RJ Spagnols General question about kits

[dcf1999]

So my wife’s favorite wine that i make is Orchard Breezn Pomegranate wild berry. Apparently it’s not being produced anymore. I’m looking at the island mist kit as an alternate.

When I made the OB kit, I added 1/2 F-pack at fermentation and 1/2 at clearing stage.

When reading description of island mist, seller said you can add 1lb of sugar and 1L of concentrated grape juice to bump alcohol and body. Never added grape juice before to any kit (never thought of it).

Is doing 1/2 f-pack at fermentation basically the same as using the concentrated grape juice?

With the OB kit, using full F-pack at clearing (per instruction) made it too sweet. Doing 1/2 and 1/2 made it perfect.

Also, I always add 2 lbs of suger to all my OB kits. Should I be adding grape juice or part of F-pack during fermentation to increase body? I’ve only done the 1/2 F-pack at fermentation to the pomegranate. All the other OB kits i do I only add 1/2 the F-pack at clearing and save the other 1/2 to add for taste at bottling.


Thanks

 

[winemaker81]

Grape concentrate will give you more body than the f-pack, which is typically flavoring and sugar.

If you are satisfied with your process, there's no need to change it.

 

[Shurt1073]

I've made 15+ of the Island Mist kits, in fact, I have one going right now. (Strawberry) I've been buying the Global red grape concentrate and only adding half of the concentrate to each kit for extra body. A few times I've added the whole Global concentrate. I add about 5-6 cups of sugar and let my hydrometer guide me to 1.082 - 1.084sg in hopes of about 11%abv. Again, the sugar varies a little from kit to kit and how much concentrate I use, but I let my hydrometer tell me how much sugar to add for bumping it up. Don't want 14% but also don't want 9% abv.

I found adding half of the red grape concentrate to each kit was about right for me. I add the whole F-Pack because I like the flavor and sweetness. The Island Mist kits are only fruit flavored wine not made from real raspberry, black berry, strawberry, or black cherry .... you get the picture, so I add all of the F-Pack for the fruit flavor and sweetness.

The F-pack and Global concentrate are really different in my opinion.

Cool thing about the kits are you can experiment and tweak however you want. Bryan is right, if you are satisfied with your process keep doing it.

 

[dcf1999]

Sounds good! Thanks.

Yea I’m satisfied with the process on the OB kit, just didn’t know how OB and island mist varried in terms of flavor and such. I guess I’ll have to try it.