Why grape?

[P_H_I_L_L]

I was in a bit of a hurry to get some wines on the go a couple of weeks ago and I didn't have any cartons of either white or red grape juice. I know you're supposed to get 'vinosity' only from using grape but I didn't have any, so made a 5ltr batch with just 1ltr of cherry and 1ltr of cranberry. I added the zest of a lime,and the juice of half, a full bag of sugar, a mug of tea and a centimetre of vanilla pod. Two weeks later it's fully stopped fermenting and is .990.

It tastes great, it doesn't seem to be lacking in flavour, I just wondered if we obsess over the grape a little too much. I've got some others that I did that I haven't sampled yet; Cherry and Pomegranate and Strawberry and Peach (used tinned fruit) both of those don't contain any grape. If they taste great, I might not bother with grape.

 

[iceo]

dont some tinned fruits come in grape juice


i like the sound of cherry and cranberry

 

[ScottM]

Grapes = Wine.

A-n-other != Wine.

 

[RobWalker]

eh, they're classics for a reason! we add what's missing from grape skins back in (tannin, acid) and you basically have "proper" wine. it gives you plenty of room to play without venturing too much on an awful wine, I guess!

 

[LeithR]

As an alternative to GJ you can also use raisins or sultana's. Both are dried grapes.

They are best used after being soaked in boiled water for a while and then both the raisins/sultana's and the liquid should be used, removing the wine off the pulp after 3/4 days.

There is a famous CJJB recipe called rice and raisin containing just those ingredients.

 

[P_H_I_L_L]

Do you know which is more cost effective? Using raisins or juice?

 

[Brewtrog]

Grape juice adds a wine like flavour that people expect from using wines. Personally not many of my brews have them in and I get two problems from it, 1) - people seem surprised that it doesn't taste like shop wine (sod them, I'm happy with how it tastes), and 2) It lacks a bit of body (this can be compensated for by using things other than grapes, bananas and apples being two I've heard of)

 

[weepete]

I've done a few with apple as a base, or a mix of white grape apple and pear (my local shops don't stock wgj for some reason so it's out of my way to get it!!) I don't think there was a major difference between them and the wgj ones, but none quite taste like shop bought stuff, definatley drinkable though!

 

[Gayle]

I happily use apple juice as a wine base instead of grape juice. I don't like "proper" wine so I don't miss anything by not adding the grape! If I can get grape juice and it suits the recipe then I use it, but it's not necessary. Other ingredients can be added for body and mouthfeel of the wine, such as raisins, tannin, oak chips, banana, glycerin etc.

Strawberry and peach sounds awesome :thumb:

 

[RobWalker]

hahah, I suppose in reality most wow types are plonk anyway! like the idea of apple base wine though, will definitely make one soon!

 

[tonyhibbett]

Recent experience suggests that sultanas can be far more cost effective than grape juice concentrate, if you buy them from Aldi.
Mead, sake and barley wine are good examples of grape free alternatives, and I must admit that after years of trying, making wine from purely English grown grapes has proved rather less than great. Best results come from good quality red wine grape based kits.