Fruit Cocktail Help!

[Minimasher]

Many years ago I messed about with lots of different 'wines' from good old CJJ Berry's books.

Most of them tasted foul but I recall one made of tins of fruit cocktail that was quite light and fruity.

Has anyone got the recipe they can let me have? Anyone tried it (or anything like it) recently?

I did a bit of searching on here but not many references to it which surprises me because it's very cheap to make! 3 or 4 tins of fruit cocktail and a bag of sugar and you've got yourself 6 bottles of loveliness..!

[mctoon]

You got the recipe right there, thats the same as i use, with all the other stuff ..pectolase.. nutrient,, citric acid etc. 3 tins of sainsburys basic @ 24p a tin,,, a bargain,, 12 bottles fermenting as i type

[Minimasher]

Cheers! How much citric acid is it? Have you ever done it sparkling?

I am thinking of having a good play around with this recipe... It's under rated and there are too many people making lidl wine on here!

'The man from Delmonte, he say yes!'

[fatbloke]

Cheers! How much citric acid is it? Have you ever done it sparkling?

I am thinking of having a good play around with this recipe... It's under rated and there are too many people making lidl wine on here!

'The man from Delmonte, he say yes!'

Not a big fan of citric acid, unless you want a lemony/citrus type taste to it. I use a mix of 2 parts malic to 1 part tartaric for meads and as some fruit will have some malic acid already in it, for just fruit wines I use straight tartaric.

As for how much ? if the recipe suggests adding during the making, then it's usually in the region of 1tsp per gallon, though if you've some way of testing pH, as long as it's above about 3.2 to 3.5 pH then it should be good to go.

The other "school of thought" is that you add acid to taste at the end. Fruit is mainly acid anyway so should be fine for the yeast. Just make it sweet and then add a little acid at the end, just before bottling.

Oh and if you want to increase the fruit flavour of it, make the recipe as normal and then just add a tin of the fruit cocktail when the ferment has reached 1020 to 1010 - or what the hell, just steep a tin of fruit in the batch once the fermenting has finished......

[Kevin]

I found a recipe for this here.

Looks nice, might give it a go and make a gallon!

Any idea what I would do to make this into a sparkling wine? And any idea on the amount of yeast?

Kevin

[Minimasher]

NIce one guys, now I really am itching to get a brew on!

for just fruit wines I use straight tartaric.

I might give tartaric a go. Can I substitute like for like? Will my homebrew shop have it?

though if you've some way of testing pH, as long as it's above about 3.2 to 3.5 pH then it should be good to go.

I've got some test papers so can check this. Do you mean 'above' as in less than 3.2?

Any idea what I would do to make this into a sparkling wine?

You need to add half to a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle as you bottle it. You MUST use bottles that you know can take the pressure. I'm cheeting and using 1 pint beer bottles with crown caps - adding half a teaspoon to each.

And any idea on the amount of yeast?

Just a single sachet, or follow the instructions if you have one of those tubs of yeast. If the latter it's usually a teaspoon.

[Minimasher]

OK, so I did this...

Fruit cocktail
2 X 411g tins of Del Monte fruit cocktail in Juice
800g (got me to 1.080)
1 teaspoon citric acid
1 teaspoon tannin (even though the tub instructions say 2tsp for whites and 4 for reds!)
2 teaspoons pectolase (this fruit seems to need the extra)
1 tsp yeast and nutrient (I buy it already mixed together)
Water to 1 Gallon

I'm going to secondary ferment in crown capped beer bottles to make this a sparkling number. One for the missus.

EDIT - Skimmed off the fruit/ pulp from the top of the FV after 4 days. Will leave it to ferment out now...

[Kevin]

Sounds very nice to me!

If you do a secondary ferment will you get sediment in the bottle?

[Minimasher]

If you do a secondary ferment will you get sediment in the bottle?

Yes, but you can decant a fair bit off before you disturd it at the bottom of the bottle. I was thinking of storing the bottles on an angle so I can poor even more out before disturbing it. All a bit of a trial at the moment. I don't even have anything to transfer it into for conditioning yet!

There is a proper method for removing the sediment from the bottle (some kind of freezing method) but this is a bit of cheap and cheerfull fun so I'm not too fussed about the yeast making it a bit cloudy in the glass.

[kay-jay]

asda do 5l bottles of water for 93p i got a bunch of em. drilled a hole in the caps and stuck rubber grommets in and fitted an airlock. cheap as chips demijohn.

when the ferment has finished i leave a couple of weeks somewhere cool and let all the fruity bits settle out, rack into another demijohn leave to settle rack off again and so on til there is only aminimum of sediment this allows me to pour pretty much everything out of the bottles.

KJ

[Kevin]

Do you make this sparkling too then KJ?

[kay-jay]

not so far! but i will do at some point. the wines i have done are made with cheap plums from the local market but the principle is the same. i do like the sound of the fruit cocktail wine tho.

KJ

[Minimasher]

What recipe you using for your Ribena Wine Kay-jay?

[kay-jay]

hi mini masher,

this is what i do......

750 grams white sugar
1 litre bottle of ribena cordial (not light) any flavour
1 litre of red grape juice

boil ribena and about half the juice for 15 mins to boil off the additives skim the scum off the top. dissolve the sugar in.
pour thru funnel into demijohn, add rest of grape juice. top up to 4 litres, (no further until it ferments out a bit as it can spout thru airlock)

add 1 tsp of youngs yeast
1tsp of youngs yeast nutrient
2 tsp of youngs tannin

leave to ferment for a few days then top up with water to the gallon mark

KJ

[Minimasher]

Cheers KJ. I like the addition of red grape juice. Think I have a carton of that in the cupboard...

The Del Monte Champagne smells cracking by the way. You should get some in that empty DJ youv'e got!