When buying concentrate or juice to make wine, what kind of preservatives or ingredients on the label should I avoid? From my understanding, ascorbic acid is ok, anything else? Thanks in advance.
Stay away from anything that says sorbate, I think normally it's potassium sorbate, which is what you'll use in winemaking to stabilize wine late in the cycle.
i do this a lot, and hophead is correct. if you see potassium sorbate, it's the main preservative and will prevent fermentation (which is what it's supposed to do). ascorbic acid is vitamin c, and is fine. i tend to use Great Value brand (wal mart's juice) as they don't use preservatives, and to me, it's just as good as the more expensive welch's, mott's, etc
I know I haven't had a problem with any of the frozen concentrated juices by Old Orchard- they have tons of different flavors and so far no preservatives other than vitamin C.