How should a must taste before fermentation?

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crabjoe

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I'm trying my hands at a fruit punch wine but haven't pitched the yeast yet.

I tasted the must and it's really good.. kind of like koolaid, and when I stir it, I can smell all the fruit.

Based on my description, do you feel I have enough fruit/juice or will I need more?

Right now, I want to chill it and just drink.it as juice, but it's got way too much sugar.. sg 1.090.
 
I can smell all the fruit. Based on my description, do you feel I have enough fruit/juice or will I need more?
My general rule of thumb when making fruit wine is 1 lb (sometimes up to 2 lbs) of fruit per gallon of must. How many gallons in your batch? How much fruit have you added? And juice?
BTW, your initial SG seems good ... should yield you a wine of ~13% ABV.
 
Who is your market? If entering a bottle in state fair I do 100% juice. If I was still working and marketing wanted a repeat sale 5 lb per gallon was a winner but accounting liked the cost of goods of 3 lb per gallon and sometimes 1 lb with a $3.00 per bottle price point was the decision.

More is always better, now you can also cheat by making $3.00/ bottle wine and adding a F pac or back sweetening with juice concentrate at bottling.
 
My general rule of thumb when making fruit wine is 1 lb (sometimes up to 2 lbs) of fruit per gallon of must. How many gallons in your batch? How much fruit have you added? And juice?
BTW, your initial SG seems good ... should yield you a wine of ~13% ABV.

I've got 5 lbs of fruit, two 12 oz can's of grape concentrate and 5 lemons and 5 limes.. 6 gallons of must..

I think I'm good.

Thank you
 
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1 lb per gallon = Flavored water ("Wine Cooler") in comparison to an adequate amount. Yeah, that's sarcastic but - But if that's what you like. I prefer to stay much closer to Rice Guys State Fair standards. Also prefer to have no more than two fruit flavors in a wine - other wise the description of 'Hawaiian Punch' is more fitting.
 
1 lb per gallon = Flavored water ("Wine Cooler") in comparison to an adequate amount. Yeah, that's sarcastic but - But if that's what you like. I prefer to stay much closer to Rice Guys State Fair standards. Also prefer to have no more than two fruit flavors in a wine - other wise the description of 'Hawaiian Punch' is more fitting.

Right now, that's what it tastes like, really fruity hawaiian punch.

So how much fruit per gallon do you feel will get it away from being like a strong wine cooler?

I was going to add a couple of bananas for body, but now I'm not so sure...
 
1 lb per gallon = Flavored water ("Wine Cooler") Also prefer to have no more than two fruit flavors in a wine - other wise the description of 'Hawaiian Punch' is more fitting.
Yup, , sugar is 18 cents per pound in quantity, water was costed out as a free ingredient
crabjoe;
In putting a blend together I like to ask what is the purpose of adding X? In rhurbarb blush 95% rhurbarb contributes aroma, acid and dominant mouth feel adding 5% raspberry contributes an interesting color. In peach/rhurbarb 60% peach gave aroma and dominant flavor, the rhurbarb contributed acid level and mostly hid in the background. In putting together concord elderberry the grape was put in for foxy aroma and fruity flavor, the elderberry was to provide long tannic notes. When looking at a blend I try a few pies with different ratios to see how things balance.
How much? In the Vinters club most folks do 4 to 5 pounds per gallon. I garden and sometimes clean the freezer so to put 52 pounds of rhurbarb in a 6.5 gallon of blush was only making space for the next picking. ie what ie practical for you?
Wine cooler which is pleasing works, foods have to be hedonic and Hawaiian Punch has had a lot of taste panels tweaking the ingredients. This Year state fair gave my cherry/June berry/ raspberry a blue ribbon, , , and overall I would call it a punch. Oh, , flavors are hedonic, , it is easier to be pleasing by throwing unknowns as june berry into the mix, , , no one knows what good june berry should taste like.
A rigid flavor guideline: aim for a titratable acidity between 0.5 and 1.0, with the higher acid back sweetening will balance at a higher sugar and give you higher fruity flavor. ex my rhurbarb blush should be about 1.1 TA which gets back sweetened to 1.015 or higher. Low fruit in the club comes in at 0.6 TA which is sweetened to 1.000 or less and sometimes feels weak.
If you like the flavor now you will probably like the finished wine. At racking when it has CO2 you will probably say yuck (blue ribbon above tasted like cough syrup coming out of primary). And! back sweetening is the frosting on the cake that ties everything together.

Do you have TA, pH and gravity numbers on your current blend?
 
Yup, , sugar is 18 cents per pound in quantity, water was costed out as a free ingredient
crabjoe;
In putting a blend together I like to ask what is the purpose of adding X? In rhurbarb blush 95% rhurbarb contributes aroma, acid and dominant mouth feel adding 5% raspberry contributes an interesting color. In peach/rhurbarb 60% peach gave aroma and dominant flavor, the rhurbarb contributed acid level and mostly hid in the background. In putting together concord elderberry the grape was put in for foxy aroma and fruity flavor, the elderberry was to provide long tannic notes. When looking at a blend I try a few pies with different ratios to see how things balance.
How much? In the Vinters club most folks do 4 to 5 pounds per gallon. I garden and sometimes clean the freezer so to put 52 pounds of rhurbarb in a 6.5 gallon of blush was only making space for the next picking. ie what ie practical for you?
Wine cooler which is pleasing works, foods have to be hedonic and Hawaiian Punch has had a lot of taste panels tweaking the ingredients. This Year state fair gave my cherry/June berry/ raspberry a blue ribbon, , , and overall I would call it a punch. Oh, , flavors are hedonic, , it is easier to be pleasing by throwing unknowns as june berry into the mix, , , no one knows what good june berry should taste like.
A rigid flavor guideline: aim for a titratable acidity between 0.5 and 1.0, with the higher acid back sweetening will balance at a higher sugar and give you higher fruity flavor. ex my rhurbarb blush should be about 1.1 TA which gets back sweetened to 1.015 or higher. Low fruit in the club comes in at 0.6 TA which is sweetened to 1.000 or less and sometimes feels weak.
If you like the flavor now you will probably like the finished wine. At racking when it has CO2 you will probably say yuck (blue ribbon above tasted like cough syrup coming out of primary). And! back sweetening is the frosting on the cake that ties everything together.

Do you have TA, pH and gravity numbers on your current blend?

Thanks for the wealth of info!!

As for TA, pH and Gravity.. All I have is Gravity.. What was odd to me is that when I 1st made the must, I measured 1.090. When I checked it 24hrs later, just before pitching the yeast, it was 1.085. I have a feeling that 1.085 was the wrong number.. because 24hrs after pitching the yeast, fermentation was going very well, but it gravity only measured 1.084. Actual fermentation had started way earlier.. like within 6 hrs of pitching the yeast, I was seeing CO2 bubbles.

As for the taste of the must... I'll tell you this, my son and I thought it was fantastic, just a bit too sweet to drink as a punch. And when I was stirring it, man did it smell good.
 

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