Vintners Harvest fruit base in mead (help)

[ShareBrewing]

Trying to formulate a recipe for a mead using a 96oz can of Vintners Harvest apricot fruit wine base (mix of fruit chunks and juice). Brewing it this weekend.

Will be using 5lbs mesquite honey (Trader Joe’s), 6lbs Zambian wildflower honey (from Africa, supplied by Dutch Gold), the can of apricot fruit base, and some D-47 yeast. Aiming for 4.5-5 gal.

There is a recipe for the fruit wine on the back of the can. Wondering if I should add the acid blend? Would this help, and if so much should be added for a 5 gal batch?

Should I just follow the recipe but basically substitute the sugar with my honey? I’ve made melomels before, so fruit isn’t new, but I’m unfamiliar with this product.

Has anyone used this in their mead? What kind of SG range could I expect with this juice? Use a mesh bag or not? And most importantly, how did it taste in the end? Thank you for you help!

Cheers!

 

[Shine0n]

I know people who do use it and have great results so I say go for it and yes just substitute the sugar with honey.
Yes, add the 3 tsp of acid blend as per instructions at which point I really couldn't say. Someone who uses more often than I do could tell you when.

I always use a brew bag with fruits, particles will always get thru but the majority will remain in the bag and makes for an easier racking later with less sediment.

I hate loosing so much to fruits while racking.

 

[ShareBrewing]

Thanks for the advise Shine! I’ll plan on adding the acid blend.

Last night I couldn’t get mead off the brain and impulsively bought and brewed a black currant melomel using clover honey. Used a vintners Harvest fruit base which I just threw it to the wind and added the acid blend.

The black currant VH fruit base was all juice, unlike some of the other fruit bases I’ve heard about.

Surprisingly this didn’t have a ton of sugar for how expensive the can is... by my calculations with the amount of honey added and the volume, it only added about 24-25 gravity points in a 5 gal batch. No wonder you need all the extra sugar. Had great flavor though.

Can anyone else give some insight to what the other fruit base products are like by VH? What thinking of using mango soon.

 

[ellijayman]

If using the grape tannins dont know if I would use the acid blend.. and on the VH never used it I use frozen fruit and concentrate from the grocery store

 

[ShareBrewing]

Used the apricot over the weekend. Turns out it’s all juice. No chucks whatsoever.

This one has alright flavor, but it makes me think about VH’s other fruit bases. The apple fruit base, is that essentially just a glorified can of apple cider?

Will have to see how the wine turns out. Ended up buying 6 lbs more of the mesquite honey and 3 lbs of frozen raspberries. So in total the recipe came to:

11 lbs Mesquite honey
6 lbs Zambian wildflower honey
3 lbs frozen raspberries
96 oz apricot fruit base (juice)

OG came to a whopping 1.162 so I diluted down a half gal to 1.144.