Bartle and Jayme's Wine Coolers

Has anyone here tried the B&J wine coolers I think they are pretty good if one is looking for something to drink besides beer.I would say my favorite is the apple version with fuzzy navel running in second.I 'm not really sure what a wine cooler is made out of exactly my guess is that it's just watered down wine .but anyway I was just curious if anyone has had experience with trying to make a clone out of this.

They have some wine kits called "Island Mist" that are what I would consider to be closest to something like a wine cooler. I think wine coolers are a little watered down wine with some "flavoring" added, so not really a cloneable (is that a word?) recipe. But many people like those Island Mist kits.

First Zima, now this? What's going on around here?

I have a friend that makes tons of wine. I would say he has 3-4 5 gallon fermenters going at any time. I tried some of the Island Mist. It was reminiscent of a wine cooler. I would just make a party punch with 151 or everclare. More potent and just as good.

HOOTER said:

First Zima, now this? What's going on around here?

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We obviously need more Hooters around here....I mean guys like Hooter( making a big assumption that you're a guy, sorry if I'm wrong).

We used to call the Bartle & Jaymes wine coolers BJ's for a reason... man that was a long time ago. Good luck with the clone!

landhoney said:

We obviously need more Hooters around here...

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LOL!! That's a hoot!

landhoney said:

We obviously need more Hooters around here....I mean guys like Hooter( making a big assumption that you're a guy, sorry if I'm wrong).

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What is it with guys and Hooters for crying out loud?

Did it never occur to you Neanderthals that Hooters is an ornithologist working on his dissertation, studying the habits of the sawet owl?
Nope, me neither.

Sorry for the threadjack- please go back to your regularly scheduled discussion.

accorn46 said:

Has anyone here tried the B&J wine coolers I think they are pretty good if one is looking for something to drink besides beer.I would say my favorite is the apple version with fuzzy navel running in second.I 'm not really sure what a wine cooler is made out of exactly my guess is that it's just watered down wine .but anyway I was just curious if anyone has had experience with trying to make a clone out of this.

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Okay, I know this thread is INCREDIBLY old, but I would love to know if you tried to clone the B&J cooler and if so how it turned out. My wife for some reason, possibly a nerve disorder affecting the taste buds, absolutely loves the B&J Pina Colada flavor. I cannot seem to find it anywhere around so I happened upon your post and was hoping you'd had some success. Anyway for what it's worth, I actually think that these wine coolers are in a technical sense not "wine" anything. They use the term "malt beverage" which makes me think that they are probably made of mostly rice and corn with just enough super pale barley malt to convert the sugars from the corn/rice. You could probably use a straight light DME or LME, obviously no hops, and just stir in whatever flavors you want. Then pitch a basic pils/lager yeast and let her rip! The only problems I would really anticipate is degradation of the added flavors during the boil and maybe some hot side aeration altering the flavor a bit, but it's worth a shot IMHO.