another wine number 1 question

[ms67]

i'm trying to juggle my winemaking plans around at the mo, wine number 1 is moving up the list of "wines to make" very quickly so i checked out the details/recipe. So here comes my questions ...

when i made a rose on the lees of a kit i used grape juice for the entire liquid volume and only topped up with water at racking(s). This wine was probably the most popular i have made in terms of feedback relating to quality. Was i lucky as wine num1 uses roughly half the amount of juice?
And also does wine num1 only work with white grape juice or can it be done using red grape juice to make a rose - tho it will probably be a very pale rose.
AND as we like our wines fruity what would you recommend as the other fruit juice, and should we stick to the suggested ratio of water:juice to achieve this.

i still want my wine num1 to do what is does for everyone else, be a quick drinker, so that other wines get to last a bit longer.

[Duffbeer]

TBH I am not a big fan of supermarket red grape juice, I find it has a strange taint to it. Though many have used it and been quite happy.
My personal preference would be to use a wine # 1 recipe ie apple & grape juice but add an additional 1/2 ltr of concentrated fruit juice such as cranberry, pomegranate, blueberry or something similar.

[ms67]

nice suggestion duff, those fruits suggest to me that they would add a little (searching for words as my wine tasting vocab is awful) crispness/acidity/edge aswell as the fruitiness i'm after. is my description correct? how would you describe their effect? thanks muchly, and i'll go with white juice if that is what is intended. i dont want to be too experimental with this wine as so many folk like the tried and tested recipe.

[goldseal]

There appear to be a infinite number of variations to the recipe (although I don't know when it ceases to become Wine No.1). I agree with Duff - I have noticed a strange taste to supermarket RGJ (although in some it appears to fade after a year or so).

Tesco Exotic juice works well, although I found it needs just a little sweetening and a couple of months to settle down.

You might want to experiment with adding juices post-fermentation too. Some (including me) have had success this way.

EDIT: Nearly forgot - Welch's Purple Grape juice (in place of the WGJ) makes an excellent rosé. The carton says it contains potassium sorbate, so I got the fermentation going without the Welch's, then added it over a period of 2 days. It went like a rocket

[SiSandrine]

I did a Red Grape juice and I agree that there is a taste when fresh but when fermented it seems to not be there. Not as quick to be ready as standard wine number 1 (as I used nearly all juice). 3ltr Red Grape, 2 Lt Apple, 300g sugar, 1tsp acid, 1tsp powdered tannin and fermented to almost dry. At that point I wasn't happy with the flavour so I added a small tin of red grape concentrate and refermented to dry. I then fined with egg white. Colour is that of a light fruity red. I did this in May and it has taken until now really to be drinkable. It is nice though. IMO with pure juice wines they need longer to sort themselves out and can be a bit more fiddly. More things seem to go wrong but as I mentioned I am really happy with the finished result and others seem to like it too.

[Duffbeer]

nice suggestion duff, those fruits suggest to me that they would add a little (searching for words as my wine tasting vocab is awful) crispness/acidity/edge aswell as the fruitiness i'm after. is my description correct? how would you describe their effect? thanks muchly, and i'll go with white juice if that is what is intended. i dont want to be too experimental with this wine as so many folk like the tried and tested recipe.

These should all add a pleasant astringency & fruitiness that a good rose should have.
It should also result in a light fruity bouquet and a pleasant blush style colour.
Try to ensure they are 100% juice as some cranberry cartons even the ocean spray ones are as little as 25% juice, also stick to just 1/2 ltr per gallon no more.

[ms67]

thank you all for these helpful replies.

i'm not going to add more than the 1/2 litre extra juice as duff suggests. This is mainly cos i'm looking for a quick drinker. Likewise i wont be adding tannin as this also adds time. I plan to make 2 roses this year that i'm happy to wait for, one a repeat of last years run on the lees from the beaverdale kit, and one comparative brew using my own yeast, oak chips and tannin. it may have been welch's purple grape juice that i used last year, wish i made a note! i got it from tesco's, was cheap (73p/litre i think) definately described as purple on the carton, and was around this time last year, give or take a few weeks. Anyone know if that sounds like the likely suspect? It fermented just fine from the off, so perhaps it wasn't welch's? then again the sorbate only inhibits reproduction and a big healthy yeast population might be enough to do the business even if they dont reproduce? how long does a yeast live and do useful metabolising for?

i'm still undecided about whether to use RGJ or WGJ. Aiming for blush does sound very nice tho.

[elleks]

I've made a No.1 using Welch's purple grape juice. it's lovely-quite a dark rose, and a very fruity taste. I didn't notice the potassium sorbate, so I just made it up as usual; and I didn't have any problems with fermentation.
I also made a no.1 and added a small bottle of Pomegreat pomegranate juice. This was OK, but after racking, fining and filtering it suddenly went cloudy.
Another website says it may be due to acid, and I've been advised to fit an airlock and leave it for 3-4 months.

[ms67]

cheers for that reassurance elleks. unless welch's has changed their cartons in the last year then it was a different juice i used. i'll see how i feel when i get to the supermarket, if the original juice i used jumps out at me then i'll likely go with that. otherwise it'll be a spur of the moment decision. i think i'm leaning towards WGJ with something colourful to make a blush. The big comparative rose brew is another matter however.

[Old un]

I see the comments on supermarket fruit juice.

But are all supermarket juices the same?

I use the fruit juice from Lidl, Apple Juice [not apple drink], and the 100% red and green grape juice

How I use it is just the juice not water.

Both the Apple juice and the grape juice make a nice white wine both together and on their own.

If you mix half a carton of red grape juice, with the Apple juice or the green grape juice or even both. They make a nice Rose.

If I have a banana handy I stick that in.

I drink after about 3 months, and I have had no complains yet, from other wine drinkers at my local club.

[ms67]

thanks for your thoughts old'un

i'm on a quite specific 'quest' with this thread. The reports from folks who have tried this wine are very positive and i reckon its a must (hehe) for me to try it on my journey to making ever better wines. So i'll be sticking with the mix of water and juice and only tinkering slightly with details. Hopefully i'll learn a lot by staying true to the recipe and comparing with my usual brews.

regarding if all supermarket juices are the same i would say no. Tho discerning differences isn't always possible from reading the labels. The ways juices are extracted, how many pressings for example, how gentle, heat treatments etc are some differences i would expect. Also origins (country is not enough info) of fruits and the resulting differences in quality due to climate and nutrients. Then there are the more obvious differences that should be labelled, additives, pure or diluted (from concentrate), and price of course. Chances are that some juices will be the same tho in different packaging - but how would we tell?

[goldseal]

...and i reckon its a must (hehe) for me to try it on my journey to making ever better wines

Couldn't agree more

[ms67]

Couldn't agree more

there's some times when you just know a step "back" is very likely to be so very informative. i say "back" because its in the new brewers section and i've been brewing on and off for more than 20 years, not because i see it as a step in the wrong direction. I wish this level of quality of advice was about - and so easy to find - 20 years ago. But hey, such is life, and the bloke who really got me interested in brewing did an excellent job anyway and his pointer to CJJ Berry served me well.

[ms67]

so i got the ingredeints to do 2 wine number 1's

the first is using pineapple juice, i found some 100% pure pineapple juice and will combine this with some WGJ. neither have additives/preservatives. so i'll simply follow the recipe for this one, especially given someone's extremely positive feedback (omniata?).

the second is a bit more tricky. i wanted to use pomegranate or cranberry but couldnt find a pure juice. the choices were juice with preservatives, or juice from concentrate preservative free (vit C aside). i opted for the latter. juice from concentrate coming in at 35%. so i'm going to try it with 1 litre WGJ and 1 litre pomegranate juice from concentrate per gallon of wine. OG wise etc i'll follow the recipe. i'm guessing the vit C will make little difference except possibly help to preserve what little colour comes from the pomegranates.

i'll be starting the pineapple first, then a week or so later the pomegranate. given that i'm using juice from concentrate for the latter is there anything i should change or know. i really want to be as true to the recipe and instructions as possible as i feel this is going to make a bench mark wine.

[ukric]

Well.... the pomegranate wine number one is nice

Ok i'd better explain a bit further before someone lynches me.

I made a standard wine number one and used an actual pomegranate, seeds only, (instead of juice) added at the start.

On reflection when I try this again I'll be doing a late addition, 1.030 or thereabouts. Might try one with juice as well.

The early edition of the fruit has meant much of the bouquet that could have been has been lost.

If using juice I would imagine the colour would be closer to a rose. Using the method I have gives a golden colour in the glass, it's only in large quantities that you can see the pink in it.

All in all the wine is entirely pleasant but unremarkable, I kept it at dry.