Sort of Sparkling Shiraz

[Carol]

Playing around with supermarket fruit juice and EC-1118 yeast at the moment.

sort of sparkling shiraz 2mb.jpg

Test batches were Golden Circle Grape Juice. 200ml removed from the plastic container. 1/8 teaspoon of EC1118 sprinkled on top. Covered with cling wrap held by elastic band. Hope poked in top with sanitised needle.
Ferments out to a very dry sort of shiraz. Bottled in stubbies as for cider with sugar for secondary fermentation. About 8%ABV.
Looks like sparkling shiraz and sort of tastes like it. In the second and third test batches I added some weak stevia syrup ( 1 tablespoon and 2 tablespoons). I preferred the batch with 1 tablepoon stevia solution.

Bulk ferment has just been bottled. 11 x 2 litres grape juice, 5 g EC1118. For tannins I soaked 6 teabags in boiling water and left for an hour (teabags removed before adding to fermenter). For flavour I added liquid from 6 raspberry/strawberry teabags soaked for 1 hour ( wouldn't bother again). For sweetness I added 500g frozen raspberries in a strainer bag. Ended up with the equivalent of 72 stubbies. This had some sweetness but was not overly sweet. Needs to sit for a couple of weeks before I can try it.

As supermarket grape juice is not that interesting, I am thinking of adding some black pepper to the next batch, possibly with cherries instead of raspberries.
Watch this space!

[RuddyCrazy]

Hello Carol,
I've now done 2 batch's of 5 litres of Coolabah red bought for $13, mulled with mulling herbs and a cut up fresh navel orange for 3 hours and kept the temp below 70C so the alc wouldn't boil off. Stripped it in my 5 litre pot still then did a spirit run then onto French Oak for a year. Man the taste is nice and the people that have tasted all said Bryan you hit the nail on the head with this one.

When I taste it I get the full citrus taste but when SWMBO has a taste she says she tastes the cinnamon, in all I got a litre bottle of of this project and it won't be long before I do another.

Now I am only just up the hill and you are welcome to come over and have a taste :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Bryan

[Carol]

Thanks Bryan.
I will add that to my list of experimentation.
The sort of sparkling shiraz is easy as a kit beer and you can drink it straight away but I like the idea of a pot stilled sort of brandy.

Cheers
Carol

[The Dark Alchemist]

Playing around with supermarket fruit juice and EC-1118 yeast at the moment.

Test batches were Golden Circle Grape Juice. 200ml removed from the plastic container. 1/8 teaspoon of EC1118 sprinkled on top. Covered with cling wrap held by elastic band. Hope poked in top with sanitised needle.
Ferments out to a very dry sort of shiraz. Bottled in stubbies as for cider with sugar for secondary fermentation. About 8%ABV.

That's exactly what we used to do in Saudi; cask red or white grape juice, sugar, teabags and bakers yeast to make red or white wine. Necessity is the mother of invention!

The only difference was that I used a balloon on top of the plastic water container (from a water bubbler) instead of an airlock.....

[Carol]

Dark Alchemist
Very interesting - at least I have champagne yeast LOL! I think I need to get some balloons though!

Cheers
Carol

[The Dark Alchemist]

Dark Alchemist
Very interesting - at least I have champagne yeast LOL! I think I need to get some balloons though!

Cheers
Carol

5 grains of bakers yeast in a grolsch flip top bottle of white grape juice for a couple of weeks gave us champagne......... :-D

[wynnum1]

Playing around with supermarket fruit juice and EC-1118 yeast at the moment.

Test batches were Golden Circle Grape Juice. 200ml removed from the plastic container. 1/8 teaspoon of EC1118 sprinkled on top. Covered with cling wrap held by elastic band. Hope poked in top with sanitised needle.
Ferments out to a very dry sort of shiraz. Bottled in stubbies as for cider with sugar for secondary fermentation. About 8%ABV.

That's exactly what we used to do in Saudi; cask red or white grape juice, sugar, teabags and bakers yeast to make red or white wine. Necessity is the mother of invention!

The only difference was that I used a balloon on top of the plastic water container (from a water bubbler) instead of an airlock.....

Plastic bags work to air lock with a elastic band.