I am a newbie too. My advice to you would be to get a (double or tripple callibrated) hydrometer. That way you can
judge how much sugar there is in your must and therefore how much alcohol it could potentially contain at the end of
fermentation.

I would throw a guess in that it is either sulfite or very high sugar levels which are stopping the wine from starting
properly. If you have a hydrometer reading, providing it to the group may also help them troubleshoot the wine.

Very best of luck, Jim


"Paul" > wrote in message ...
>I have just started out and on following the recipe below nothing is happenning, After adding the yeast the next day I
>added some yeast nutriant but still nothing, help. I am new so any advice welcome
>
> thanks
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
>
> RIBENA WINE
>
>
>
> 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 wy, 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 the flavor
> of the syrup), I decided to work to the following method. The method, incidentally, met with the approval of V. L. S.
> Charley, B.BC., PH.D., technical director of the Royal Foresty factory of the Beecham group and one-time director of
> the Long Ashton Research Station, Bristol.
>
> All water used in the process was first boiled and allowed tocool naturally.
>
> STAGE 1:
> Two bottles of Ribena were diluted with twice the amount of water (four Ribena bottles full). Yeast in the form of a
> nucleus was added and the mixture allowed to ferment for ten days.
>
> STAGE 2:
> After ten days' fermentation, two bottles of ribena and one Ribena bottle of water were added and the mixture allowed
> to ferment for a further ten days.
>
> STAGE 3:
> After a total of twenty days' fermentation, two bottles of Ribena and one more bottle of water were added.
> Fermentation was then allowed to carry on to completion, taking, in all, three months. The result was a good, round
> wine flavored delightfully but not too strongly of fresh blackcurrants.
>
> At stage 3 it was borne in mind that, while most of the SO2 would have been driven off during fermentation by adding
> those last two bottles, I was, in effect, bringing the total SO2 content up to 175 parts per million. fearing that the
> yeast might be just a little weakened at this stage I decided to drive off the SO2 in the last two bottles by raising
> the temperature of the to 70 deg. C. If you want to do this and have no suitable thermometer, stand the bottles in a
> saucepan of water and slowly raise the temperature until the Ribena in the bottles has increased in volume enough to
> reach the rims of the bottles. The temperature is high enough to drive off the SO2 and the heat should be cut off at
> once. The caps of the bottles must be removed before heating. The whole of fermentation was carried out in
> narrow-necked bottles plugged with cotton wool, fermentation locks being fitted after ten days. Racking was not
> carried out until one month after the last addition. Monthly racking followed until fermentation ceased. Even at this
> early stage the wine was nice to drink, but it had improved vastly at the age of six months.
>
> At first it might seem expensive to make wine with Ribena, but against the cost one should set the fact that no sugar
> need be added and that one has a top-quality product all ready for the job in hand. Apart from this, there is no
> expensive fruit to buy, no messy crushing-in fact nothing much to do at all. And, most important of all, Ribena has
> been treated with a pectin-destroying enzyme, which means that you could boil it if you wished without fear of pectin
> clouding the finished wines. Such boiling would, of course, drive off the SO2 and give you a wine flavored slightly to
> cooked blackcurrants.
>
> It will be seen that a sweeter wine may be made by using one bottle more of Ribena or one less of water, while a dry
> wine would result if less Ribena were used. A dry wine would lack the fuller flavour, but this would be offset to some
> extent by to dryness.
>
> If eight bottles of Ribena are made into one gallon by adding water, the gallon will contain roughly four pounds of
> sugar and the equivalent of four pounds of blackcurrants. This amount of fruit is ample for a gallon of wine and,
> provided one likes a fairly sweet wine, this proportion of sugar to fruit is not too much. On the whole, I feel that
> seven bottles of Ribena would be the limit you could use to make a gallon of wine without it being too sweet.
>
> It will be clear that my trials with Ribena, using six bottles to make just under a gallon of wine, have been most
> successful and I do urge readers to have a go.
>
> A point to bear in mind is that a good light wine is often made with as little as two pounds of blackcurrants to the
> gallon, therefore, if you made four bottles of Ribena into a gallon of 'must', you would have used the equivalent of
> two pounds of blackcurrants and two pounds of sugar. This would give you a wine of about twelve percent of alcohol by
> volume. Such a wine would be dry, but by adding half a pound of sugar during the process you would get a sweeter wine
> of one or two percent more alcohol.
>