Melomel - Searching for a high quality source of bulk juice or concentrate

I've taken the plunge and bought a 5 gallon pale of orange blossom honey from Dutch Gold in Lancaster (one of the suppliers that Moonlight Meadery uses). Since I'm investing in the honey, I'm looking to get equivalent quality juices. I'm flexable, but looking for Strawberry, Blueberry, Sour Cherry, Peach, and Rasp/Blackberry. Farm fresh is ideal, but I'm flexible.

Have any mead makers on this forum found good sources of quality juice (or concentrate if it doesn't add off flavors?). I'm probably looking for 9-10 gallons of total juice.

Thanks!




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brewguyver said:

I've taken the plunge and bought a 5 gallon pale of orange blossom honey from Dutch Gold in Lancaster (one of the suppliers that Moonlight Meadery uses). Since I'm investing in the honey, I'm looking to get equivalent quality juices. I'm flexable, but looking for Strawberry, Blueberry, Sour Cherry, Peach, and Rasp/Blackberry. Farm fresh is ideal, but I'm flexible.

Have any mead makers on this forum found good sources of quality juice (or concentrate if it doesn't add off flavors?). I'm probably looking for 9-10 gallons of total juice.

Thanks!




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The Vintners Harvest "wine" bases are great for mead, actually. I presume you're not wanting to use whole fruit. I know of a few people that have gone ahead and purchased a juice extractor and done juice that way.

Vinters Harvest Blackcurrant juice is wonderful. They make other juices as well.


Better brewing through science!

Has anyone had issues with the Vinters Harvest bases? The raspberry one I put into a saison seemed a touch watery.


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Vintner's Harvest is mostly fruit or fruit puree. When I want good, high quality juice, I buy Knudsen's just juice.
http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/products/just-juice
It's not cheap, but it's the best quality I've found in retail stores. They also make juice concentrates, but I haven't used those.

For fruit juices that Knudsen doesn't carry, I buy Smart Juice.
http://www.smartjuice.us/
It's tough to find & it ain't cheap, but they make juices that nobody else does.

For large quantities of single varieties of juice, The Vintner's Harvest would certainly be cheaper, so would fresh fruit for that matter. But if you're only wanting a couple quarts of a specific juice Knudsen's or Smart Juice might be a better choice.
Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

Vintner's Harvest is mostly fruit or fruit puree. When I want good, high quality juice, I buy Knudsen's just juice.
http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/products/just-juice
It's not cheap, but it's the best quality I've found in retail stores. They also make juice concentrates, but I haven't used those.

For fruit juices that Knudsen doesn't carry, I buy Smart Juice.
http://www.smartjuice.us/
It's tough to find & it ain't cheap, but they make juices that nobody else does.

For large quantities of single varieties of juice, The Vintner's Harvest would certainly be cheaper, so would fresh fruit for that matter. But if you're only wanting a couple quarts of a specific juice Knudsen's or Smart Juice might be a better choice.
Regards, GF.

Click to expand...

Agreed on the Just Juice ones. I had a 100% not from concentrate blackcurrant juice that smelled terrible and tasted, well, like black currants (tart and funky). Made a mead with it and it turned out pretty awesome. Really cool black pepper notes in it. Good juice if you can find it.

Got an email back from Michael Fairbrother at Moonlight Meadery - recommended Knudson's as well.


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So here's what I ended up doing, based on availability and pricing at the local whole foods and costco. I figured frozen fruit was fine given it's cheaper and i need to freeze it to rupture the pulp cells anyway. Each one of these got 10 lbs of honey and was watered down to 30-32 brix.

#1 - Got black currant concentrate from currantc - No one had the just juice version, and it turns out that's from concentrate anyway
- Bought 10# of frozen blueberries from costco and did the freeze/thaw thing (no just juice blueberry either, and the lakeland version was $12/qt - ouch)
- Used Just Juice black cherry
- added sulfate (12 hours) and peptic enzyme (12 hours) before adding the honey.

#2 and #3 i did straight honey (one will be a capsicum mead)

#4 - Cape Codder - couldn't find good fresh-squeezed in volume so i picked 16 lbs of oranges from costco, skinned them, and crushed them in a homemade fruit press (design needs work). Added juice, pulp, and 3 qts of 100% cranberry juice (wholefoods 365 brand)

#5 - 11 lbs of costco frozen strawberries, 4 lbs of frozen pineapple, and 2 qts of cold pressed pineapple juice, with sulfite (12 h) and peptic enzyme (12 h).

Things are roaring so far - just hit my 2nd nutrient addition. I'll report back in a few weeks.


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Yea ... never doing frozen strawberries and pineapples again ... or oranges. I do not have enough patience for pulp ... and I'm pretty sure I contaminated at least one batch. Will post pictures later.


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Strawberries are well worth doing, if you cant handle the pulp get a fermentation bag, always make 20% more intially. We usually just let the fruit float around free and scoop it into a bottling bucket lined with a fermentation strainer bag to remove the pulp, its not really a big deal and well worth the effort for the final mead if you use enough strawberries. A little bit of oak, not much, can put these over the top. WVMJ