Wine number 1 Dry Table wine (As featured on the BBC!)

[lockwood1956]

This will be a supermarket juice wine, as this is the easiest wine to make.....should be ready to drink in about 4-5 weeks...oh and it tastes good too!

follow the recipe and method closely and dont be tempted to alter anything, we want to build winemaking skills, and so will start with this simple wine, and then progress to different styles and methods, you dont need to learn patience straight away either (I found this the hardest thing to learn as a newbie) for this wine will be ready very early, and drinkable straight away.


Big reds, and fruit wines need a year to age, but this is a long time to wait when you are new to the hobby, however waiting that time will pay dividends, so we always have this type of wine to hand for quaffing while we age the good stuff, however this will be classy wine, light refreshing and a pleasure to consume.

IMPORTANT
do not make the classic newbie mistake of attempting to get more alcohol into it by adding more sugar, it will make the wine unbalanced, and harsh. we want a balanced wine that can be drunk early and is of a light style. If you want something high alc that will give you a buzz and taste like shite.....go buy some blue wicked

here endeth the first lesson

[lockwood1956]

sugar-weigh.JPG ingredients.JPG Sanitise everything that will come into contact with the wine beforehand. see here http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/s...ead.php?t=1561 be sure that the juice you buy contains no preservatives (look for sorbate in the ingredients list) Recipe 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 Pour apple juice and grape juice into Demijohn, weigh out 1 & 1/2 lbs (700 grams) sugar and place it in your measuring jug, pour on boiling water, stir till sugar completely dissolves and allow to cool. add to this syrup 1 tsp yeast nutrient and 1 tsp citric acid, and add to the demijohn, top up to shoulder of demijohn with water and mix with the handle of the plastic spoon.

[lockwood1956]

must.JPG bung-safe.JPG yeast-rehydrating.JPG yeast-hydrated.JPG Place the airlock into the bung and then insert into demijohn and half fill with water. (do it this way so you don't accidentally force the bung into the Demijohn trying to insert the airlock) so as to protect our must from things falling in there while we prepare the yeast, then hydrate the yeast according to manufactures instruction, in this case its a Lalvin yeast and they say to rehydrate the yeast In water at 40deg C for 15 minutes and then give it a good stir.

while you wait the 15 minutes take the time to test the SG (specific gravity of the must using your hydrometer) try not to fill the trial jar as full as I did you should find the SG will be around the 1.080 mark, we will use later wines to look at adjusting the SG of musts.

extra information if you want it on using the hydrometer here

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=885

[lockwood1956]

Pitch the now hydrated yeast into the must and wait for fermentation to start, your first wine is on its way. Fermentation should start within 24-48 hours.

[lockwood1956]

Bingo....ferment underway, airlock blooping

[lockwood1956]

The very vigorous early stage of fermentation has subsided, this normally takes a couple of days, but the yeast I used (Lalvin K1-V1116) is low foaming, so now it has settled down I have topped up with water.

[lockwood1956]

48 hours in and the specific gravity has dropped to 1.050... a very healthy ferment indeed.....

are we having fun yet?

[lockwood1956]

Been away from home, so the wine did what wine does, and finished off on its own.....

I would normally check the SG every couple of days, and once it stopped fermenting and stayed the same for three days in a row, and was this low an SG I would regard it as finished. If the SG was above 1.000 and stayed the same, I would consider it a stuck ferment for whatever reason and investigate further. You should have no trouble if you follow the tutorial, omitting no detail, no matter how slight

The SG today is 0.992 (as near as damn it bone dry ...which would have been 0.990)
I would normally rack at around 1.010 and allow to finish off, but there is very little sediment produced by this easy wine, so letting it ferment out to dry wont cause any problems, had it been a wine made from fruit (lots of solids) then racking at 1.010 would have been essential or the wine may spoil from prolongued contact with gross lees (fruit solids).

so I racked the wine into the 2 gallon bucket, and then returned it to the Demijohn, and I topped it up with water as it didn't need much topping up, if it had needed a lot of topping up I may have used grape juice

I added 5 ml of the 10% sulphite solution as described here, to the receiving DJ before racking back from the bucket.

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=1561

1 crushed campden tablet per gallon would do the same job, I just happen to find the sulphite solution easier to use, and certainly cheaper to make.

I took photographs but for some reason they didn't turn out!...sorry dudes....will take photos and be sure to make certain they are OK on next racking.

see here for advice on racking procedure

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=892

the sulphite will help prevent oxidation of the wine, make sure that you top the Demijohn up to within 2 cm of the bung and refit airlock, we now wait for it to clear.

here is what it looks like now, you will notice it has started clearing from the top down already

[lockwood1956]

Oh and while you are racking, treat yourself to a little taste....go on...you know you want to

it tastes gooooooooooooood

[lockwood1956]

Here it is 24 hours later, you can see it clearing, and notice the lees building up at the base of the DJ, once it has fallen clear we will rack again.

[lockwood1956]

And here it is 8 days later

[lockwood1956]

Racking time

time to rack.
notice the wine is clear, and the sediment is firm at the bottom of the DJ. We have firm sediment because of the use of a quality yeast, lesser quality yeast would likely result in fluffy" sediment (lees) that would swirl around, making racking more difficult.
Not the use of the racking cane with the bit at the bottom to make sure no sediment gets sucked up, and tilting the DJ at the end to get more out. You can tilt the DJ at an Angle before you start to rack if you find it easier. Make sure that the hose is placed into the receiving vessel (a bucket in this case) and cannot jump loose ...coil it around in the base of the bucket, if it comes out, not only will you spill wine from the hose, but reaching to replace it, you will disturb the sediment in the DJ (bitter experience!!)

[lockwood1956]

Sediment left after racking

[lockwood1956]

So the wine isn't completely clear, it has CO2 in suspension that needs to be removed, so we will degass the wine, allowing the particles held in suspension to be free and fall to the bottom of the DJ.

thread here regarding degassing

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=904

But we will take a simpler approach here, because we are new.

Clean out the demijohn and transfer all of the wine less 1 litre back into it, we can then place the palm of our hand over the mouth of the DJ and shake it (quite violently) to release the CO2, removing your hand every once in a while to release the pressure.

once this lot has been degassed, (approx ten sessions of about 30 seconds each) pour it into the bucket, and put the 1 litre reserved from before into the DJ and degass it using the same method.

when finished degassing, add 5ml of sulphite solution and top up with cooled boiled water, and replace bung and airlock, the wine should fall crystal clear fairly quickly.

[lockwood1956]

If you have trouble handling full DJ's in the method described previously then you can degass by using the handle of a sanitised spoon, again remove 1 litre from the DJ, insert the spoon (handle first) and swish side to side to create the degassing action, you may be surprised to see just how much foam escapes.
and again as before, pour degassed wine into the bucket, and degass the other 1 litre.

A rough guide...ten seperate one minute sessions should be enough