Welch Apple, Pear and Grape Juice

[koomber]

Has anyone tried using this stuff for something along the lines of wine #1? I've got one on the go and it seems to be working but it is going slow as.... something very slow.

I also took a fancy to dumping a load of this juice onto the lees from a Beaverdale kit along with a sachet of GV1, but this seems to be stuck at 1.040 nearly 2 weeks after it started. I've started regular SG checks on it now, but it was at a mates house before. The only other possibility is that in my cheapness I cheaped out on the neutrient and put in 2tsp per 5G ratehr than 5tsp per 5G. Has my cheapness undone my wine making dream here?

Is there something about this juice that makes it prone? Was I unfortunate with the Wine #1 I made from this and the other problem was down to under nutrient?

It does seem to be the ideal wine making juice, nice balance of malic and tartaric fruits with a bit of something else in for a change, all in 1 carton and all for the price of 63p per litre at tescos!

[lockwood1956]

Add more nutrient now....it wont hurt to have staged nutrient additions, the mead guys do it all the time

[lockwood1956]

Get some pectolase in there too, or you may have clearing issues

I haven't used this juice as I'm not a fan of pears in winemaking, never feel pears make a "clean" wine....always has an edge to it

but then it could be my crap technique

[koomber]

Get some pectolase in there too, or you may have clearing issues

I haven't used this juice as I'm not a fan of pears in winemaking, never feel pears make a "clean" wine....always has an edge to it

but then it could be my crap technique

lol. The array of blue text after that seems to imply your technique might not be to blame . Cheers for the tips. I'll keep an eye out for clearing and I've lobbed in some extra nutrient. I've noticed the little 1 gallon wine #1 base has an odd habit of not bubbling but then if you move it ever so lightly it seems to remember it is supposed to bubble off gas and go woompf.

[fatbloke]

Further to Bobs suggestion.......

Staged nutrient is normall very carefully worked out i.e. they (the mead monsters) work out as close as practical, the exact nitrogen requirement for a given gravity (often quite high), then the nutrient is added in stages, like 1 tsp after the lag phase (the yeast will have been hydrated with GoFerm) and then they'll break up the rest of the requirement into 2, 3 or 4 measures (but if it requires say another 5 g, then they'd make it something like 2g of FermaidK and 3g of DAP. That would be added in conjunction with aeration (once or twice daily). It's one of the techniques used to manage high gravity musts.

So, if you reckon that it might need something like an extra 2 or 3 grammes, allowing for us over here normally using a combined nutrient (everything in the same stuff) I'd suggest that you try a 1/3 or 1/2 of what you think it needs, so just enough to get it going (as you're trying not to cause any off flavours from unused nutrient).

Oh and "they" tend to only do staged nutrient addition up to the 1/3 sugar break (very occasionally the 1/2 sugar break).

regards

Jtfb

p.s. egg noodles simmered in fish stock for tea, stuck in me truck in an estate south of Maidstone! Oh the luxury.........

[koomber]

Further to Bobs suggestion.......

Staged nutrient is normall very carefully worked out i.e. they (the mead monsters) work out as close as practical, the exact nitrogen requirement for a given gravity (often quite high), then the nutrient is added in stages, like 1 tsp after the lag phase (the yeast will have been hydrated with GoFerm) and then they'll break up the rest of the requirement into 2, 3 or 4 measures (but if it requires say another 5 g, then they'd make it something like 2g of FermaidK and 3g of DAP. That would be added in conjunction with aeration (once or twice daily). It's one of the techniques used to manage high gravity musts.

So, if you reckon that it might need something like an extra 2 or 3 grammes, allowing for us over here normally using a combined nutrient (everything in the same stuff) I'd suggest that you try a 1/3 or 1/2 of what you think it needs, so just enough to get it going (as you're trying not to cause any off flavours from unused nutrient).

Oh and "they" tend to only do staged nutrient addition up to the 1/3 sugar break (very occasionally the 1/2 sugar break).

regards

Jtfb

I'm slightly concerned that that made sense!

I think that that level of work is several orders of magnitude above my personal level, but it is very interesting to know. Your posts around the mead forums are always very infomative. Cheers for the info!

[fatbloke]

I do use some of those techniques - sometimes, the rest of the time I just use the basic method in my mead tutorial.

Plus you've just to read over at gotmead to see just how obsessed some of the mead nutters can be........

If they ever thought that I could be bothered to bubble pure O2 through a stainless "airstone" then they haven't got the measure of me

regards

Jtfb