1st Carton Wine - advice please

[aamcle]

I have

2 x 1litre Welches Purple grape juice
1.4 litre pressed Apple juice and the usual chemicals and yeast.

When I went to the Homebrew shop to buy the yeast (WineLoft StHelens very good) the owner recommended adding some sultanas or bananas to give the wine some body.

I'm aiming for 6litre so I'll have a little extra for topping up and I think I have enough ingredients for the volume.

How does this look :-

2litre grape juice
1.4 litre Apple juice
500g sultanas chopped and in a loose mesh bag.
1 Camden tablet.
1tsp tannin
1tsp Pectic enzyme
1tsp yeast nutrient
Yeast.

To get to about 12% ABV how much sugar am I going to need?

May I add the pectolase at the same time as the Camden tablet?

Should I add acid blend?

Do members here prefer a yeast starter or just sprinkle the yeast on top?

After adding the yeast should I airate the must?

Thanks All aamcle

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi aamcle - and welcome. You ask how much sugar do you need to add to make a wine at around 12% ABV. Twelve percent ABV means starting with a gravity of about 1.090 and I would assume that the grape juice and the apple juice are at around 1.050 (+/-) . Sugar, when 1 lb is added to any liquid will raise the gravity of that liquid by about 45 points (1.045) if the total volume is 1 gallon (if you add 1 lb of sugar to enough water to make the total volume after adding the sugar .5 gallon then the gravity will have risen to 1.090 and if the lb of sugar increases the total volume to 2 gallons the gravity of that solution will be about 1.022. So, if you add about .5 Kg sugar to your juices and the total volume is about 3.78 L(or a scant 4 Liters) then your SG will be around 1.090.
I would add the pectic enzyme perhaps 12 hours after adding the K-meta (Campden tabs) and about 12 hours before you pitch (add) the yeast.

And I would add any acids after you have tasted the wine and are tweaking everything before you bottle. The issue for you is not about dropping the pH to improve shelf life of your wine. At about 3 -4 Liters you are talking about 4 or 5 bottles of wine and not 4 or 5 thousand gallons. acidity , then is all about taste and for taste you want to make any decision on whether you need to make your wine "brighter" and sharper when you in fact taste it. Technically, you are looking for a TA (not a pH but a titratable acidity or total acidity) of about 6.5 g/L and while that is measurable , your tongue and mouth can tell you whether your wine has enough bite , not enough and so is blah, or is so acidic to taste that it is unpleasant.

Personally, I simply sprinkle my yeast on top of the must but you might rehydrate your yeast and add the liquid to your juice but then you need to be careful that there is not a large temperature difference between the must and the yeast. Typically, in wine making, if you are using lab cultured yeasts you do not need any starter. The lag time is usually fairly short AND the number of cells in packs of wine yeast are large. Brewers, in my opinion, tend to prefer to use starters because of their anxiety that any serious lag time between pitching the yeast and the yeast actively fermenting their wort allows lactic bacteria to sour their beer. Lactic bacteria is not a significant problem when we are fermenting fruit and vegetables.

 

[aamcle]

Thanks Bernard.

 

[DaveandLynne]

Do you leave the skins on the banana when you do this to gain more body in the wine?

 

[KCCam]

Do you leave the skins on the banana when you do this to gain more body in the wine?

There are varying opinions about that, but most leave the skins on, I believe, and slice them. Make sure to use very ripe (black, or at least mostly brown) bananas. The ripening process converts starch into sugar. Starch can cause a haze that prevents the wine from clearing.