Can I add different fruit/flavours in various demijohns to red wine brew kit please?

[davielovesgravy]

Howdy folks, hope everyone is supping well and staying safe.

I made a red wine kit a while back and am happy with the 30 bottles I have stored. I actually have a second one of the same kit to make ASAP as it is almost at its Best Before date. I don’t have another 30 empty bottles so I am wondering if I can store in separate demijohns and have a play about with some flavouring, basically I was thinking of racking the kit into 6 separate 5L demijohns each with a different fruit or fruit extract, and then bottle them all at a later date?? 6 months down the line or just whenever I have drank the other 30 bottles.

My question is this, I want to add 6 different flavours to experiment, i am thinking peach in one DJ, cherry in another, pineapple in another etc... would I need to rack off into demijohns and add the flavours into my FV BEFORE secondary fermentation?? Or can I add the fruit to the demijohns and then leave it for months??
For me Adding fruit or fruit flavourings AFTER secondary fermentation would be much better if this is possible as I have a brew fridge which I can keep the FV nice and warm in but I just wouldn’t fit 6 demijohns in the fridge.

Also if adding actual fruit into the demijohns is not a good idea then could I add organic fruit extracts?

I hope this makes sense, let me know if you need any more info. Any help as always guys would be fantastic!

 

[Coffee49]

Howdy folks, hope everyone is supping well and staying safe.

I made a red wine kit a while back and am happy with the 30 bottles I have stored. I actually have a second one of the same kit to make ASAP as it is almost at its Best Before date. I don’t have another 30 empty bottles so I am wondering if I can store in separate demijohns and have a play about with some flavouring, basically I was thinking of racking the kit into 6 separate 5L demijohns each with a different fruit or fruit extract, and then bottle them all at a later date?? 6 months down the line or just whenever I have drank the other 30 bottles.

My question is this, I want to add 6 different flavours to experiment, i am thinking peach in one DJ, cherry in another, pineapple in another etc... would I need to rack off into demijohns and add the flavours into my FV BEFORE secondary fermentation?? Or can I add the fruit to the demijohns and then leave it for months??
For me Adding fruit or fruit flavourings AFTER secondary fermentation would be much better if this is possible as I have a brew fridge which I can keep the FV nice and warm in but I just wouldn’t fit 6 demijohns in the fridge.

Also if adding actual fruit into the demijohns is not a good idea then could I add organic fruit extracts?

I hope this makes sense, let me know if you need any more info. Any help as always guys would be fantastic!

I would try different fruits as long as they were left alone for 4 months in the demigods wrapped with towel and watch the reactivity, some solids may plug up your airlock, some if my experiments have taken a year to mature

 

[davielovesgravy]

I would try different fruits as long as they were left alone for 4 months in the demigods wrapped with towel and watch the reactivity, some solids may plug up your airlock, some if my experiments have taken a year to mature

Hi there, I was going to add the fruit after secondary fermentation into a SEALED demijohn, no airlock, almost as if it were being bottled. I would be sure not to leave any air in the demijohn though, hopefully that way I can actually remove fruit and bottle it at a later date. Does this sound ok?

 

[Coffee49]

If your 2nd racking was done 4 months after the first racking I believe your yeast could be inactive , my concern is sealing the vessels after adding fruit, the addition of fruit sugar could start a refermentation, a balloon would be a safe top for these vessels for the fining stage, if no activity is shown after 2 weeks I would cork them up and store at 18-20 C, out of sunlight.

 

[Blacksmith1]

coffee49 has a point, if it restarts and is sealed you will lose all the wine in the container as it will break ( think bomb) when the pressure reaches a certain point. I keep airlocks on my brews for months, my banana wine has been under airlock since May 2019 and it's fine.