Brewed my first wine in the bottle

[Jokester]

I made a wine in the bottle. I bought white grape juice, and warmed it by microwaving 1 cup and adding it to that bottle. It would be a nice 75-80 degrees to touch. Then put some brewers yeast in it. Yeast bloomed and it foamed and did great.

It fermented 14 days, and then I decanted in 2-3 times a day apart. Its got no yeast sediment in the bottle. So in the last 4 days its been sitting nice and white wine looking.

However it tastes pretty much undrinkable. Its dry as the desert and its much harder to drink than any white wine I have ever had.
Why could it be ?

I have started a red wine in the bottle recipie with an extra 3 cups of sugar and uing champagne yeast. That also has taken off well, bubbling and looking good. But I guess it will be very dry too. It would be fine, like burgundy, except I am afraid it would be undrinkable too.

 

[Yooper]

You did juice + 3 cups of sugar in one 750 ml bottle? How did that all fit?!?!

I would suggest that you start in a bigger vessel, and use pure wine grape juice (or follow a decent recipe) and then rack to the bottle (siphon) since pouring once fermentation starts will ruin a wine. We have lots of 1 gallon recipes posted in the wine recipe database, and you can half that if you want to make only 2 bottles, so you can get started on making something decent.

 

[bernardsmith]

I wonder if the problem might be the juice you fermented. I suspect the wines you are likely to have drunk are made from grapes grown for wine making and their flavor is designed to be drunk with more or less residual sugar. Grape juice that is sold to be drunk sweet may not taste good when all the sugar has been fermented out. That said, what you may want to try is stabilizing the wine after it has finished fermenting and then bench testing to see whether it tastes better if you add sugar to sweeten the wine. You may also want to bench test this wine to see if adding acid blend helps improve its flavor and if the addition of tannins might help.

 

[Jokester]

I added no sugar to the first white wine batch.
The second 3 qt red grape juice + 3 cups of sugar, I put in a 4 liter carlo rossi wine bottle.
I have been trying to look it up a bit. These are in a spot where they get a few hours of light a day. No sunlight, but the kitchen lights light em up. Could that be a problem ?
Also could it stand to be aged a few more days ?

 

[Yooper]

I added no sugar to the first white wine batch.
The second 3 qt red grape juice + 3 cups of sugar, I put in a 4 liter carlo rossi wine bottle.
I have been trying to look it up a bit. These are in a spot where they get a few hours of light a day. No sunlight, but the kitchen lights light em up. Could that be a problem ?
Also could it stand to be aged a few more days ?

I'm not sure aging it will improve it.

Winemaking is simple, but there are some techniques required (like, siphoning and never 'pouring') to make it good. With just mixing up some sugar and juice and yeast, it probably won't be something that age will help. If you can stomach the flavor, it's ok to drink.

 

[EJay]

Also could it stand to be aged a few more days ?

It could probably stand to be aged a few more YEARS.

 

[Verratti]

Stabilizing degassing then back sweetning gets this solved.

 

[Jokester]

Oh, I should siphon it from the bottle ? I poured it. I am actually more certain I didn't get yeast into the wine cos I progressively decanted it 2-3 times over 2-3 days till I had no sediment in the bottle.

I guess if I siphoned it with the hose off the bottom I could get a cleaner wine, with less dead yeast. I will look do that this time.

I also shook it on an on-going basis and watched it fizz and bubble through the brew time. I almost got it fully fermented in 1 week, subsequent shaking made for very little fizzing. That could be bad ? The current red wine batch I am not shaking much. Is that likely to help ?

How is the light exposure ? Is that bad.

 

[Yooper]

Once fermentation slows, oxidation is very bad for wine. Think about when you open a bottle of wine- it's best to drink it at one sitting as the next day the wine is flat and lifeless. That's an example of a minor aeration of wine, and pouring it and splashing it is 100 times worse. Oxidation will ruin the wine.

Light will also ruin wine, causing it too be "lightstruck".

It's important to use a siphon when moving wine from vessel to vessel and avoid splashing at all costs. Most winemakers also use sulfites as antioxidants to protect wine, and keep it topped up (no headspace at all) under airlock.

 

[Yooper]

Here is a "winemaking for beginners" link that can really help answer any questions and explain simple and beginning winemaking techniques: http://wineintro.com/making/instruction/index.html

 

[Jokester]

Oh, OK that makes sense. However its not wine when I splashed it, it was, well 1/2 wine and 1/2 grape juice. But I will keep them under a plastic bag.
I am waiting for the stoppers to show up, I didn't airlock it, I did it in the bottle with the cap a wee bit loose.
So next round I'll brew it air starved, in the dark and not shake it.
In the mean time, this white wine is growing on me. I've sipped it a few times, and when cold, it doesn't bite as much, its dry, and I am not used to drinking dry white wine. But I can easily drink it now. Its getting pretty tolerable.

 

[cernst151]

What kind of juice did you use. A lot of store bought juice really crap for fermenting. If you can afford it I'd recommend buying juice from actual wine grapes that you can find at your local homebrew store or online. Even the cheapest wine making juice is going to be better than most of what you'll get off the shelf at the grocery store.

If you want something sweeter then when the fermentation is done, or even a little earlier, add a campden tablet or something comparable to kill off the yeast. Then you can add more juice to sweeten to taste.

 

[Yooper]

If you want something that tastes good, and still is super easy, try this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/apple-juice-wine-27602/ or this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/apple-juice-wine-27602/

The instructions are pretty simple, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

[Jokester]

The white wine batch was using Juicy juice. Yea, the real high end. I dont skimp. Just the best.

I used welch's red grape juice for this round that will be fermented in 10 days. It gets better and better doesn't it.

I cant justify doing anything too complicated. I am doing this to save like $10 a month on wine. But I do need to do a better job with the stuff I am using obviously. Stopper, airlock, leaving it alone and covering it with paper bag all are good wine practice. I think I'll get a good usable wine out of that.

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

I am not gonna bite.