looking 4 sangria base recipe

[aaron4osu]

I wanted to make an inexpensive Burgundy like wine to use only for making sangria. It's been a long tradition with my friends to spend those 90 plus degree sunny August Sundays by the pool drinking sangria. Nothing fancy at all. Basically what ever fresh fruit sounds good that day(usually pineapple, oranges, cherry's, limes... soaking in cooler with 2 of those inexpensive gallons of Burgundy from the grocery store for about an hour or 2. maybe a little triple sec and/or vodka depending on how long we think the day will go. top off with 5 lb bag of ice and 2L bottle of sprite( or mountain dew if people need the caffeine that day)

so my standards are not that high here. Basically for this project I want a high alcohol red table wine, that will be drinkable by late summer. This being a supermarket project I won't be using Pinot noir juice.

After reading this post, I'm leaning in this direction.
"Walmart has a "Sams 100% concord grape juice" in gallon containers. It only has absorbic acid for a preservative. Comes right out of the container at an SG of 1.045 (many manufacturers set their SG at that level for fruit juices) I started one of these in July of this year and I used 6 gallons of the grape juice, 1 pound of frozen blackberries, and 12 ounce package of frozen raspberries. Mine is still aging under a solid cork. I expect to bottle in Feb. The reason I start out with 6 gallons is to account for my gross lees. I end up with 5 gallons plus a little, which I bottle and cork and put in the fridge to top off later. I think the frozen fruit will really perk up this plain old shelf grape juice. If you don't have the aromas in off the shelf grape juice you can add them yourself. Next time I would back off on the raspberry a bit."

i checked out the book 'the home winemakers companion' from the library which has plenty of recipes, but not exactly what I want to make on this project. I'm thinking of using the above mentioned sams concord grape juice, but then follow a recipe for a drier burgundy. maybe substitute Gist-brocades-Fermiblanc ( from concord recipe) yeast with lallamand k1-v116 from the burgundy recipe.

Anyway i've rambled on enough here. In the next few days i plan on picking up an extra 5 gal glass carboy w/bung and airlock and 7.5 gal fermenter for $35 that i found on craig's list. sounded pretty cheap to me. then i planned beginning this project.

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Wade E]

The recipe sounds good but that fermenting bucket is expensine. You can get a brand new 7.9 gallon bucket with lid and fast flow spigot for $26.99 at finevinewines.com or a 10 gallon bucket for what you are about to pay for that Craiglist bucket.

 

[cpfan]

The recipe sounds good but that fermenting bucket is expensine. You can get a brand new 7.9 gallon bucket with lid and fast flow spigot for $26.99 at finevinewines.com or a 10 gallon bucket for what you are about to pay for that Craiglist bucket.

Wade I think he's getting a carboy and primary for that price.

Steve

 

[Wade E]

Oops, missed the part about the carboy, thats a good deal then!

 

[cpfan]

Aaron:

Why not try to get a 6 US gallon carboy, and make a 4-week wine kit. Kit companies call Burgundy "Bourgeron". A Grand Cru or Vino del Vida Bourgeron Rouge from Spagnols would probably work well. You will probably have difficulty getting it but I would make European Select Rioja Tinto from Vineco. But there's lots of other choices that would work well.

Steve

 

[jbullard1]

I'm a rooky at this but I made something I call "Jerry's Redneck Wine" using concentrated concord grape juice in 12 ounce aluminum cans.
2 cans of concentrate
1 1/2 pound +/- of white sugar
1 packet Flieshman's bread yeast
water to make about 1 gallon and 1 quart

Nothing was checked or measured very close
I made 2 separate batches
They both were racked into a secondary at about 18 days and airlocked
At the end of 5 weeks(total time) I racked again and added campden to one and tasted both. Very sweet but with a good alcohol content, I added a cup of sugar to one gallon and a big pinch of Cotes des Blanc and let the other one alone. Last week I bottled the first batch and during the past three days me and my sisters have consumed the "Redneck Wine". The batch with the Cotes des Blanc is still slowly fermenting and is not sweet at all now. Don't know how it is going to turn out.
I have also started 2 more batches following the directions from Jack Keller's site for juice concentrates

 

[aaron4osu]

i might get that 5 gal glass carboy just cause someone local had it on craig's list for about half price. $25 with the bung and airlock. then $10 for the 7.5 primary. I've got a Syrah kit that i'm going to make after i bottle the cabernet. This sangria project will be my first attempt without a kit. I really wanted to be frugal on this one. Especially since it's going to be my pool sangria wine, watered down, and served out of a cooler. lol The Bourgeron kit is about $60. I was hoping to sneak in under $30. what do guys think?

 

[Wade E]

I think you can do it with the store bought Concord juices or frozen concentrate using 3-3 1/2 cans per gallon. Maybe even check out BJ's or Costco to see if they have bigger versions of these 2 items at a better price.

 

[BettyJ]

? about the grape juice concentrate

Not sure where I got this recommendation off the internet, but I thought the board members would know....

"The frozen grape juice concentrate you buy at store has about twice the acid content that grapes from vineyards have.

If you make wine out of the juice, it will indeed be wine.
But it will taste just like grape juice - complete with pucker power. Yes, it will have alcohol in it, but again, it won't taste anything like wine you are used to drinking. As noted above - it will taste like grape juice with a little kick and that's about it.

So what to do about it? Simple: Neutralize the acid before you put the yeast in."

Note: I have a couple of frozen juice and no ability to test the PH / acid level. Should I go ahead and treat the juice? The author suggests using OTC antacids or even baking soda in a pinch...

 

[Wade E]

I dont recommend it, You will be watering these down unlike what you do when making wine from most grapes and that is what dilutes the acids back down.