Lots of white grape juice available????

[rhythmsteve]

Hello all, my local supermarket got n extra shipment of 100% white grape juice and were selling them for buy 1 get 1 free, so i picked up 10 gallons for the whopping price of $5.00....any thoughts on what to do with this load of goodness I got? I was gonna do 5 gallon batches at a time and maybe add some dried, or fresh fruit......ideas is what I'm looking for. Thanks

 

[closetwine]

Wow! Sky's the limit... I really don't know what to throw out there... What have you done? What do you like?

 

[winemaker_3352]

Read the back - some of the juices come sulphited and/or sorbated.

 

[rhythmsteve]

Since I have so much of it ( and the good part is, its 100% grape juice from concentrate---no added anything...killer right) I want to get creative, I maybe wanna do a 1/2 sweet, 1/2 dry......I just don't know what other "bodying" ingredients I can use....maybe peaches, I just have so much I don't really know what would go good wit white grapes, any ideas at this point would be a jumping off point ( little of this, little of that ), like jazz only with wine

 

[rhythmsteve]

I'm new to this whole game so I figured I could experiment with all this juice I have and get a good understanding of some of my options for the future, and if there's a load of this juice I figure try some things out

 

[Deezil]

The white grape juice you have will give good body to whatever flavor of wine you wanna make. Your best bet is to go with concentrates of some sort, or fresh fruit if you can find a deal. If you're not too picky about what flavor you make first, go find a good deal at a store that you're comfortable with.

Most fruits, you need 8-10lbs a gallon for a nice wine. Blueberry, elderberry, one or two others i cant think of, you can use a little less (5-6lbs).

As for concentrates, make sure they arent 'cocktails' - like the white grape juice you have, you're looking for '100% juice'. And be careful with the ingredients list, keep your eye out for Benzoate or Sorbate - not good. Someone with more experience can probably guilde you better on how many concentrates/gal is good to start with.

 

[closetwine]

4-5 Concentrates per gallon is a good jump off point....

 

[Runningwolf]

My first thought was to add other flavors of frozen concentrate.

How about jalapeno wine? Add + or - 10 jalapenos per gallon.

Not to worry, Julie and Debbie will tell you what to do with it! Closet is right on, "the skies the limit".

 

[rhythmsteve]

thanks everyone this will definitely give me some ideas and i will start a primary tomorrow and i'll let you all see the ingredients list

 

[Julie]

Hi Steve,

First off no matter what you decided to do with the juice, do not add any water to it. Since this is not a concentrate adding water will weaken the taste. Peaches would probably not come thru very well, look for a strong flavor fruit. Raspberries would do real good. I make a wine using 3 raspberry concentrates to one while grape concentrate. Blueberry juice, cranberry or pomegrante would also be some good choices.

 

[rhythmsteve]

alright no water to juice, however if i buy say blueberry concentrate, should i dilute that or just mix it in with the juice? Also, are the chemicals that a lot of the recipes call for entirely necessary? I have kind of a no-chemicals policy around my house when it comes to food and beverages.

 

[Julie]

LOL, I hear you, I do the same thing, actually I haven't eaten american cheese in over 3 years cuz it is not a natural cheese.

Anyway most of the chemicals are chemicals that are derived from natural ingredients. The juice you have brought would have sulfites mentioned in the ingrediants. K-meta is a sulfite.

No do not add any water to the concentrates that you would blend with the grape juice.

 

[closetwine]

So blueberry, cranberry, pome, pepper, raspberry, blackberry those are dominant flavors. IF you wanted something more subtle: strawberry, peach, pineapple, ect.
OR be crazy and combine some.... blueberry/pom, raspberry/hotpepper, strawberry/pineapple....

Look around and see what's inspiring to you... And let us know!

 

[rhythmsteve]

here's the rundown for the first batch

4 gallon white grape juice
6 cans blueberry/pom concentrate
8 Lbs sugar

Sg= 1.125, Alc%= 16.3

should the sg level be that high, a lot of posts I've seen are a lot lower?
I was also thinking of cutting 2-3 ripe bananas up and disolving them with the sugar to add body and i hear it helps with clearing instead of using chemicals

 

[Julie]

here's the rundown for the first batch

4 gallon white grape juice
6 cans blueberry/pom concentrate
8 Lbs sugar

Sg= 1.125, Alc%= 16.3

should the sg level be that high, a lot of posts I've seen are a lot lower?
I was also thinking of cutting 2-3 ripe bananas up and disolving them with the sugar to add body and i hear it helps with clearing instead of using chemicals

sg should not be any higher than 1.090. 1.080 is more preferrable. Any higher and the alcohol cuts into the fruit flavor.

You can do the bananas, but the body would probably be ok. Never heard that it helps in clearing. Use peptic enzyme before fermentation is what you need to use. And peptic enzyme is a natural chemical.

 

[rhythmsteve]

ok i got it down to 1.090 just by diluting it slightly, so i guess the cause of that is a little too much sugar (not quite 2 lbs per gallon), either the pure white i put in or the natural sugars in the juice and/or banana?

 

[Julie]

ok i got it down to 1.090 just by diluting it slightly, so i guess the cause of that is a little too much sugar (not quite 2 lbs per gallon), either the pure white i put in or the natural sugars in the juice and/or banana?

LOL, all of that.

 

[rhythmsteve]

newbie for sure

 

[rhythmsteve]

degassed and stirred this batch this morning, already looking like it going great, any thoughts on what an appropriate sg level should be before racking it into my secondary

 

[ffemt128]

I generally ferment to 1.000 or lower prior to transferring to a carboy.