I thought I'd try a Wurzel's Orange Wine variant.
WOW Variant 1
M&S didn't have anything that I could identify as white grape juice so I just picked something that had grapes in it and hoped for the best. There was a dissapointing choice really.
I settled for this Simply M&S Orange Juice and the Pure Grape & Raspberry Juice, both having some sort of concentrate base. You need the type without sulphites (preservatives) in or this will inhibit the yeast. Some people say they can't tell the difference between brewer's sugar (inverted sugar) and cane sugar but as it's 99p for cane sugar and £2 for brewer's sugar we shall risk it.
I've previously only made kits so a trip to Wilkinsons was in order as was an excursion to a proper home brew shop for a good yeast. I was surprised at how cheap Wilkos was, it's been that long since I saw a price tag under one pound. Note that this is a robust yeast (Vintner's Harvest CL23) that will work in a wide range of temperatures and tolerate up to 18% ethanol if required. I also got a cheap 200ml bottle of glycerine from a chemist, this adds a texture to the wine.
Method
I'm fermenting in a 5L water bottle that has a little more headroom than the 4.5L required. I didn't get round to boring the cap for a bung and airlock so I'm just using the cap loose (do not tighten it!).
This brought the starting specific gravity to 1.090 although more sugar will be added when this ferments down to a SG of about 1.010. I'm a bit bored of the 10% kit wine (supposedly 12% but I can't see how it's possible) so I'm going to make something a bit stronger. Counting the sugar from the juices (which was lower than I expected) we now have 1.086kg sugar in 4.5L which I measured at a SG of approximately 1.090.
From potential alcohol tables (search it) we require 1.453kg per 4.5L to achieve 16.3% ethanol so the extra will be fed in as the yeast works. Depending on how that tastes I'll decide what to do next
.
A day later there is quite a lot of stuff floating but hopefully that will be alright. I assume it's pulp of some sort.
WOW Variant 1
M&S didn't have anything that I could identify as white grape juice so I just picked something that had grapes in it and hoped for the best. There was a dissapointing choice really.
I settled for this Simply M&S Orange Juice and the Pure Grape & Raspberry Juice, both having some sort of concentrate base. You need the type without sulphites (preservatives) in or this will inhibit the yeast. Some people say they can't tell the difference between brewer's sugar (inverted sugar) and cane sugar but as it's 99p for cane sugar and £2 for brewer's sugar we shall risk it.
I've previously only made kits so a trip to Wilkinsons was in order as was an excursion to a proper home brew shop for a good yeast. I was surprised at how cheap Wilkos was, it's been that long since I saw a price tag under one pound. Note that this is a robust yeast (Vintner's Harvest CL23) that will work in a wide range of temperatures and tolerate up to 18% ethanol if required. I also got a cheap 200ml bottle of glycerine from a chemist, this adds a texture to the wine.
Method
I'm fermenting in a 5L water bottle that has a little more headroom than the 4.5L required. I didn't get round to boring the cap for a bung and airlock so I'm just using the cap loose (do not tighten it!).
- I left a litre of water in the bottle and added the juices (decant into bottles)
- Add 2.5ml glycerine
- Add 2g yeast nutrient (5g total incrementally over a few days)
- Add 1g pectolase
- Add 890g sugar
- Add cup of cooled strong tea for tannin
- Top up with water to just over 4.5L (Do not do this as you can't add more sugar if you want >13%)
- Add 4g CL23 yeast (sealed it for another batch soon)
- Shake
This brought the starting specific gravity to 1.090 although more sugar will be added when this ferments down to a SG of about 1.010. I'm a bit bored of the 10% kit wine (supposedly 12% but I can't see how it's possible) so I'm going to make something a bit stronger. Counting the sugar from the juices (which was lower than I expected) we now have 1.086kg sugar in 4.5L which I measured at a SG of approximately 1.090.
From potential alcohol tables (search it) we require 1.453kg per 4.5L to achieve 16.3% ethanol so the extra will be fed in as the yeast works. Depending on how that tastes I'll decide what to do next
.A day later there is quite a lot of stuff floating but hopefully that will be alright
. I assume it's pulp of some sort.
Last edited:
