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I've got about 4 litres of "failed" grape jelly i.e. it didn't set. The following year we reboiled it with some leftover plums but still not much better.

So rather than chuck it we've decided to try and turn it into wine.

So I have 3 questions

1) What can I use to breakdown what little pectin there may be in it? We don't use any chemicals.

2) Do you think we actually need pectolase anyway, given that it's failed to set even with plums in.

3) How much wine do you think 4 litres would make and how much sugar, if any do you think we'd need to add.

I'm determined to do something with these grapes - they were our entire crop one year!

We need a little more information first.

In your 4 litres of failed jelly ...

How much sugar did you use in all?
How many grapes did you use and in what form?
Same with the plums?

As for the pectin, you can't break it down without the use of a pectic enzyme. However, boiling extracts as much pectin as possible - so if you boiled it more than once and you still didn't get a set, there's not a lot in there. Ignore it - the worst that can happen is a harmless haze and even that isn't a certainty.

Mike

Flippin' 'eck, Mike. It's 3 years old! But hermetically sealed in Kilner jars

It's a jelly so would be half sugar to strained fruit. And I think we added about a kilo of plums, it certainly wouldn't be any more.

So I'm guessing it would be roughly 3-4 pints of grape juice, 3-4lb sugar and a couple of pounds of plums, ish.....

Right. I see you treat recipes as I do

OK - here's the reasoning. Grape juice is fermented as is to make wine so, strictly speaking, 3-4 pints of grape juice wil make 3-4 pints of wine. However, as your grapes weren't grown in the Med, we can assume a fairly low sugar content. A decent plum wine needs around 4 lbs of fruit per gallon, so you have a half-gallon's worth in there. All in all, then, it looks like a gallon of wine. BUT, that sugar level might be a tad high. There was at least some sugar in the grape juice and a fair old bit in the plums, and then you've added another 3-4 lbs of the stuff. If it was 3 lbs, you'll end up with a pretty strong wine. If it was four pounds you'll end up with rocket fuel or a sweet wine.

OPTION 1 You could ferment it as is after adjusting to one gallon with water (although I'd add the juice of a quarter lemon if you didn't add any acid when you made the jelly - but how would you remember? ). You risk the production of an oversweet or overstrong wine.

OPTION 2 Take the whole thing up to two gallons, but you'd need to make some adjustments. At two gallons, the fruit content is too low, so I'd add a litre of supermarket juice (apple would be good, or orange) and another pound or pound and a half of sugar. If you didn't add acid in the original recipe or if you use apple juice, stick in the juice of half a lemon. If you use orange juice, don't bother. Top up to two gallons and ferment as normal. You risk the production of a very light-bodied low-flavour wine.

So, there's a slight risk both ways. On the other hand, if it turns out oversweet and overstrong, simply water it down a little. If it's too light, you can con the mouth by adding a teaspoon of glycerine per gallon. If it's low in flavour, you can add a little cordial to perk it up.

Get brewing, girl, before you forget all about it

Mike

It's going in the demijohn as we speak, Mike.

I think I may have a slight translation problem though - what is this "overstrong" - que? I think I'll risk it

We usually just leave them in the jar until they stop fermenting so I presume that's when it's used all the available sugar? So hopefully it won't be to sweet by then. If it turns into rocket fuel, as long as it's not poisonous, we can dilute it somehow I'm sure.

Thanks, honey. Your wine making advice is stuff of legend.

Aw, Shucks.

You're nearly right. It'll stop fermenting when the yeast has used all the sugar it possibly can. Funnily enough, yeast doesn't like too much alcohol or too much sugar. If you tried making wine with, say, six pounds of sugar in a gallon, it probably would never start fermenting. If you try to make wine at 20% ABV, you're probably never going to get there. The yeast just gives up the ghost and goes on strike. Wine yeast is bred for it's job - you can, if you make the perfect must and nurse it along, feeding it little lots of sugar at intervals and keeping it at JUST the right temperature, achieve 22% ABV. That, however, is as rare as rocking horse manure. Three pounds of sugar in a gallon will give you a 15% wine - strong. Four pounds would appear to give you 20% - super-strong but not achievable for most mortals. In reasonably good conditions, the yeast might get rid of 3.5 pounds of sugar and give you 17.5% alcohol - that's rocket fuel. But you'll still be left with a half-pound of sugar in solution. That's not as bad as it sounds - a wine that hefty in alcohol terms needs some residual sugar to stop it tasting like the fuel that it is.

Let us know how yours turns out - you never know, it may become the model recipe for all alcohol addicts (sorry, I meant Ishers)

Mike

alcohol addicts (sorry, I meant Ishers)

Is there a difference

I'm only joking!