Lady at work wants to make Boons Farm...

[Homercidal]

I guess the price is driving her to make her own wine. She is looking to make cheap sweet wine like Boons/Arbor Mist.

Any suggestions?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I suggest drinking better wine.

 

[jcobbs]

I like sweet wines/party wines myself, but with Boone's and Arbor Mist being about $3.00-4.00 a bottle at Wal-Mart, I can't really see why you'd try to make one. However, unless you really run up on a deal on some Welch's, apfelwein is probably the best bet. Apple juice is about $3.00 a gallon at W-M, add a couple of cups of sugar and fifty cents worth of Montrachet and let 'er rip. The result will be dry but she could flavor/backsweeten any number of ways--add a can of frozen concentrate, daiquiri mix, blend it with other fruit juices, etc. But like I said to begin, a gallon's worth of Boone's Farm will set you back about 12 bucks, so it won't take much tinkering with a batch of apfelwein to eat up any cost savings. But at least she can say she made it herself...

 

[Yooper]

I don't think you can beat the price of Boone's Farm, but if that's the style she's after, those Island Mist kits are in the same vein. My friend has made Kiwi Pear and Mango Symphony, and she is very happy with them. I think the kit was about $60 or so, and used regular beer/wine making equipment. All that's needed is a primary bucket, a 6 gallon carboy, airlocks, a siphon, and a big spoon (to stir and degas the wine). It makes 30 bottles, so she'd need 30 corks. Also, a corker can be rented if she doesn't have one. Everything else is included in the kit.

 

[Revvy]

Is this the winemaking equivalent of the "I wanna make a bud light clone" threads on the beer side? WOw..I thought they were a little more highbrow on this side of the forum.

Bro, I know from my nephew's forays into winemaking, he was the vitner for a couple years of the Richmnond Worthogs, that the Island mist kits, are similar to the arbor mist wines....you know, sweet.

A lot of people get started with them, before moving on to making other wines, either kits or own recipes...so these might sorta be the MR beer or Cooper's equivelent.

Island Mist Wine Making Kits - Winexpert - Wine making supplies

And at 54.00 a kit, they are cheaper than any of the other kit wines I have seen at cap n cork.

But I'm sure that any of those basic Welche's juice wines can be back sweetened after fermentation as well....

 

[Saccharomyces]

The Island Mist kits are fantastic. I'd start with those.

I've just started experimenting with Welch's grape juice wines, we will see where that goes. Looking for something cheap to make for parties to appease the non-beer drinkers.

 

[jcobbs]

A lot of folks make apfelwein with ale yeast to leave a little more sweetness and less alcohol. Haven't tried that with Welch's yet, but I wonder how it would work. (And do you get a purple kreusen?)

 

[mmadmikes1]

Is this the winemaking equivalent of the "I wanna make a bud light clone" threads on the beer side? WOw..I thought they were a little more highbrow on this side of the forum.

I love it

 

[Homercidal]

Well, she went and got a kit. I don't know what kit, but she ordered one from online and made some wine. Guess what. It's not good. It's probably like real wine, she says!

Anyway, I'm guessing that it wasn't sweet enough for her. I politely mentioned that I thought making a sweet wine would be kind of tricky. I didn't want to get too involved and say what I really thought about trying to save money over Arbor Mist/Boones, and seem like a know-it-all.

I wonder if I should ask more questions, or just see if she will bring me some of her wine to try. Or maybe she will want to get rid of her equipment cheap...

 

[the_bird]

Wait a minute, you originally posted this what, six weeks ago? I'm thinking that even the Arbor Mist kits might need a little more time to age than that!

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Cheaper that Boon Farm sounds like a prime candidate for everclear and some soda or juice.

Seriously, if buying Boon's farm is too expensive for her, maybe she should reconsider if she really needs to be spending any money on booze???

This is quite possibly the hoochiest thread I have seen.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

You should definitely encourage her to try again considering she's already invested in the gear.

 

[talenos]

Ugh, I remember many a bad night when there was Boone's Farm on sale for $.99 a bottle back in college.

 

[Fracturedman]

Ugh, I remember many a bad night when there was Boone's Farm on sale for $.99 a bottle back in college.

Ah, yes...I remember drinking Boons, MD 20/20, and st. Ides special brew just out of high school. We even bought zima's do you remember those little blue bottles? yeah, we would flavor them with skittles or jolly ranchers...dont worry, I always had some real beer set aside for me. But, when your having a party and there are girls there, you really want to meet their needs. Yes, I am guilty of drinking foofoo drinks...so sue me, they did what I needed them to do.

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

The wine is too young, tell her to wait a bit if it is already in the bottle. If it isn't she can backsweeten, but I woudn't, the kit was made to be sweet and given time probably will be.

She could go to the LHBS, drop $5 and buy some campden & sorbate. use per directions, wait two weeks, dump something sweet in like sugar water.

It is very easy!

 

[Homercidal]

She is not a lush. She probably drinks at the same rate as many of the homebrewers around here, maybe less than a lot of them. (as far as I know). But she IS a cheapskate. Maybe that's why she is in purchasing...

Anyway, I told her to maybe get some campden tabs and backsweeten with some fruit juice. I think her recipe was a peach wine of some sort. I've heard others say that peaches don't ferment and retain the flavor. they supposedly get bitter.

She said she didn't know about backsweetening, so maybe it will turn out drinkable for her after all.

 

[Yooper]

She is not a lush. She probably drinks at the same rate as many of the homebrewers around here, maybe less than a lot of them. (as far as I know). But she IS a cheapskate. Maybe that's why she is in purchasing...

Anyway, I told her to maybe get some campden tabs and backsweeten with some fruit juice. I think her recipe was a peach wine of some sort. I've heard others say that peaches don't ferment and retain the flavor. they supposedly get bitter.

She said she didn't know about backsweetening, so maybe it will turn out drinkable for her after all.

Tell her to try the Island Mist kits. I have a feeling that she'll love those. My best friend swears that the Mango Symphony is the best "wine" in the world.

 

[Homercidal]

I'll tell her. It would be cool if she stuck with it and actually learned a bit about winemaking. I suspect she kind of wants to find the cheapest juice she can get and make some cheap sweet hooch. THB - I only drink the sweet wines too. I jsut don't care much for wine and that is the only stuff I can stomach. But thankfully beer always seems to be readily available...

 

[brewthunda]

Boone's Farm isn't wine, although they still call it that in most states. It's a malt-based beverage, like Zima . . . which is basically really cheap beer filtered and polished with activated charcoal to strip out flavor and color and then re-flavored. I don't believe any grapes are involved.

So you might suggest to her that if a Boone's Farm flavor is what she's looking for, she shouldn't feel limited to using grape juice.

I bet she could get something she'd like by mixing apfelwein with powdered crystal light concentrate (shudder) . . ~9% alcohol, non-fermentable sweetener and goofy girly flavors.

Tree Top goes on sale at Safeway every few months for $3/gallon . . my 5 gal batches of apfelwein cost me a whopping $15.89 each.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Man, they go on sale here for $5 a gallon, I always get some strange looks when I walk in and buy 10 gallons and nothing else. Mott's can also be gotten on sale for the same price and makes a little different cider / wine.

 

[HandsomeRyan]

The Island Mist kits are fantastic. I'd start with those.

+1.

The Strawberry White Merlot was my wife and I's first wine kit and while it's a bit sweet for my taste it is quite good for what it is. Very easy to do too.

 

[Homercidal]

The kit was more than she wanted to spend on wine. She is having fun, though, it seems. The peach wine she made was only a 1 gallon batch, and she is disappointed in how much is left after racking a few times.

The good news is, it's still young and she is finding out how wine changes flavor over time. It's getting better.

Now she says the rubber stopper is giving the wine a rubbery taste. I told that everyone uses them and it shouldn't be a problem, but there are off flavors that could give that taste. Someone else told her to give it time. Wine takes a while and changes flavor all the time.

I also found out that there is a beer and wine supply store about 1/2 hour from my house. I looked them up online to find that they had closed last month. After all these years of wanting one closer than GR, I finally found one and it's out of business...