Recipe: Pomegranate Quickie Wine

It's a few days since I got my second brew of the year started. Busy times means I'm not brewing as frequently as I had hoped, but what is lacking there is being made up for in volume. So I'm still on target for brewing 50+ gallons of wine this year. The lastest one is 4 gallons of Pomegranate Quickie Wine, started 23rd Feb, yeast pitched 24th. It was going to be 3 gallons, but I found the grape juice was on it's best before date, so had to use the lot, which meant 5 litres. There was only 3 litres of Pomegranate juice, but I reckon the wine is still worth making. The recipe and method follow.

Recipe: 4 gallons

3 Litres Pomegranate Juice (Pomegreat, OG 1041)
3 Litres White Grape Juice (Tesco, pressed, 1072)
2 Litres Red Grape Juice (Tesco, pressed, 1073)
2.3 Kg Sugar
2 TSpoons Tartaric Acid
2 TSpoons Citric Acid
2 TSpoons Nutrient (Brupak, Nutrivin)
3 TSpoons Pectolase
3 Campden Tablets
Yeast, Gervin, GV1

OG 1075, FG 994. so 11%ABV

Method

Bring about a gallon of water to the boil with the sugar in it to dissolve.
Meanwhile, pour all the juices into a fermenting bin (measure their gravity first, it's useful info for future brews). Rinse each carton out with a little water and add to the fermenting bin.
Dissolve the acids, nutrient, pectolase and campden in a little water and then add to the fermenting bin.
Add the sugar solution and make the volume up to almost 4 gallons with cold water. Cover tightly and leave overnight.

Next day measure the gravity and make up the volume to 4 gallons with water (and sugar if you have a higher gravity as your target). Measure the gravity again. Mine was 1075, I didn't add any more sugar, just water. Now stir it vigorously and splashily for a few minutes to get some air dissolved. The yeast needs the oxygen to bud (breed) and hence form a healthy colony. When you've done this sprinkle your yeast on top, cover tightly and leave overnight.

Check your brew next day, it should be fermenting, a foamy head will tell you, or fizzing. If it isn't obvious at day one, as was the case with mine, then don't panic. Give it another sloshy stir and then cover it up and check again the next day. Mine was going great on day 2.

From here on you know the routine, stir daily for a few days. After about a week transfer to secondary fermenting vessels, usually demi-johns, and fit airlocks. Leave it undisturbed until it finishes fermenting, most likely 2-3 weeks, evidenced by no more bubbles flowing through your airlocks. You may want to check the gravity at this point. It it's low and stays steady for a few days then it's finished. Then wait for it to clear, should be showing good signs of that within a couple of weeks. If you're impatient then add finings. It should then be clear within a week. Rack off the sediment, degas, add stabiliser and campden. Refit airlock and forget about it for a few weeks. It'll then be ready to bottle and drink. However it will be worth waiting a further month. At that point it probably won't get noticeably better with more time. It's a table wine, light and meant to be drunk young.

Update 23.5.2011

Needed finings to hurry along the clearing, but was ready  to drink in mid-late May, some 3 months from starting.

So it's  a very pale pink. crisp, refreshing, sharpish and clean. The ABV worked out to be 11%. It's fruity, but light and the nearest I can get to nailing a flavour is raspberry which comes quickly. I don't think it would do any harm for this to be 10.5%ABV rather than 11.0%, so that would perhaps be my aim for next time, just a bit less sugar.

Overall verdict, cracker of a wine for something that is so easy to make, so quick to finish, and at around 30p per bottle there is just no complaining. It's table wine quality but if you gave this to your mates (especially the women as men tend to have an irrational aversion to rosé) they wouldn't believe this was your version of plonk. Its perfect for those hot summer days, BBQ's, picnics and sitting in the park etc.