Juice vs raw ingredients

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Nwa-brewing

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So was doing some thinking, and when available is 100% pure juice better or more economical than raw ingredients?

Instead of using 20-30 pounds of ingredients could you use a substantially smaller amount of juice? Or is 100% juice anyway alley already diluted down substantially?

Just curious cause on my next batch of blueberry pomegranate I could use 100% pomegranate and blueberry juices and if my math is not totally screwed get better flavor using less ingredients / money
 
I made 10 gallons of pom/blueberry, using Northland Pom/Blueberry juice. It was very good. I have, in the secondary, Pom/Blueberry made with my mother's fresh Poms and Blueberries, and I am here to tell you, it is outstanding, so far. It won't be ready for another couple of weeks, but even the color is more brilliant. Try making wine with the fruit that is in season. When the Poms and Cranberries are instock at Christmas, sometimes they will mark them down, even slightly overripe ones make a superior product. One thing that I learned from this forum is that if it has potassium sorbate, it will not ferment.
 
MzAnnie said:
I made 10 gallons of pom/blueberry, using Northland Pom/Blueberry juice. It was very good. I have, in the secondary, Pom/Blueberry made with my mother's fresh Poms and Blueberries, and I am here to tell you, it is outstanding, so far. It won't be ready for another couple of weeks, but even the color is more brilliant. Try making wine with the fruit that is in season. When the Poms and Cranberries are instock at Christmas, sometimes they will mark them down, even slightly overripe ones make a superior product. One thing that I learned from this forum is that if it has potassium sorbate, it will not ferment.
Click to expand...

What size batches did you make? Also how much of each did you use?
 
Something to keep in mind is the complexity you get from fruit.

As a simple example, eat an apple. It's got a whole lot going on. Then, drink some apple juice from the store. It's flat tasting, and not complex and not very dimensional.

That's the difference between fermenting with fruit and juice also. Some of the best wine kits come with juice, but also grape skins to ferment on, as the fruit itself provides things that the plain juice cannot.
 
I've tried a few things both ways; juice seems much easier to work with overall, but yes using actual fruit, wow it does seem to add another dimension. Using actual fruit is a bit more work. I've been just ripening the fruit thoroughly in the sun, then freezing, then pouring some hot water into it and mushing it with my hands to make the must, and fermenting in a pot for a few days before racking the mess into a carboy.

Around here anyway Walker's is the big boy in the prepared for home wine making juice market. Their flyer says something like 'all juices standardized to 21 brix sugar, no additional sugar needed for a dry wine'. And they have tons of varities but many are around $10+/gallon. My dad made some blackberry cherry honey raisin wine from their juices probably 20 years back and we enjoyed it together aged 15 years, it was unreal.
 
Thank you all!

Yooper that really does put a good perspective to it!

I may have to check that site out, but when you think about it $10+ a gallon is not much different then getting the raw ingredients at times
 
Nwa-brewing said:
What size batches did you make? Also how much of each did you use?
Click to expand...

I used 6 1/2 gallons of Northland Pom/Blueberry juice, in a five gallon bucket, and added sugar and yeast accordingly. I am unconventional, as I add my sugar in three steps. 1/3 at a time, every week when I rack, not to exceed 5 cups of sugar per gallon. But I like young wine, and by no means am I knowlegable on fine wines. This is an old family recipe, which I recently found out, was plagerized from the 'Back to Basics' book!:cross:
 
And it is a misnomer about products that have potassium sorbate on the ingredient list are not appropriate for winemaking....I have never had one wine that I made that happened to have potassium sorbate in it not ferment. Usually the amount of sulfite and sorbate that is in the commercial product is just enough that the product will not ferment naturally, but if you introduce a commercial yeast it usually does fine. Very important to not use k-meta at the start (if using a product that lists sulfites on label, which usually list sorbate also)--but instead added the k-meta when it was dry (typically within 30 days). Had some apple cider than had been "preserved" with sodium benzoate and that was a nightmare and never took off--but I grabbed the wrong jug when I bought it (they had some with sorbate & that is what I wanted from what they offered).

You can make nice wines from fruit and from juice. Most of the commercial 100% juices are already balanced (not always). But you can get the best of both worlds by using a combo of raw fruit & 100% juice. Juices are usually easier to work with, whereas raw fruit needs more work. Caution: some juices labelled as 100% are not 100% of the fruit on the label--may be a blend of fruits, but still 100% fruit, just have to habitually read ingredients list.
 
saramc said:
Caution: some juices labelled as 100% are not 100% of the fruit on the label--may be a blend of fruits, but still 100% fruit, just have to habitually read ingredients list.
Click to expand...

Yea I read the labels pretty thoroughly, always find some of them a little disappointing!

Wish I had more time and money to try things :)

I am patient.... But not nearly enough to seperate out the amount of pomegranates I would need!!
 
saramc said:
And it is a misnomer about products that have potassium sorbate on the ingredient list are not appropriate for winemaking....I have never had one wine that I made that happened to have potassium sorbate in it not ferment. Usually the amount of sulfite and sorbate that is in the commercial product is just enough that the product will not ferment naturally, but if you introduce a commercial yeast it usually does fine. Very important to not use k-meta at the start (if using a product that lists sulfites on label, which usually list sorbate also)--but instead added the k-meta when it was dry (typically within 30 days). Had some apple cider than had been "preserved" with sodium benzoate and that was a nightmare and never took off--but I grabbed the wrong jug when I bought it (they had some with sorbate & that is what I wanted from what they offered).

You can make nice wines from fruit and from juice. Most of the commercial 100% juices are already balanced (not always). But you can get the best of both worlds by using a combo of raw fruit & 100% juice. Juices are usually easier to work with, whereas raw fruit needs more work. Caution: some juices labelled as 100% are not 100% of the fruit on the label--may be a blend of fruits, but still 100% fruit, just have to habitually read ingredients list.
Click to expand...

You are so right about the sodium benzoate. I forgot about that one. I try not to use juice with either of these, but you are probably right about the potassium sorbate. I just never used any with that it is as I always thought it wouldn't ferment, Great job on the advice about reading the labels. It should be done for everything you put in your mouth! I saw some Welch's passionfruit concentrate, and I thought that it would make some great wine. Heck, there wasn't anything in there that resembled passionfruit. It did however, have corn syrup AND high fructose corn syrup as the second and fourth ingredients:( Good post, thank you!
 
Nwa-brewing said:
Yea I read the labels pretty thoroughly, always find some of them a little disappointing!

Wish I had more time and money to try things :)

I am patient.... But not nearly enough to seperate out the amount of pomegranates I would need!!
Click to expand...

I just cut them in half and scoop them out with a spoon, into the primary. Most people would prefer to use a mesh bag, though.
 

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