Comments on: The Cheekiest of Cheeky Vimtos

By: Bobby

Bobby — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:45:33 +0000

I am a Yank in the Middle East where I have been making wine for over 10 years. Once I too thought that Ribena blackcurrant would make an interesting wine and set about making it in a 7 litre jar. Sorbate is the main obstacle but I left the must alone and after about 3 weeks it began to bubble in spite of the sorbate – 3 weeks is a very long time for something to start that normally is in full fermentation after 4 or 5 days. In the end I had a blackcurrant wine which was already very acidic without adding acid. I did not try to distill but I think it might turn out ok. As a wine it is too acidic for my taste. Over the years though I have found Ribena to be a good but powerful flavouring agent for my red grape wine but in very small amounts. I make 50 litres of red wine at a time and to that I add only about 1/4 cup of Ribena at the very beginning so it all ferments together. I use red grape juice as a base and it too has sorbate but I believe Ribena has more than that found in regular juice. The grape juice always ferments just fine.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:08:42 +0000

Thanks Chris, great links! As for my experiments, they didn’t work – the fermentation got stuck so that it made a little alcohol but not nearly enough to make it worthwhile. I ended up throwing it through the still along with some other odds and sods and then carbon filtering it all to make a neutral spirit. I don’t know if Ribena is different to Vimto, I will check the ingredients next time I am at the supermarket. I do intend to revisit this subject at some point.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:21:44 +0000

One final post – Another Ribena thead – looks like the same recipe as the book, 3 table spoons of lemon juice, no boiling.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:15:25 +0000

Although these guys claim that you need to boil the Ribena for 10 minutes to drive off the preservatives. I don't actually see these instructions in the above e-book!

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:48:34 +0000

I'm just trying to ferment some of Lidl's blackcurrant concentrate at the moment... I found a recipe for Ribena wine in the book First Steps in Wine Making. The key appears to be one-third of a teaspoon of citric acid to balance the pH level. Good luck.

By: umpa

umpa — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:49:41 +0000

Its been two months…… is there an update ?

By: pi55ed

pi55ed — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:26:51 +0000

Would lightly boiling, or possibly freezing the cordial get rid of some of the chemicals out??

By: guerrila distilla

guerrila distilla — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:47:20 +0000

have you tried fermenting a normal sugar mash and adding the vimto after fermentation. that way you get all the flavours without the hassle of ph balancing/yeast killing additives. i have tried making a cherry flavoured spirit using cherry concentrate the same way and the results were pretty impressive. use a good turbo yeast (i use alcotec triple distilled), clear it with finings, draw off the liquid and add the cordial straight to the still and away you go. you don’t have to worry about off tastes produced by any addatives or chemicals that may react badly to fermentation using this method. there are too many problems fermenting a cordial to be worth the hassle. if you do succeed let me into the secret though

By: Fatbloke

Fatbloke — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:17:35 +0000

Apparently, some of the preservatives can be “driven off” by boiling the mix for a while – not hard boiling but a gentle simmer for 15 minutes or so. Even then I understand that you’d have to leave it for a day or so after to cool etc.

Ah, yes, and because of the presence of sorbate in the Vimto syrup, you might have to be more creative about the yeasts etc i.e. read up about making a “starter culture” because the sorbate would stop it multiplying in the normal way, so making a healthy starter will give it enough yeast cells to ferment, rather than having to wait for the yeast to multiply and then move into the fermentation phase.

How much of the flavour that would pass out of the wash/still I couldn’t say. Calvados and Armagnac for example, it seems are initially made quite weak in alcohol (between 6 and 10%), but very dry. Hence the transfer of the flavour in the rather inefficient alembics that are used for distillation. More often than not, lots of the actual taste seems to come via the wood that the barrels are made of, but it’s the aroma/smell of the apples/pears that comes across in the aromatic esters, and less of the taste.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:42:46 +0000

I shall bear that in mind, it sounds like it might be an interesting experiment!