What to add!!!!

[MGood65]

I've made several 6 gallon batches with left over pineapple, strawberry, blueberries from the high school where i teach. For the most part they have turned out pretty well considering I don't know what I'm doing. Big thanks to this forum and many late nights of lost sleep..

My last two 5 gallon batches I use pineapple, blueberry and watermelon and followed Danger Dave's recipe for DRAGON BLOOD and they were amazing.

My next 1 or 2 batch needs to come from 6 lb pineapple, 6 lb strawberrys, 5 12oz cans frozen concentrate Orange, 5 oz cans frozen apple concentrate, 5 12oz cans pineapple frozen concentrate, and 64 oz of tart cherry 100% juice not from concentrate.

Do I use all in one batch?
Do I make 2 separate batches with mentioned items?

 

[Raptor99]

I've made several 6 gallon batches with left over pineapple, strawberry, blueberries from the high school where i teach. For the most part they have turned out pretty well considering I don't know what I'm doing. Big thanks to this forum and many late nights of lost sleep..

My last two 5 gallon batches I use pineapple, blueberry and watermelon and followed Danger Dave's recipe for DRAGON BLOOD and they were amazing.

My next 1 or 2 batch needs to come from 6 lb pineapple, 6 lb strawberrys, 5 12oz cans frozen concentrate Orange, 5 oz cans frozen apple concentrate, 5 12oz cans pineapple frozen concentrate, and 64 oz of tart cherry 100% juice not from concentrate.

Do I use all in one batch?
Do I make 2 separate batches with mentioned items?

Welcome to WMT!

The types of fruits/juices you use depends on what sort of flavor profile you want to attain. It is good to have a goal in mind. You could experiment with different blends of juices, and see how you like the combinations. Personally, I would make several different wines with fewer different fruits in each, then taste each and decide what to try next. Sometimes a single fruit wine can be very good.

I like to ask myself, "What flavors naturally go well together?" Which would you combine in a dessert. Sometimes fruit dessert recipes give me some good ideas about which fruits to combine and what spices I might consider adding. I found that strawberries and bananas come up frequently in recipes for pineapple desserts, so that would be a combo worth trying.

I add a vanilla bean to secondary in my peach wine because vanilla and peach go together so well. I add the zest and juice of a few oranges to my cranberry wine, because orange and cranberry go together so well.

 

[Rice_Guy]

welcome to WMT

All wine is pH driven. By this I mean that it is a preservative that kills off most bacteria under pH 3.5 and even kills off yeast below pH 2.8.
If everything is together it will make a fruit punch, ,, which is pleasing. I would pull out my favorite fruits and run separate. The rest I would blend ,, then check pH to see if it is in a good range ,, do pH correction to get between 3.2 and 3.5 ,, then add yeast

 

[David Violante]

Welcome to WMT!

At the end of the day, put together what YOU like to drink~ you’re the one who will enjoy your creation. Start with the end in mind, and do some bench trials of juice before you ferment them. See what works for you and what doesn’t. Great advice above~

 

[BigDaveK]

Welcome to WMT!

A fruit punch is certainly an option though I wonder if the orange and tart cherry would complement each other.

For my part I like to explore different flavors and experiment, mostly with 1 gallon batches. I haven't done orange or tart cherry yet so I would do two separate wines.

Pineapple and strawberries don't have strong flavors and I find pineapple to be a very interesting ingredient. I did a pineapple-strawberry and the pineapple seemed to boost the strawberry flavor. That wine had more strawberry flavor than my previous pure strawberry wine.

 

[MGood65]

I want to thank you for taking the time to advise me with my dilemma. Believe me, I have thought long and hard how to split up the different flavors of fruit, concentrate, and juice. I just couldnt figure out how to make combinations of what i have. I kept coming back to what if all the flavors together turn out amazing. So with that I decided to throw everything together. In went the pineapples and strawberrys, along with all of the fruit concentrate and tart cherry juice. Let the fermentation begin.

With no sugar added I got a not so sweet fruit punch Taste. I had to add 2.5 gallons of water and 12 cups of sugar to get my S.G. to a 1.98. I was afraid to go any higher with S.G. and the level in the bucket is a little close for my liking.

I'm using EC-1118 yeast so let's see what happens. I will keep you posted.

Thanks again.

 

[BigDaveK]

Did you mean 1.098?

I wouldn't worry about too much alcohol. 12 cups of sugar works out to 1.080ish for 3 gallons. Yes, there's sugar in the fruit but also other things to affect density and the SG reading. Sometimes we just have to use our best guesstimate.

Good luck!

 

[MGood65]

TYPO! THANK YOU

 

[CaptainPolish]

I've made several 6 gallon batches with left over pineapple, strawberry, blueberries from the high school where i teach. For the most part they have turned out pretty well considering I don't know what I'm doing. Big thanks to this forum and many late nights of lost sleep..

My last two 5 gallon batches I use pineapple, blueberry and watermelon and followed Danger Dave's recipe for DRAGON BLOOD and they were amazing.

My next 1 or 2 batch needs to come from 6 lb pineapple, 6 lb strawberrys, 5 12oz cans frozen concentrate Orange, 5 oz cans frozen apple concentrate, 5 12oz cans pineapple frozen concentrate, and 64 oz of tart cherry 100% juice not from concentrate.

Do I use all in one batch?
Do I make 2 separate batches with mentioned items?

So making kombucha flavorings, which are far smaller quantities, I have learned that certain fruits will over power others. I am usually using small amounts that I concentrate myself, and I do not know how a fermentation process would change those flavors. But basically what I do is come up with a concept like cranberry ginger, then add different amounts in different vessels until I find a good blend ratio, (to taste) ginger is far stronger btw. So not saying I am accurate, but strawberry is usually a thin flavor, orange heavier, apple about med. and tart cherry probably the strongest. It 'may' be worth making little tasting mixes to see how your pallet reacts to the combinations before moving forward. Then the fun part is naming the mix, Like strawberry, pineapple could be Hawaiian Luau