Observations

[P_H_I_L_L]

I've been doing carton juice and tinned fruit type wines and have noticed certain things and thought I'd share. Obviously these results won't be the same for everyone, but in my house, location of fermentation is consistent, not next to any heat sources etc. Still, I thought it might be interesting and perhaps others have noticed similar things.

Blackcurrant seems slower to start and takes at least a month to finish fermentation (Lidl 50% high juice, even after boiling)
Raspberry retains much of it's sharpness through fermentation and weeks after, mellows out after a month or so, but it is so sharp early on it's almost vinegary
Pineapple, Strawberry and Peach all clear quickly. Either from carton or tinned fruit.
Pineapple and Orange both create lots of soft lees
Cranberry takes along time to clear.
Pomegranate takes even longer to clear
Lychee just doesn't clear.
The nicest red combination so far has been RGJ and Blackcurrant (better with added raisins and banana pulp and vanilla pod)
The nicest white combination so far has been WGJ and Pineapple with added orange juice and banana pulp.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

The nicest red combination so far has been RGJ and Blackcurrant (better with added raisins and banana pulp and vanilla pod)
The nicest white combination so far has been WGJ and Pineapple with added orange juice and banana pulp.

Could you post recipes for those two? I'd like to try them, esp. the white. Pineapple, banana and orange sounds like a good flavour combination. Do you think it would be a good idea to include grated orange rind (as well as juice) in the must?

 

[tonyhibbett]

Azda extra special shiraz red grape & blackcurrant cordial is 20% grape juice, 7% blackcurrant plus concentrated elderberry juice and vanilla extract, sugar and water. No preservatives. Total sugar 67%, so similar to wine kit compound. Comes on 500 ml bottle. I bought some but never got around to trying it. 2 bottles should be enough for a gallon of wine, with some extra sugar, or 3 bottles without. Could also be used to improve Wilco 30 bottle red kit, using only 1 bottle and 3 kg of sugar, instead of 3.5.

 

[weepete]

Very interesting Phill. I've been toying with the idea of doing a lychee brew so good to know it won't clear.

How do the tinned fruit wines compare to the juice ones?

 

[P_H_I_L_L]

I've read other receipes where people have used tinned Lychee and they clear no problem, my experience has been using the carton juice which just didn't clear.

I've had very good results from using tinned fruit. It's undoubtedly a messier way than using cartons of juice but it's cheaper and I think you end up with a wine with more depth.

My method of using tinned fruit seems to differ from a lot of people. It's common to let everything ferment in a bucket for a week or so before straining into bottle type fermentation vessels. I don't do that, I'll put everything into my big stock pot, boil it all up on the stove and blend it to death with a hand blender, I let it all cool then pour the lot into a 5ltr PET bottle which I use to ferment in. After fermentation has slowed right down, I strain the lot back into my big cooking pot, squeezing the last of the juice from the very much broken down pulp and syphon into a clean 5ltr bottle and continue as normal. At this point I might add supplementary flavour with some banana pulp and continue as usual.

 

[screamlead]

natural pressed pomegranate juice is a bitch to clear and dont use campden tablets on it either as it bleaches all the colour out of it. I also read somewhere that it takes 12 months for a pommy to be any good and ready to bottle. I got mine to clear and bottled it only to find it had hazed up in the bottles - so its back in the fermenter and will hopefully drop clear - it tasted superb too. :