Making Wine From Ribena

 MAKING WINE FROM RIBENA

TUTORIAL

Before I explain how easy it is to make wine with ribena let me point out

that this famous syrup of excellent quality could well be added to

fermenting 'musts' made up from of the fruits to get special results. The

rate to add it would be one to two bottles per gallon.

When making wines from dried fruits the addition of one or two bottles

of Ribena per gallon would make a vast improvement to the flavour

and quality of the wine.

Similarly, when making wines from fresh fruits that give a red wine, one

or two bottles or Ribena could well be added to make up for other fruits

in this way, you mar disregard the SO2 preservative (more about this

later) because the amount in the Ribena will not be enough to stop

fermentation, but it would be best to add it at the vigorous fermentation

stage-during the first ten days.

If you propose to use Ribena in this way, bear in mid that each bottle

contains approximately eight ounces of sugar, so you should reduce

accordingly the amount of sugar in whichever recipes you are using.

Undiluted Ribena is not readily fermentable, because it contains just over

seven pounds of sugar per gallon and is preserved with 350 parts per

million SO2-either of which is capable of preventing fermentation.

Obviously, our aim when making wine with Ribena will be to reduce the

amount of sugar to about three and a half pounds per gallon, by using half

Ribena and half water. In doing this, we shall reduce the SO2

preservative to around 175 parts per million. This amount is unlikely to

prevent fermentation, though it could do so.

My trials with ribena were carried out with the above point borne in

mind and it will be seen that I began with a good deal less than equal

parts or Ribena and water, gradually bringing them up to equal parts.

Because I did not want to overwork the yeast by giving it too much sugar

to work on at the start, and because I wanted to reduce the SO2 content to below 175 parts per million.  (Without heating with the risk of spoiling (read more here))