Recipe: Apple, pineapple and lemongrass

Is that the stuff Sainsburys are selling @ 3 for £4? There's 5 things to check out when buying carton juices

1) Does it contain unfermentable artificial sweeteners that will produce a sweet wine. 'Low Sugar' and 'No added Sugar' are warning signs, but always check the ingredients.
2) Is it a 'Juice Drink' with as low as <20% juice with added water, sugar (or sweeteners) citric acid and 'flavourings' (which may not taste as good when it's fermented out). These juice drinks are not good value.
3) Does it contain pulp or puree? If so then hold back about a litre of water until the ferment dies down (or start in a bucket) or it'll spray out the airlock.
4) Although extremely rare with carton juices, check the contents for preservatives.
5) Sugar content which is normally around 110g/Litre, but grape juice can be as high as 180g/Litre. This needs to be deducted from the overall sugar content/gallon to achieve the desired OSG/ABV.

Best dissolved in boiling water and added when lukewarm. Googling indicates the sugar content of that juice is 105g/Litre and 1.315Kg sugar/gallon would produce a wine of approx. 15% ABV, rather high for a juice that's probably better used for making an 11 - 11.5% table wine by using a total of 1Kg of sugar in the gallon.

1 sachet or 1 teaspoon whether it's one gallon or 5 gallons. It's a good idea to get it going 24hrs before adding as that way you'll avoid having wine sitting around awaiting infection if you have some duff yeast. Google yeast starter.

Always use 1 teaspoon/gallon, even if using a tub of yeast that claims to include it. Lack of nutrients can stress out yeast affecting flavour, plus it could cause the yeast to give up before converting all the sugar to alcohol.

De-gassing prior to adding finings as CO2 in suspension reduces their effectiveness.

The normal convention when making carton juice wines is 1 Litre of Grape Juice + 1 Litre of another juice, 'white' juices with white grape juice and 'red' juices added to red grape juice, but there's a shortage of grape juice in the shops at the moment (see P.S.) and Asda appears to be the only place selling it @ £1/Litre.

Personally I would use 1 Litre of that juice with 1 Litre of white grape juice with 735g of sugar (total sugar content 105 + 160 + 735g = 1Kg) to make an 11% quick maturing white wine. If using all 3 cartons in one gallon the lemon grass may well be over prominent after fermentation has removed all the sweetness and some of the apple & pineapple flavour. Excess chilled juices bought on multi-saves can be put in the freezer for later use.

P.S. Some months ago Tesco were clearing out all their stocks of white grape juice for 50p/carton whether it was 1 Litre or 1.5 Litre size. They also had a period when they were selling their apple juice at only 15p for a 1 Litre carton. I filled one of my sheds with them (the boxes are stuffed with cartons), have already used a lot and still have plenty indoors:

 

Have a look at these online tables;

Metric http://mpesgens.home.xs4all.nl/thwp/sugar.html
Imperial http://www.brsquared.org/wine/CalcInfo/HydSugAl.htm

Youngs (or similar) yeast nutrient is cheapest but for some special fussy yeasts/flower wines I might use Tronozymol (expensive stuff).

Put a clean palm of hand over neck of 1/2 to 2/3 full demijohn and shake vigorously (cling film between hand and DJ optional) releasing hand to allow gas to escape. Some people use drill attachments to stir it up, and you can also use a vacuum pump over the neck that causes the CO2 to bubble out. Add a Camden Tablet before degassing using the shaking method to help prevent oxidation.

 

It's cheaper to buy in bulk, only £8.95/Kg here http://www.innhousebrewery.co.uk/p59736/youngs-yeast-nutrient-1kg.html and over £20/Kg in small tubs from HB shops. Their pectolase is only £14.50/Kg when it's £58.82/Kg buying in silly little 17g tubs from Wilkos http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories+equipment/wilko-pektolase-17g/invt/0022653?VBMST=pectin

P.S. I really recommend that you try getting some Asda WGJ and trying 1L of that with 1L of your Sainsburys juice.

 

Get some white grape juice from Asda as and when passing and tuck them away. Non-chilled carton juices normally have decent use by dates.