I have just bought 24 liters of Orange juice...help!

[mattwilson]

Hi All, first post on this page so please be gentle....

I have just bought 24 liters of Tesco's orange 100% orange juice from concentrate (reduced to 85p for 4 liters), thinking a cheeky 5 gall brew for under a fiver seems a great idea.

anyone see any issues with the recipe below, or any suggestions to improve flavour? I have basically jsut gone with what i already have in stock, as i'm trying to keep the brew as cheap as possible, but will look at adding stuff it it can be greatly improved...aiming for a table wine I can sup from the fridge, nothing too fancy, around the 12% mark.

i also can do with knowing about quantities of pectolase, citric acid (if needed?), stabiliser and yeast nutrient.

24 Liters Orange
1 pack Wilko's wine yeast
pecto
nutrient
stabliser
2kg Sugar

Thanks for any help!
---

if interested, i've brewed a couple of wines before, an apple wine last year currently sat bottled for summer, a ribena wine finished last week, bottled ready for storing, a fruit juice wine on the go, and roughly 15 differant beer kits over the years.

[CJR]

Issue that shouts loudly at me is 24L of OJ. Very acidic stuff. I'd suggest pitching onto a yeast slurry from a previous wine or make a very active starter. Add the OJ gradually possibly.

Alternatively make a number of batches of WOW.

[mattwilson]

The WOW recipe looks good...my impulse buy may have been an error. As I'll need a lot more grape juice... But I will see...maybe starting it with lots of sugar and 1 gallon, pitch the yeast, then gradually adding more as you say.

I think I'm going to just got for it and see what happens...vit miss out the citric acid! !!

Thanks for the advice.

[fatbloke]

Reassuring words.........potassium carbonate

[mattwilson]

Potassium carbonate sounds like a good idea, i'm heading over to the brew shop tomorrow so I'll see what I can get. I just set the orange up, but only a shorter brew of 8 liters, added 1.5kg sugar to get it to 1.080 on the hydrometer, 2 tsp pecto and will add the nutrient with the yeast in the morning.

I've pretty much winged it so far as I guess it's trial and error. If anyone spots any glaring mistakes please let me know!

Thanks for the advice.

Now what to do with the other 16 liters.....

[OnlyFerment]

Could always get a shed load of 85p apple juice and make an apple and orange WOW - I only bought apple juice and am making TC.

Dave

[mattwilson]

So I took the risk and pitched the yeast straight in...no potassium etc, the brew shop was closed so I thought I'd risk it. Tastes very sweet pre yeast, and after yeast added its now bubbling like a gooden. Will see if that continues over the next week or so, but may have got away with it.

[boingy]

I suspect it will be alcoholic but quite horrible. But, hey, the ingredients were cheap!

[mattwilson]

always one to make my life difficult, i just visited tesco's again, and they now have the apple juice, 4 liters for 85p (not sure if this is just the Lincoln store) - i'll add the 8 liters to the orange as a warped version of the WOW recipe.....so now have 16 liters of half and half.

may taste better, but yeah, for a 1 pack of yeast and £3.80's worth of fruit juice, 16 liters of average wine seems a pretty good deal.

[Jambo]

Reassuring words.........potassium carbonate

Sorry to hijack this - but I have been wondering for a while, why is potassium carbonate the preferred chemical for raising pH? Sodium bicarbonate is in everyone's cupboard and will work, but I'm guessing there's a good reason not to use it...