I don't like to start sweet wines with a very high gravity - one feels that the flavours get carried off in the inital rush of fermentation if you give the must too much sugar at the start. The bucket was filled up to about the 15 litre mark. After this time, I measured the gravity at about 1080. I added 1 teaspoon of acid blend as well and a generous dose of starch and pectic enzymes.įinally I chucked in one campden tablet and left the whole lot for 24 hours. As a bit of filler I added 500ml Ritchie's red grape concentrate. I tipped the grape juice into the bucket, but discarded all the other elements of the wine kit.
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For this red dessert wine I started with a Beaverdale Cabernet Sauvignon 1 gallon kit. I now needed a batch of red grape juice concentrate. Into the bucket went 4 x 1 litre Sainsbury's Pure squeezed orange juice - not from concentrate. I didn't choose the cheapest orange juice for my homemade homebrew red dessert wine recipe, but i didn't go for the most expesive orange juice either. Another pint or so of boiling water was added to rinse. I brough it back to the boil and poured it over the frozen fruit. I then put 400g of dried elderberries in with the bananans and boiling water. I had intended to use just cherries, but they didn't have enough, and on reflection, a selection is probably going to give a more rounded result. I do get some funny looks in the supermarket checkout.
![red velvet dessert wine homebrew red velvet dessert wine homebrew](https://images.media-allrecipes.com/userphotos/7027057.jpg)
These packs were on special offer as well, so I got quite a bargain.
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2x 500g sb frozen dark forest fruits (cherries, black grapes, blackberries and blackcurrents.The following fruit was selected and tipped into my large plastic fermenting bucket. I think these are destined for making "Smoothies" (whatever one of those might be) but they are another useful homebrew winemaking ingredient. My local Sainsbury's supermarket sells 1lb packets of frozen fruit. I raised them to the boil in about 3 litres of water. I took about 6lb of bananas and chopped them up. The wine does not end up tasting of bananas, but they add a nice touch of body. I find bananas to be an invaluable homebrew winemaking ingredient.
![red velvet dessert wine homebrew red velvet dessert wine homebrew](https://prettysimplesweet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Classic-Red-Velvet-Cake.jpg)
You cannot go wrong with a few bananas in a good homemade homebrew wine.
Red velvet dessert wine homebrew full#
Looking at some recipes, I saw that orange juice is sometimes used, so I vowed to follow this course in the creation of my first batch of red dessert wine.Īs a base layer for a full bodied red dessert wine i decided to start with my usual bananas. In a white dessert wine the obvious choice is apple juice. Red grape juice is easily obtained, but what to dilute it with? I decided to follow a similiar path with a red dessert wine. With a white dessert wine, I start with some grape concentrate, add a fair bit of apple juice, some bananas, and anything else which comes to mind. Port is of course a fortified wine - and I've experimented with this in the past, however, I've never tried a big full-bodied very sweet (ie >1030 final gravity) red dessert wine. Now, the first thing one things of with regard red wines and dessert is a big port type wine. Whilst looking in my books and on the internet I saw some homebrew winemaking recipes for Red dessert wine. I enjoy my dessert wines - I've always been a keen consumer of sweet Sauternes and I tried various recipes to recreate something close to a nice full bodied white dessert wine.