Rw Knudsen Juice

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Nwa-brewing

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So question, getting ready to ramp a couple new batches using this juice. I Did a blueberry pomegranate with it that turned out fantastic. Here is my question though, it's not a concentrate but a "pure" juice as in no to very little water added

A 32 oz bottle of blueberry is supposed to be the equivalent of 3 pounds fresh blueberries, so say i made a 5 gallon batch would i need 5 gallons of the juice or do the pound equivalent and just use 4-5 containers of the juice?

I am just worried that the wine may come out to" full" if that makes sense?
 
I have used their juices before, I would suggest you also see if you can get a jar or two of their concentrate to boost the flavor a little bit. We use thier black cherry concentrate when we make ports, why wait for the cherry flavor to develop when you can just add it :) Also a little ELDME will boost the body.

WVMJ
 
So when your using it say your making x gallons do you use x amount of juice?

ELDME? will have to check for some of the concentrated stuff to :)
 
I always use their juices full strength. Their label implies it took three pounds of fruit to get that volume.

ELDME- extra light DME?
 
Like Sara, full strenght but plus some concentrate, maybe plus something to add more body like banananas or a cup or two of dried Extra LIght Dried Malt Extract, beer has lots of body and a little ELDME realy makes a difference. WVMJ

Nwa-brewing said:
So when your using it say your making x gallons do you use x amount of juice?

ELDME? will have to check for some of the concentrated stuff to :)
Click to expand...
 
saramc said:
I always use their juices full strength. Their label implies it took three pounds of fruit to get that volume.

ELDME- extra light DME?
Click to expand...

Yea thats what was kinda throwing me, take the blueberry for example Jack Keller has recipes that use 2-3 pounds of fresh berries, so with that in mind one bottle should make 1 gallon of wine?

Can you really have to much flavor in a wine?

WVMJ said:
Like Sara, full strenght but plus some concentrate, maybe plus something to add more body like banananas or a cup or two of dried Extra LIght Dried Malt Extract, beer has lots of body and a little ELDME realy makes a difference. WVMJ
Click to expand...

Malt extract in wine? Coming on here is dangerous for me, every question answered has me wondering about two more! :)
 
Nwa-brewing said:
Yea thats what was kinda throwing me, take the blueberry for example Jack Keller has recipes that use 2-3 pounds of fresh berries, so with that in mind one bottle should make 1 gallon of wine?

Can you really have to much flavor in a wine?

Malt extract in wine? Coming on here is dangerous for me, every question answered has me wondering about two more! :)
Click to expand...

But Keller also uses water in the majority of recipes. Trust me, a wine made from 100% fruit will be so much more than a wine made with fruit and water. You can make good wines from either method, and you can make bad ones also.
Just be aware a 100% blueberry wine is prone to stall, has to do with the vacinuum species of fruit. Cranberries will do the same thing. One of the best things to do is build a good starter and actually step feed your juice into the starter, be sure to use a staggered nutrient schedule.
DME in blueberry wine, especially a port, is amazing, adds great depth. And, if you have any dried elderberry available adding just a touch of elderberry to the blueberry is amazing.
If I was not going all juice, I would use only 1 quart water, 3 quarts juice, and one can frozen red grape or white grape juice concentrate, even blue-pom if you can find it.
 
When ever I use a Jack Keller recipe that calls for water, I substitute it with white grape juice. The last Elderberry wine I made, I used purple grape juice as a base, and it was wonderful.
 
whenever I make my blueberry wine for every gallon of wine I use one whole lemon for acidity. I find it comes a lot better then if I don't add the lemon
 
Lemon? Thats my next learning curve is the acidity etc. I will have to try that!

Thats not a bad idea substituting water with juice. I need a bigger utility room and more carboys...
 
Nwa-brewing said:
Lemon? Thats my next learning curve is the acidity etc. I will have to try that!

Thats not a bad idea substituting water with juice. I need a bigger utility room and more carboys...
Click to expand...
I almost built a wine cellar, but I would have had to use alot of insulation to try and keep it at 70 degrees year round, in Mississippi. So I just limit myself to 10-5 gallons at a time. It took me about 8 months (I am not one to let my wine age out much, unless it is really crappy or Carmel Apple Mead) to get to the place where, when 5 gallons are bottled, 5 more are made. The husband and I drink one glass a nite, for medicinal purposes. :)
The production line way keeps me from having to build a cellar, as dark and dank, here, is not a good combination and mold grows in the sunlight. My utility room suffices, and I found a spot on the north side of the house, in a corner, to build shelves for the bottles, that stays @ 75 degrees, with out having air conditioning. In the summer, alot of people are overwelmed, after they are done (or sick of)canning, by the amount of produce they have, ie, pears (especially, because they come with alot of bees)and berries, and the like, so you can get a lot of free produce, just by offering up a bottle of wine or two. So put the word out early.
 
MzAnnie said:
I almost built a wine cellar, but I would have had to use alot of insulation to try and keep it at 70 degrees year round, in Mississippi. So I just limit myself to 10-5 gallons at a time. It took me about 8 months (I am not one to let my wine age out much, unless it is really crappy or Carmel Apple Mead) to get to the place where, when 5 gallons are bottled, 5 more are made. The husband and I drink one glass a nite, for medicinal purposes. :)
The production line way keeps me from having to build a cellar, as dark and dank, here, is not a good combination and mold grows in the sunlight. My utility room suffices, and I found a spot on the north side of the house, in a corner, to build shelves for the bottles, that stays @ 75 degrees, with out having air conditioning. In the summer, alot of people are overwelmed, after they are done (or sick of)canning, by the amount of produce they have, ie, pears (especially, because they come with alot of bees)and berries, and the like, so you can get a lot of free produce, just by offering up a bottle of wine or two. So put the word out early.
Click to expand...

I will definitely have to start putting a bug in peoples ear about the left over fruits!!

Once me and the wife get a bigger house, one of two things, i will get to turn part of the storm cellar into a wine storage or might build a little will insulated hut thing :)
 
Just curious how this turned out for you. Did you end up using all juice? I picked up some Knudsen just blueberry and tart cherry yesterday. Hoping to find someone who has gone down this path before so I don't mess up this really expensive juice.
 
I use these juices to flavor my apple cider. Using a 4 gallon apple cider base, I add 3 qts to 1 gallon of the Knudsen to flavor/back sweeten after the apple has finished fermenting. I particularly like the Tart Cherry blended with apple. If I need to adjust acidity I use Malic Acid.
 
It turned out very good :) I made a blueberry pomegranate used 3 gallons total of juice and 2 gallons of water. The overall taste was great with what I would consider a medium-light body.

If you make it out of 100% knudsen juice it will just be that much better.
 
After all the work we put into this thread you still diluted your juice? Diluted blueberry juice can only taste like diluted blueberry juice, there is no way even approaching medium body, you could have just made a Dragons Blood instead. WVMJ
 
WVMJ said:
After all the work we put into this thread you still diluted your juice? Diluted blueberry juice can only taste like diluted blueberry juice, there is no way even approaching medium body, you could have just made a Dragons Blood instead. WVMJ
Click to expand...

Really sorry for hijacking this thread, but I was debating this exact thing (whether to use all juice or not). I planned on modifying one of Jack Keller's full body recipes that uses actual berries to accommodate juice instead. He uses some water, but also throws in LDME and red grape concentrate.

Would you still recommend using all blueberry juice instead of the red grape concentrate for a recipe like that?
 
Why not use both? If you are trying to make a good wine dont add water, add something with flavor, the only time to add water is if the fruit is too acidic such as with currants, its hard to go all juice with them without backsweetening too much, or something like black raspberries, hard to go all black raspberry juice, something almost coats your tongue and blocks the taste, 5lb/gal black rasp, but then add some grape juice instead of water, when using these store juices even if its 100% juice its going to be a little thin, go all juice whenever possible. All that being said its most important to make the wines you like to drink, if you like weak wine with little fruit in it make that kind, its yours, if you want so much fruit in there that you concentrate them like syrup and can get it to ferment more power to you :) I always stand in the middle :) WVMJ
 
WVMJ said:
After all the work we put into this thread you still diluted your juice? Diluted blueberry juice can only taste like diluted blueberry juice, there is no way even approaching medium body, you could have just made a Dragons Blood instead. WVMJ
Click to expand...

Well I was trying something, and the wine still came out excellent. Still had plenty of flavor if I had used 100% of the juice I have no doubt it would have even been better. But I was still very pleased with the results
 

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