Vimto wine

[PEACOCKSUIT]

Just bought 2l of vinto. I plan on making some wine.

Can someone tell me how much water to Vimto would be needed and how much sugar.

I realise I have to boil up the Vimto to get rid of the preservatives. Id like iff possible to use the whole 2L of vimto.

I have fermentation buckets designed for beer. would one of these be best to ferment in, or shall I buy some 5l water bottles from Morrisons and use on or 2 of these with the lid on loose or some cotton wool (instead of an airlock)?

I have some youngs wine yeast.

[Geezah]

I do a Turbo Vimto which has proven very successful and drinkable in 11 days from start.

3 litres of lidl apple juice
1/2 cup of strong tea
150g of sugar
juice of 1 fresh lemon
1l of vimto cordial boiled for 20 minutes to remove addatives
1 heaped teaspoon of yeast nutrient
1 packet of SB3 yeast (any high alcohol yeast will do)
SG 1080 - FG 1000 = ABV 10%
(topped up 5l with more AJ after 24hrs)
I would suggest making a starter for your yeast.
I do this with 1/2 pint of apple juice and about 2 shots of boiled vimto in a sanitised pint glass, add 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient then pitch the yeast and give it a couple of hours before adding it to the demijohn.
I guess you could add water if you dont want it so strong and more volume.
It retains a nice sweetness with the method used above.

[PEACOCKSUIT]

Cheers for that reply mate, plenty of useful info there. thing is though as much as I like the 'turbo' idea, I want to try (this 1st time at least) using just the vinto/ribena and perhaps sugar if necessary. I want something thats sweet but not super sweet and fairly strong. If it could be ready in a short space of time then it would be a bonus, im happy to sit it out for a few weeks though.....

Thanks to a buy one get one free offer on Ribena Iv not gow 2l of Vimto, 1l of Blackcurrant Ribena and 1l of strawberry Ribena.

I picked up 2 x 5l water bottles to use instead of demijohns.

[Geezah]

As far as I know, boiling the Vimto to remove additives is not a proven science and i'm unsure if it fully clenses the Vimto of additives that would affect the yeast growth.
If you want to go just Vimto, sugar and water I would try making a starter first and see if you get the yeasties multiplying before going full steam ahead.
If say you was going to do 2l vimto and 3l water, scale it down to 100ml boiled vimto + 200ml water then add sugar (to scale) to get the required SG then pitch some nutrients and yeast and see how it goes.

Use the calculator here to get your ABV from SG

[PEACOCKSUIT]

Thats gone well over my head mate! :/

[Yeasty Rob]

Out of interest, what does the 'turbo wine' taste like.

As a newcomer to the Turbo brewing, the idea of Vimto and Ribena etc sounds like it would be pretty horrible, but its an intersting thought to think what flavours will be left.

Is there anything its similar too or is it just basically acoholic vimto?

I'm guessing its not quite like a nice Rioja

[Geezah]

Yeast feeds off sugar and while doing so it multiplies and releases CO2 and ethanol which makes the brew alcoholic.
Certain preservatives (ie. sulphites as found in Vimto and other cordials) will stop yeast growth. Brewers will boil (I gently simmer) the cordial for around 20 minutes to try and kill off the sulphites so the yeast will work its magic and ferment the brew, although I have not seen any specific evidence to support that boiling the cordial will kill off all traces of sulphites.
To test that your boiling procedure has done its job before you go ahead and boil up all your vimto and add it to water try a small sample, which can then be used to start your brews off.
So you have 2 water bottles, so I assume you would like to make 2 batches, each with 1l of vimto as your flavouring.
You would add 1l vimto to 4l water to make your 5l brew.
So, scale it down and try a tester.
Boil up 110ml of vimto (you will lose the extra 10ml in steam)
Let it cool and add 400ml of water.
Split this in to 2 sanitised pint glasses and these will be your test / brew starters.
Add sugar and desolve it until you get the specific gravity you desire. (check with a hydrometer) ie. a starting gravity of 1060 brewed down to a final gravity of 1000 will give you an 8% ABV brew or a starting gravity of 1100 brewed down to a final gravity of 1000 will give you an 13% ABV brew.
Lets say it takes 50g of sugar to get to a starting gravity of 1100
As there is no nutrients for the yeast to help them you should idealy add some to your brew and starter. 1/4tsp in the starters would be helpful to get the yeast going. 1TSP per 5l in the main brew.

So, you got your starter glasses with vimto, water and sugar in them and yeast nutrient sitting at a nice temperature of 20c. Add the yeast and cover them with clingfilm and give them a good old shake to airate the brew. Loosen the glingfilm slightly so CO2 can escape when it starts fermenting.
Check them after 2 hrs has passed and you should see activity in the glasses, more yeast than you put in and maybe some fizzing or foaming on the surface ot the starter.
If so, all is good to go.

So now you upscale the recipe.
1l of vimto + 3.5l of water (top up after 24 hrs) + 500g of sugar + 1tsp of nutrient.
Pour in your starter and sit back.

[Geezah]

Out of interest, what does the 'turbo wine' taste like.

As a newcomer to the Turbo brewing, the idea of Vimto and Ribena etc sounds like it would be pretty horrible, but its an intersting thought to think what flavours will be left.

Is there anything its similar too or is it just basically acoholic vimto?

I'm guessing its not quite like a nice Rioja

My apple juice/vimto recipe gives a fully fermented (after 4 days) and cleared 'wine' after 7 days ready to be bottled.
I had my first taste after 11 days and it was like a Wolf Blass red with lemonade type of flavour, but still kicked at 10%
It was so nice 4.5 litres lasted about a week

[boingy]

Vimto.



Vimto Wine.

[Yeasty Rob]

My apple juice/vimto recipe gives a fully fermented (after 4 days) and cleared 'wine' after 7 days ready to be bottled.
I had my first taste after 11 days and it was like a Wolf Blass red with lemonade type of flavour, but still kicked at 10%
It was so nice 4.5 litres lasted about a week

Blimey, that sounds like it would be quite a nice surprise. Think i'll have to give some of these more experimental ones a go.

Probably be a bit hit and miss, but sounds like some are surprisingly drinkable

[mshergold]

I made some Vimto wine a while back. I'll see if I can dig out the notes on it later, but can tell you I swapped the Ribena in CJJ Berry's recipe for Ribena wine. Off the top of my head is that:

-It is important to boil the Vimto to drive off preservatives.
-Berry's recipe seems to use too much sugar.
-I can't remember if we've tried it.

As for what to ferment in, the choice is yours really. If you want to use all your Vimto and your fermenting bin takes an airlock, use it (especially if you have two so you can rack it). Or buy some 5 litre water bottles and some grommits from Ebay or your local HB shop.

[mshergold]

Right, here goes. 12 Fluid ounces Vimto, 2 & 3/4 (three-quarters) pounds sugar, boil Vimto with 1 pint water for boil off impurities/preservatives 12 minutes (although should have been longer.

The original Ribena recipe said 3lb sugar, but we found even 2 & 3/4 pounds a little sweet.

Hope this is of use.

[Spud395]

Extra sugar should make the resulting wine dryer, if the yeast is up to the job ( able for the %abv)
Sugar is very fermentable and converts compleatly to alcohol, the sweetness must have came from the vimto, more sugar would have made for a dryer wine as I understand!

[mshergold]

I think you may be right Spud. We automatically assumed it would be the sugar. Any idea how to get the sweetness down?

[Scubi]

Vimto wine been fermenting almost a week , slowing down ,,, next stages please !!!!! I have only used kits before