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Finally got this into 2 demijohns - quite a journey
The Sorry tale of Ribena Wine......Don't try this method at home!
After starting this on 2nd August, I've been on quite a trip! Tried the C J Berry recipe, which I think is the one listed in the thread. I was really a beginner and forgot to take the SG.
Didn't know what 12oz bottle of ribena meant, so put in 700mls of ribena and 1L of red grape juice. I put in 2lbs 11oz sugar, adjusting for the sugar in the grape juice and left it to ferment. (This is the point where those in the know are probably doing this )
Well it fermented and I then remembered to take the SG when it got stuck at 1.3. It also tasted foul (like alcoholic cough mixture) and wouldn't ferment. So I thought it's probably stuck due to too much alcohol so I added some 21% yeast (after starting it off in a dilute solution of the wine). It started to ferment again and got stuck. I was getting fed up with this!!
So I took drastic action and poured it all out into a fermenting bin and made it up to 2 gallons with extra 1L cranberry and a tin of strawberries! Well not a lot happened and I was about to throw it out, but when I went to look it had started fermenting again. Last week both jars finally stopped at SG 0.992 and were racked and campden tablets added.
Then, the library called, after a 4 month wait, my book on wine making arrived. The irony! There in the book was a recipe for Ribena wine using 600mls of Ribena, but making 2 gallons of wine! If only I'd known. So much for the '12 oz bottle of ribena'. Next time I'll be much more careful with the old imperial measures and I'll check my SG first. Lesson learnt the hard way. Please don't try this at home.
And if you've read this far, suggestions welcome as to what I'm going to do with this wine next. It does taste like cough mixture and is rose in colour. I was tempted to add some dried Eldeberries to the mix to see if I could add further depth and colour and mask the cough mixture taste? Does the taste improve with keeping?
Still I learnt a lot from this experience and will never forget again to measure the SG before starting the wine.
I could add my tale in here too then.. Both my gallons cleared ok. the real ribena looks like a dark white wine, very straw coloured. Not what I expected at all. The blueberry ribena looks more like a rose.
Both taste a bit young at the moment, maybe given time they'll improve. If not, I'll mix them with lemonade!
I could add my tale in here too then.. Both my gallons cleared ok. the real ribena looks like a dark white wine, very straw coloured. Not what I expected at all.
Rich
How did that happen?
I've made this umpteen times and never had such a drastic colour change. Must be magic
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