day 10.

SG = .994 (start was 1.090) ABV before F-Pack is 13.09 Percent.
This is just for photo, I don't keep it in the light like this.


prime 1.jpg

select 2.jpg
 
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In Carboy on day 10 . stabilized and F-PAck added on day 14 Mar 27.



ABV by Beggarsu's ABV F-PACK Calculation is now 12.27

Added 1 Tsp extra Potassium Sorbate as safety because the alcohol content is higher than what the kit was designed for.
 
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Rockin' Raspberry Mist 6 Gal US wine is bottled, sampled. :db

Final ABV is 12.27 according to my F-Pack ABV formula calculation. I gave a bottle to a friend who was already satisfied - I think it needs a month more to get smoother but it is ready to drink now. The high ABV in no problem to the taste - is easy drinking, delicious summer wine.
I marked the date and the ABV on the bottles in the right lower corner of which there is not a clear shot.

The batch got a final racking the day before - separate lees , another electric batter stir (for a little extra degassing) of short duration another 1/4 tsp of sulphide (to help the shelf life) and another day to settle before the final siphoning -bottling.

I am still settling some lees out of some stuff which will make the last two bottles - the extra sugar gave more lees.


A motley crew of different shaped bottles, different colors, and uneven corking. :h



The reserve was also bottled.
I back-sweetened it with sugar as it was not part of the 6 gallon set , it was in a plastic bottle 1.4 - the extra was sampled. :dg
 
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great wine, made it multiple times and always satisfied with it. Is the f-pack same as 'finishing blend'?
 
great wine, made it multiple times and always satisfied with it. Is the f-pack same as 'finishing blend'?

F-pack means Flavour pack - might be the same thing.

It is very sweet and strong with a slight burn as I bumped the alcohol. it's too sweet for some of my friends. I think it rocks -

However I decided to add some of the F-pack to the primary in future Mists. I'm doing a black cherry Niagara Mist and I added 40 percent of the F-pack to the primary .
Heck it was listed as a "6" in sweetness and 40 percent according to my calcs will still keep it at a 3.5 which is still a medium sweet.

The next one I might even go towards canon and only bump ABV to 9 percent just to see what that is like though making a wine below 11 percent seems treason to me. :)
The last one I still bumped high.

The next one and last before summer will be the Blackberry Blast - it is very popular according to the feedbacks.
But I may be done for this summer. I got more than I can handle right now - I need more drinking friends to give it away to.

I shouldn't let that stop me should I?

will I, won't I , will I , won't I?
 

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