6% raspberry juice 'wine'?

[BigAndo]

Hi there,
Is it possible to make a fermentation from store bought raspberry juice (or other juices) and stop the fermentation at around six percent? I'd like to end up with something that isn't too strong, to drink like a beer or a cider, but also tastes nice! (I'm not that fond of cider, and I hate beer and wine, although I think home made wine might be entirely different!)
I'm thinking that if I use a 1 gallon demi john I can just put the whole thing in the fridge to stop the fermentation? Should I just taste it every day until it is good and then arrest it there? Any recipe ideas? Should I add extra sugar at the start?

Thank you!


Sent from my iPod touch using Home Brew

 

[Arpolis]

It is hard to stop an active fermentation successfully unless you pasteurize. Using a Hydrometer you can measure the point drop and after about 38-40 points you can bottle and place them in hot water at about 170*F and hold that for 10 min. Make sure to try and whip it up and get as much co2 out as possible before doing this. You will then need to allow them to clear in the fridge and decant the clear liquid off the sediment because there will be a lot in the bottle.

An easier and safer way is to probably mix up your juice and cut with water to get a gravity of 1.038 and let it ferment dry. Let it clear and rack off the lees then add Camden and sorbate so you can sweeten with additional juice, fruits and/or sugar.

 

[MajorDisaster]

Ale yeasts tend to stop at lower %

Sent from my GT-I9070 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[derekc153]

I would be surprised if the original storebought juice went above maybe 7% abv. Just ferment the juice without adding any sugar to it and you should be fine. I think most people on here need to add lots of sugar to get abv's in the 12% range. For reference, if I ferment storebought apple juice with 140 calories per 8 fl oz serving, it will give me just over 7%. 120 calories I think is closer to 6% (rough guide). Note that it will go completely dry, so if you want any sweetness you'll have to backsweeten.

Also, in response to the comment above, I'm pretty sure ale yeast will ferment it completely dry just like wine yeast. I think the attenuation listed for ale yeast (the percent of sugar in the starting wort that will be fermented) is due to the yeasts eating simpler sugars but not more complex sugars. Fruit juice is essentially all simple sugar, so everything ferments even with an ale yeast.