#8 - Red Wine* [Juice]

At this point I decided I was confident enough to attempt a small red wine batch. I started looking for grape juice in my local supermarket but the closest I could find at the time was a juice which was 70% red grape with the rest a mix of raspberry and cherry. I also bought some blackberries for a late addition. 

Wine Recipe

Wine Recipe & Guidelines

• 1 tsp of allspice

• 550g Caster Sugar

• 4L Red Grape And Raspberry Cherry (Not From Concentrate)

• 500ml Bottled water

• 300g Blackberries  

Add the allspice granules to 500ml of water and allow it to boil for 10 minutes.Then add the sugar in portions while stirring.This will cause the sugar to dissolve into the solution.Leave this solution to boil for 5 minutes.  

Crush, juice or grind all of the blackberries into a pulp. Take the solution off the hot plate and add the pulp to the hot water and stir in gently. Put the solution back on the hot plate and bring to the boil then turn off the heat and take it off. 

Thankfully I didn't go to bed early the night I made this brew. It was the first time I have ever had to use a blow off tube. I was minding my own business, reading home-brew forums probably and I glanced over towards the freshly made brew (2 or 3 hours I would say). Sure enough grape and cherry trub as spewing out though the airlock! Normally I would have started having a heart attack at this point but thankfully my months of reading forums and watching YouTube videos finally paid off. The solution was to simply use a blow off tube and bottle of water which did the trick.

I recently tried the wine after letting it age in bottles for 2 months. It was bloody disgusting! That was what I get for using the last of the champaign yeast for this batch. I now officially HATE champaign yeast and will not buy it again and I really don't know why it is recommended for recipes above a normal wine yeast! The wine itself was very very slightly carbonated but it tasted like champaign which I don't really like at the best of times. Basically it was rocket fuel which homeless men one the street wouldn't even drink. Another batch down the drain unfortunately but valuable lessons learned.

Stats:

Started - 6.6.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 15.6.11
Bottled - 7.7.11
Code - 1008
Yeast Brand - Young's Champagne
Yeast Code - 28032013
Y-Temp - 24.0 
Beer/Product Type -  Red Wine
Malt/Sugar Type - Grape, Raspberry, Cherry & Blackberry Juice with 550g of sugar
Volume -  4.8L
OG - 1094
FG - 998
Proof  - 12.87%