Experiment with Juice Concentrate

While I wait for my ordered grape juice kits to arrive, I decided to experiment a bit with making some wine from frozen juice concnetrates.  I took my daughter with me to the grocery store to help me decide which juice to choose, and we settled on a “wild berry punch”.  It actually takes 16-18 cans of the frozen juice to make 6 gallons of must, so we had fun loading the frozen containers into our basket.  The juice is a combination of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, apple, and grape juices.

I let the frozen juice sit out for a few minutes while I prepared the containers and the equipment.  This will be the first batch of wine that I make that I do not have a recipe to follow.  So, I rely on what I know about making wine from juice to swing without a net.  I know that I will want my starting specific gravity between 1.090 and 1.095.  The acid level should be at around .60 tartaric, and the temperature should be around 70F.  I also know that I want to make sure the juice is sanitized and preserved right away, so that it resists spoiling.  So, here we go.

My first step was to dissolve 6 campden tablets (metabisulphite) to sanitize the juice and 3 teaspoons of pectic enzyme to help breakdown the cellular structure of the fruit juices and aid clearing later.  With the help of my daughter, we emptied 18 partially frozen juice concentrates into the primary bucket.  We added about 3 cans of hot water to the mixture as we emptied each frozen can while my daughter stirred for me.  We were close to 6 gallons of juice.

Once all the juice was in the bucket, I added 1 1/2 teaspoons of tannin powder and 6 teaspoons of yeast nutrient.  Using an acid titration test kit, I measured the acidity of the juice.  My initial reading was in the .40-.50 range, a bit low.  So, I added 6 teaspoons of acid blend (1 per gallon juice) to raise that level.  After doing so, the juice measured at .60 tartaric, perfect. 

Without adding any sugar, the specific gravity was 1.060 (note: the juice has some high-fructose corn sugar in the ingredient list), which is much higher than any of these fruits would have on their own.  Knowing I wanted to start at around 1.090 or higher, I added 6 1/2 pounds of sugar.  I’ve learned that  a pound of sugar in a 6 gallon bucket adds around .005 to the specific gravity, and in this case it raised the SG by .033 to 1.093.  The potential alcohol of this wine is 14%.

I covered the primary fermenter and will wait 24 hours for the juice to sanitize and prepare for the addition of the yeast.  The only question now is…what kind of yeast to use.  That is something to research tomorrow.