Starting Passion Fruit Vintners Best Coloma Frozen Mix wine

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Ericphotoart

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I will be starting a next wine today. This time Passion Fruit. It's going to be a combination of Vintners Best Passion Fruit base concentrate and 2 quarts of Coloma Frozen passion fruit concentrate (Brix 50). Vintners Best is for 5 gallons and gives 10%ABV so I decided to fortify the recipe with additional concentrate from Coloma Frozen. I want to start with about 5, 1/2 - 5,3/4 gallon of must. Vintners Best has mixed reviews so I hope adding 2 quarts of 50 Brix concentrate will make a difference.
 
I've made good Elderberry with Vintners Best. It's not as robust as fresh Elderberries, but it was drinkable in a year and the target audience loves it.

Your idea sounds like a good one.
 
This morning I mixed 2 qts of Coloma concentrate and Vintners Best. I added water to almost 6 gallon mark. I added some sugar to boost gravity to 1.102. Checked pH and damn it's 2.9. I don't have sodium bicarbonate on hand and I'm thinking about small amount of baking soda which is technically sodium bicarbonate with pH 8.0. What do you think? I didn't add yeast yet.
 
I’ve purchased bicarbonate on Amazon but I will get it tomorrow evening. Can the must stay without yeasts for 2 days? I’ve never done this before
 
I’ve purchased bicarbonate on Amazon but I will get it tomorrow evening. Can the must stay without yeasts for 2 days? I’ve never done this before
Yes. Folks cold-soak grapes for days or weeks. If you can chill the must, that will help. A local store may sell dry ice, or you can freeze 16 oz water bottles, remove the label and sanitize the exterior, and drop them in the must.
 
Thanks. Yes I will do that. Also, maybe someone with Vintners Best experience is able to answer, the label says the juice is balanced and requires only water and yeasts but it doesn’t mention anything about tannin on nutrients. I was not able to find any reliable recipe except Jack Keller so I didn’t add anything else but I’m not sure if this is the way to go. By the way the Vintner juice which is based on grape and pear I think is much darker than Coloma concentrate so maybe tannin is already added?
 
You are in process so some of this isn’t useful.
* fruit solids give flavor, if my goal is to make knock your Sox off flavor I will add any available bland fruit concentrate, could be passion fruit, could be apple, could be white grape. Sugar with added nutrients doesn’t give much fruity impact, the up side on sugar water is that it lets you lower the total acidity and balance sweet flavors.
* the break point for yeast is around 2.8 pH, you could add yeast now with the risk that it gets stuck.
* I don’t look at getting stuck as bad, if you are fermented down to 1.005 it has residual sweetness which helps bring out fruity flavors. The key is to not deferment making a bottle bomb. Sitting with no change in gravity three months at 20C should be stable. ,,, and Oh yes pH 2.9 will be more stable than 3.5. and ten percent ABV is quite stable.
* always keep the head space low, oxygen is the enemy of ethyl alcohol making acetaldehyde, ,,, burn in the back of the throat swallowing.
* baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Technically you can push the pH up with it. The down side is that it is sodium which will give a salty taste. Most folks don’t like salt in their wine.
* calcium carbonate (basically ground up limestone) has a clean flavor. If you are really anxious this is limestone in a plastic bag. ,,,, ie the stuff used in making roads ,,, old technology with concrete tanks would be dissolving the concrete raising the pH.
* if tannin is in Vinters Best you will taste either bitter or more likely astringent flavors. As a manufacturer it is extremely unlikely that I would add tannin since you/ the buyer will taste it. Dark color can mean high temperature in the evaporator or it can mean sitting in a warehouse for two years.
* I really like polyphenols and add to many wines. ex this week I started a strawberry with 800 grams of crab apple juice in it. Tannins are the magic which allows red wine to survive oxygen/ sloppy air exposure. The crab I use gives astringent notes without bitter. There are a lot of tannins available that don’t give bitter. ,,, taste before you add ,,, low level you can add bitter if that is all you can find (ex 1/4 package direction) If ordering look at BlancSoft or read the Scott Handbook for flavor notes.
* two days? refrigerated no problem, yes folks do room temp but it has risk. When yeast is growing it needs to be above 10C.
* passion fruit is neat aromatics. That said bad yeast nutrition can push H2S and other reductive sulfur which are powerful (ppt levels) and will mask the wonderful aromatics. I am a fan of organic nitrogen (ex Fermaid) since it works better/ at lower measured YAN than DAP.
 
Thanks. Yes I will do that. Also, maybe someone with Vintners Best experience is able to answer, the label says the juice is balanced and requires only water and yeasts but it doesn’t mention anything about tannin on nutrients. I was not able to find any reliable recipe except Jack Keller so I didn’t add anything else but I’m not sure if this is the way to go. By the way the Vintner juice which is based on grape and pear I think is much darker than Coloma concentrate so maybe tannin is already added?
I'd add powdered tannin, which will increase body and structure without strongly affecting the taste. I'm doing this from memory, but I'd probably add 1 to 1-1/2 tsp for 6 gallons.

The color is probably an effect of the concentration process, and it may not last. The only Vintners Best I've made is Elderberry, so I have no direct experience. AFAIK, tannin wouldn't darken the must.
 
Thanks. Very useful. I will probably go ahead with the yeasts. I was planning to add a small amount of water so if this increase ph to 3.0 I should be safe. I will do it after work. I will keep you posted on my findings
 
Last night I added a small amount of water but it didn't increase pH, still 2.9. SG 1.109. I added rehydrated K1-V1116. After 8 hrs there is a visible fermentation so hopefully everything will be fine. The smell of the must is incredible! It is going to be one of more expensive wines I've made but very promising.
 
It is going to be one of more expensive wines I've made but very promising.
A lot of the wineries producing fruit wines are charging $15 to $30 USD per bottle. How does your wine compare to that?

My cost/bottle for my 2022's went up $1, mostly due to choosing more expensive grapes. My cost is still less than half of what I'd pay for a comparable bottle. Food for thought ...
 
Thanks. Yes I will do that. Also, maybe someone with Vintners Best experience is able to answer, the label says the juice is balanced and requires only water and yeasts but it doesn’t mention anything about tannin on nutrients. I was not able to find any reliable recipe except Jack Keller so I didn’t add anything else but I’m not sure if this is the way to go. By the way the Vintner juice which is based on grape and pear I think is much darker than Coloma concentrate so maybe tannin is already added?
We made VB concord and elderberry last year and we just bottled it. I used more concentrate than what they advised to use, thinking i’d rather have more flavor than not enough. Numbers checked out and all we did was pitch the yeast. No additional sugar added. It’s very drinkable but i dont think it tastes like pure concord or elderberry. We backsweetned the elderberry with sugar. We backsweetened the concord with Torani fresh made grape and we felt the concord flavor was a bit flat from just the VB concentrate.
 

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