Pomegranate Black Currant (from bottled Juice)

[pelican]

After the Pomegranate Blueberry from frozen grocery store concentrate, I turned to a new approach -- using the bottled juice from the grocery store. Found they had the Old Orchard "Premium" Pomegranate Black Currant juice on sale, 2 64oz bottles for $7 instead of nearly $5 or $6 each - so I grabbed two, and ran home to whip this one up:



Pomegranate/Black Currant

MUST
2 - 64 oz Old Orchard Premium Pomegranate Black Currant juice blend

No additional water added - the juice was already 1 gallon

added 3 c. sugar syrup to raise SG. (syrup was made from 5 ½ c. sugar to 1 pint water, yielded 1 ¼ quarts, which I then didn't need so I 'canned' that up and had it on hand - used 3 cups worth of it here)


SG: 1.085

This gave 1 gallon + a bit of must

USUAL SUSPECTS
No campden as juice is pasteurized to start with
1/8 tsp Tannin
½ tsp Pectin
A touch (pinch) - Acid Blend
-- (my supply had run out, got only the bit left in the bottle of acid blend for this one -- the juice was 'tart' so I didn't think it needed much)

½ tsp yeast nutrient
¼ tsp yeast energizer

-- (these two, nutrient and energizer, were ½ their usual doses since the yeast lees - see below - would have “some” already -- making this with fresh dried yeast, use 2x as much of the nutrient and energizer)

ADDITIONS
none

See below about the yeast

YEAST
Started the batch on the left over lees from another batch that I had just racked off into the secondary - There were oak chips, peppercorns, and coffee beans still in the 'sludge'.

If I were to make this again, I would use whatever yeast grabbed my fancy and happened to be on hand, plus some oak chips and either or not add the toasted peppercorns and coffee beans.



This one is presently still going along - but taste tests indicate it is not suffering any lack of acid for my having had so little to add. Acid testing of the juice would be worthwhile at the start, and any adjustments then as indicated. (I was out of that stuff too when I put this one together). But, as I said, so far so good - taste is very very promising.





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[NorthernWinos]

Sounds good to me.....

I have been looking at juices when we go to cities.....I did find Pom/Blueberry, but not Pom/Blk Currant...Need better/bigger stores.

 

[pelican]

I got it at Cub Foods in the juice aisle.

The "Premium" Pomegranate Black Currant labels lists the following ingredients - you see it is a blend of other juices as well, but still has the pomegranate first. The not so premium version has the good flavor stuff further down the list.

Pomegranate Juice, Grape Juice, Pear Juice, Black Currant Juice, Apple Juice from concentrate (filtered water, juice conc.), Natural Flavors, Ascorbic Acid (Vit.C)

It pays to read the ingredient labels and not just rely on the name. Black currant goes a long way, and the grape juice contributes to the vinous character, a bit of pear and apple I could live with - I liked seeing the Pomegranate get top billing not only in the name but the ingredients list.

 

[pelican]

Update on this particular recipe --

I bottled that wine just after Christmas, and opened a bottle last night to try it out. I must say it was somewhat disappointing - very thin, not a lot of flavor ~ the flavor might improve with time I imagine though... or not.

Adding some Red Grape Concentrate in lieu of some of the sugar would probably help, and some oaking could improve this one as well.

As it is, a simple "summer wine" - there wasn't anything bad about what it did taste like, it just doesn't hold up as anything special about it.

Quite in contrast to the Blueberry Pomegranate using the frozen concentrate. Live and Learn! It's still fun to try things out and see what one gets!

 

[PolishWineP]

Get out the white lab coat and start your next experiment. Maybe save it for topping up...

 

[NorthernWinos]

You could always blend it with that ChokeCherry wine that was too flavorful if you have any left...

Or do as PWP says...top up with it.

Waste not...Want not!!!!

 

[pelican]

Hm, maybe I could blend it with .... ??

Actually, the next day I asked Mr. Pelican his opinion and he had nice things to say about the wine (and he's not predisposed to saying nice things just to protecting my winemaker's ego ...)

Letting it 'breathe' a bit seems to have helped and my own opinion towards this batch is softening a bit.

Although the blending with harsh chokecherry has some appeal [that one
is improving s-l-o-w-ly while it sits in the jug in the dark behind the
file boxes under the drafting table in the office]. Though I don't know if I would have room on the label for "Chokecherry-Banana-Grape-Pomegranate-Black Currant" That batch is going to stay stuck with "chokecherry mash" for it's name no matter what else goes into it!

 

[vcasey]

Though I don't know if I would have room on the label for "Chokecherry-Banana-Grape-Pomegranate-Black Currant"

You could just call it "Pelican's Beak".
VPC