These are the two things I'm having trouble getting hold of (living in the west of Ireland). The recipe I'm using specifies 3 pints of grape juice concentrate - how concentrated is your average concentrate? I can buy grape juice, and was wondering whether an increased volume of this would do as a substitute? Also - any ideas where I could get hold of some ammonium phosphate, or failing that, what I could use as a substitute? I have a drum of plain 'yeast nutient' but don't know if that would do the job.
The recipe is C.J.J.Berry's (First Steps in Winemaking) one for 'Golden Dynamite' if you're interested!
Standard fruit juice "concentrates" in the UK and US are reconstituted with
3 parts water to 1 part concentrate. Thus, you can use 4 pints of juice in place of 1 pint of concentrate (in your recipe you would use 12 pints of juice), and reduce the water accordingly (in your recipe, you would use 1/2 gallon water, rather than 2 gallons).
However, you should be able to find frozen grape juice concentrate in the local supermarket, and it will probably be cheaper than fresh juice. In either case, ensure that no preservatives other than metabisulphite have been added (especially sorbate).
Additionally, your local homebrew shop should have grape concentrates made specifically for winemaking, and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP). Depending on the brand, "yeast nutrient" may be DAP, or it may be DAP and additional vitamins and minerals. Either way, it should work fine in the recipe.
Many thanks to you and others who replied - my problem is that I don't have a local homebrew shop (unless you consider 150 miles away 'local'), and supermarkets here don't stock frozen grape juice concentrate. All my specialist ingredients have to be ordered online, from a limited range. If anyone knows of an online homebrew shop which delivers to the Republic of Ireland - please tell me about it!
Many thanks again - 'Golden Dynamite' will be started next weekend!
All of these shoppes have the diammonium phosphate you require --- or you can use the "yeast nutrient" that you already have. You may use fresh grape juice instead of concentrate, reducing the water in the recipe as indicated in my earlier post.
Winesmugglers is the place I order from at the moment - unlike the Limerick or Glengariff shops, they accept debit (rather than credit) cards, which makes me and my bank manager happy!
Thanks very much for all your effort (and funnily enough, that's the second worm farm I've heard about recently!)
Thanks again, especially for the UK links - we still have a UK bank account (that's where I'm originally from), which usually has some money in it, so they should come in useful - Winesmugglers has been a godsend, but I'm finding their stock a bit limited recently, since I've started getting more experimental!
Let me know if you're ever in Mayo, and you're welcome to taste the results!
Yes, Ireland doesn't have too many homebrew/winemaking shops since Easons stopped doing it in the 90s. Outside of a few shops scattered around, there's not much to find. The online shops are good, but for novices like me it's nice to be able to browse, see and pick up the stuff before buying,
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