Wine number 2 Red Table wine medium sweet

[lockwood1956]

This recipe assumes you have already made, or at least read Wine #1 first, HERE

New stuff required to make this wine:
Potassium sorbate
Tannin



Sanitise all equipment that will come into contact with the wine
see here

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

this time we are making a sweeter wine, and also using twice the amount of grape juice, we will also be stabilising and back sweetening at the end, so we will need the Potassium sorbate to allow us to do that.

1 litre blueberry juice/or blueberry juice drink (cranberry juice, or cranberry and raspberry also work, be sure always to check the label for preservatives)
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 (I used Lalvin K1V-1116)


Dissolve the sugar in 1 pint boiling water, leave to cool, add the blueberry juice and grape juice to the demijohn, add the yeast nutrient tannin and citric acid, when the sugar syrup has cooled add this also, top up to the shoulder of the DJ ( to allow for foaming at first stages of fermentation) give the must a good stir and check the SG it should be between 1.070 and 1.080, if it isnt adjust by adding more sugar.....mine stands at 1.078

[lockwood1956]

Rehydrate the yeast according to the manufacturers instructions, in this case I used Lalvin K1V-1116 because its a low foaming yeast, that is reliable, and even in the presence of other yeasts will always dominate (the K in the yeast name denotes "killer" meaning it will be the dominant yeast)

This yeast is re-hydrated by adding to water at 40 deg C with a little sugar and letting stand for 15 minutes, then pitch the yeast into the primary and off we go. (check the instructions on your yeast packet)


once the wine has finished we will stabilise and back sweeten.

[lockwood1956]

Vigorous part of early fermentation has subsided (low foam yeast) so topped up DJ with water
I'm off to Northern France and Germany for four days to try and source some winemaking grapes for next year

So the must will just have to take care of itself (it does that) it's under airlock so will come to no harm.

so it will likely be ready for me to attend to it on my return.

but worth noting that Planning winemaking around commitments is a good idea so you don't' have four days away from your wine worrying about it!

(I've had a word with myself)

[lockwood1956]

Well it didn't matter that I was away, as the wine did what wine normally does and took care of itself!

here it is still fizzing away

[lockwood1956]

7 days later....still fermenting, but not to worry, it is just going a little slower because of lower temperatures, we have used a good quality yeast, so it will just keep going till its done.

[lockwood1956]

today S.G at 0.990 so time to move to next stage which is to degass and stabilise, in order for us to be able to sweeten this wine we will have to use the potassium Sorbate in conjunction with the sulphite, we need to add sulphite when we use sorbate or else we will end up with a geranium smell.


Always check the directions on the tub, for they are all different, this one needs 1/2 tsp per gallon.

so we are degassed, and stabilised, we will sweeten after 24 hours, to allow the sorbate to be distributed evenly, we will stir a couple of times in this 24 hour period

sweetening Will be by adding grape juice, to get the S.G to around 1.004, but we could use sugar syrup, or even non fermentable sugars (in which case you wouldn't need the sorbate) not topped up at this point, to leave room for the grape juice

[lockwood1956]

Well removed some of the wine so that we can add the grape juice to sweeten

so to 4.2 litres of wine at 12.2% (start SG 1.080 finish at 0.990) added .34 litre red grape juice which raised the SG to 1.005 and made the new alcohol content 11.28%

calculation on original alc content made using this sheet, work out the SG drop (90 in this case) and look up that value in the table

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/downloads/Alchoholbyvolumechart.xls

calculation on adjusted alc content by using this table

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/downloads/calculator.htm

use the bottom row

base =12.2% fortifier =0% amounts base 4.2litres fortifier =0.34 litres comes out at 11.28


decided to stop sweetening at 1.005 as any more is too sweet for me. however you may want to sweeten it further....if you took 4 litres wine and added .54 litres grape juice, the SG would be near 1.010 and the alc content would be 10.7%

[lockwood1956]

Update

This wine took a prize in the Medium rose class at Doncaster wine societies Annual show

I'm well chuffed

[lockwood1956]

It has now also taken a third at Lincoln open show


life is good

[lockwood1956]

And a 3rd at telford show