Recipe: Cranberry and Blueberry Quickie

Getting Reacquainted with and Old Friend ....

This wine remains one of Mrs Critter Wines' favourites. So before the year is out it'd be smart of me to make a batch. Last years has all gone! This is a simple easy-drinking, light and fruity table wine. In fact it's quite lethal, not because it's strong, it isn't, but because it's so easy to drink. So it gets glugged.

Recipe (5 gallons)

3 Litres Cranberry Juice Drink (Sainsbury's)
2 Litres Blueberry Juice Drink (Sainsbury's)
3.4 Kg Sugar
3 Teaspoons Citric Acid
2 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid
4 Teaspoons Pectolase
Nutrient (4 Teaspoons, tronozymol)
Yeast (GV1)

OG 1078

NB: when buying a "juice drink" check the ingredients. Often they have added artificial flavours, colours, sweeteners or preservatives. You may not care, but then again you may. These juices from Sainsbury's were all natural. The two biggies to watch out for are ...

• Preservatives because they may well make it hell to get your wine started. The preservatives could mess with the yeast you add.
• Artificial sweeteners. To my mind these are one to avoid always. There's plenty of people talking about how dangerous they are, linking them to all sorts of things including cancer. However form a purely brewing perspective avoid them. They won't ferment, they'll be utterly unchanged, so your wine will end up being way sweeter than you're used to.

Method.

I think you know the quickie wine method by now. If not then find an old recipe on my "index" page. If you know what you're doing then here's a quick reminder ... just in case.

Clean all your gear properly, i use a bespoke steriliser, the kind of thing all homebrew shops have.
Rinse your equipment after sterilising. Dissolve the sugar in boiling water. All solution to cool. Add all ingredients (bar yeast) to your fermenting bin. Stir vigorously to get plenty of air dissolved. Add yeast, cover and so on. Stir daily for a few days, move to secondary fermentation until fermentation stops. rack of sediment and then do your usual thing of degassing, stabilising and so on. It'll be ready to drink in 6-8 weeks, and it'll be delicious.