Grape juice wine help

[Crundy]

Hi all,
I noticed that Tesco are selling 100% red / white grape juice (no preservatives), 3 litres for £2. I therefore made haste down to the local and bought just 3 litres of red grape juice (white was out of stock) and so have decided to make a rose style wine from them.

So a few questions if I may:
1) I see a lot of grape juice wine recipes which have apple juice in them. Why does everyone add apple juice and is it mandatory?
2) I was planning on using the 3l grape juice and 1l of either apple juice or white grape juice (depending on the answer to (1)), using sugar syrup to make the SG up to about 1.080, adding pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient and wine yeast, ferment for a week and top up to 4.5l with boiled cooled water, then fine and bottle. Does that sound reasonable?
3) I suspect it's going to get drunk quite quickly so do I need to bother with campden tablets?
4) Any other tips?

[crafty john]

Hi all,
I noticed that Tesco are selling 100% red / white grape juice (no preservatives), 3 litres for £2. I therefore made haste down to the local and bought just 3 litres of red grape juice (white was out of stock) and so have decided to make a rose style wine from them.

So a few questions if I may:
1) I see a lot of grape juice wine recipes which have apple juice in them. Why does everyone add apple juice and is it mandatory?
2) I was planning on using the 3l grape juice and 1l of either apple juice or white grape juice (depending on the answer to (1)), using sugar syrup to make the SG up to about 1.080, adding pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient and wine yeast, ferment for a week and top up to 4.5l with boiled cooled water, then fine and bottle. Does that sound reasonable?
3) I suspect it's going to get drunk quite quickly so do I need to bother with campden tablets?
4) Any other tips?

I have made wine with pure supermarket grape juice and dextrose and it turned out fine, however it does need to mature so you will need to add a campden tablet cos it tastes crap unless you leave it at least 6 months.

[crafty john]

Hi all,
I noticed that Tesco are selling 100% red / white grape juice (no preservatives), 3 litres for £2. I therefore made haste down to the local and bought just 3 litres of red grape juice (white was out of stock) and so have decided to make a rose style wine from them.

So a few questions if I may:
1) I see a lot of grape juice wine recipes which have apple juice in them. Why does everyone add apple juice and is it mandatory?
2) I was planning on using the 3l grape juice and 1l of either apple juice or white grape juice (depending on the answer to (1)), using sugar syrup to make the SG up to about 1.080, adding pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient and wine yeast, ferment for a week and top up to 4.5l with boiled cooled water, then fine and bottle. Does that sound reasonable?
3) I suspect it's going to get drunk quite quickly so do I need to bother with campden tablets?
4) Any other tips?

I have made wine with pure supermarket grape juice and dextrose and it turned out fine, however it does need to mature so you will need to add a campden tablet cos it tastes crap unless you leave it at least 6 months. You could add some elderflower cordial to bring up the SG, I have done it and it turned out well

[grumpysod]

Try these beginners recipes from winesathome

Wine number 1 Dry Table wine
1 litre supermarket apple juice (or 1 litre of whatever takes your fancy)
1 litre supermarket pressed grape juice
1 & 1/2 lb sugar 700 grams
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1tsp citric acid
yeast
water to 1 gallon

Wine number 2 Red Table wine medium sweet
1 litre blueberry juice
2 litres red grape juice
1lb Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Citric acid
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1/4 tsp tannin
Water to 1 gallon
Yeast

Full instructions for both are on the WAH forum


here's some answers
1) No it's not mandatory, but pure grape juice can be a bit harsh and need a bit more aging.
2) I'd go with 2l of grape juice as per recipe 2
3)You will need campden tablets everytime you rack otherwise you may oxidise it. i only rack the wine once before bottling
4)I've made loads of these and the No 2 is ready to drink in less than a month, it gets better if you can leave it alone for a while, though it rarely lasts more than a week after bottling.

[Crundy]

Oh, so you need to dilute the grape juice to almost 50%? Crikey. Wouldn't that make it bit weak?

What about a cross between recipe 1 and 2? So:

2l red grape juice
1l apple juice
500g brewers sugar
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp citric acid
yeast
water to 1 gal

?

Would that make a nice rose?

Thanks for all the tips everyone by the way.

Oh P.S. is it worth adding bentonite when mixing everything up? I'm going to fine it anyway, but do presume correctly that bentonite helps the fining process as well as assisting fermentation?

P.P.S. I don't have campden tablets, but I do have a big bag of sodium metabisulphate (from sausage making), so how much do I add to 4.5l of wine before bottling, and should I add potassium sorbate at the same time?

[Crundy]

Actually, I think I'll follow the white wine recipe but use the red grape juice instead (as that's all I have at the moment :\ ).
Does white grape juice and red grape juice have the same amount of sugars or do I need to adjust the added sugar quantity?

So anyway, do I need bentonite and sorbate or not?

[grumpysod]

I don't use bentonite, but do use finings in the white wine, with these ingredients theres no real benefit from using bentonite

The wine isn't weak at all, by adding the sugar you're still getting about 1.080 OG, I'd just substitute the red grape juice and make it tothe same recipe.

The sorbate is used to stop fermentation, if you are not going to backsweeten the wine then you don't need it. It's not used in the No 1 anyway.

Bob (lockwood1956) that runs the winesathome forum is also a member here, and the recipes were designed by him and he's won several awards for the No 2 Red.

[ECW]

It depends on what you want to make...

If you want a bit of fun, search the forums for 'Lidl Red Wine' from dewsfamily for a simple recipe that works, and a thread full of good advice. I keep mine in recycled 3L wine bags (from the boxes you get really cheap wine in) and after a month it ain't so bad. That said, it's not wine, it's alcoholic grape juice...but pretty bloody alcoholic and not so rough so who cares? I've had worse in France, much worse in Cyprus!

If you want proper wine...

Don't ask me!

[Crundy]

OK, I guess I'll leave out the bentonite as I'm going to fine it anyway.

By weak I mean taste-wise. I know the extra sugar will ferment out it's just that the dilution seems a bit excessive.

I was only thinking of using the sorbate to make damn sure fermentation had finished. I think if I create bottle bombs temizzus will probably put an end to my little hobby!

I did find the lidl wine thread and have bookmarked it, I was just trying to find as many recipes as possible to get an idea of what's required.

Thanks everyone

[grumpysod]

taste wise it's fine, the citric acid enhances the flavour of the juice giving a fruitier taste than you'd expect.

[Crundy]

Right. Presumably too much makes it too sour?

[Crundy]

Quick additional question: I couldn't get blueberry juice but did manage to get blueberry and cranberry juice mix, which I presume should be OK, but as this will be a bit more tart should I reduce the amount of citric acid in recipe 2?

[Zonked]

I've been making 5 gallons lots of Wine #1 it's a very good strong white wine & SWMBO loves it. Great stuff.

[Crundy]

The red (#2) fermented out OK in a week but the white (#1) was still going after almost 2 weeks. how long is it OK to leave it on the lees without racking?

[Zonked]

The red (#2) fermented out OK in a week but the white (#1) was still going after almost 2 weeks. how long is it OK to leave it on the lees without racking?

I left it about 3 weeks. Checked the hydrometer & got a reading of approx 0.998. I then racked off with campden tablets & potassium sorbate & left it another week & degassed then added wine finings & bottled after about 5 days.