I want to make wine from Mountain Dew Throwback

[slowjerk]

Alright I tasted it.

It smells absolutely horrid but evolves in the glass to reveal some subtle undertones of possibly being drinkable. (Today was April Fool's Day wasn't it?) The elements noted in the nose are repeated in the mouth. It tastes intense, but not well-balanced. It has a long finish that is filled with regret. There is still much of that Mountain Dew lemon-lime fruitiness, but the crisp, refreshing joy that we associate with Mountain Dew is quickly replaced with dry, yeasty overtones. If there was any sugar left in the jug it didn't find it's way into my sample.

Overall it was very dry. No sweetness. However with some back-sweetening I believe this could be a very complex, interesting wine that I would drink with regularity.

I believe my mistake (besides deciding to make wine from Mountain Dew) was that I didn't add more sugar at the beginning. I am thinking the yeast ran out of sugar, and that it could have gotten further than it did.

 

[LakewoodBrew]

Alright I tasted it.

It smells absolutely horrid but evolves in the glass to reveal some subtle undertones of possibly being drinkable. (Today was April Fool's Day wasn't it?) The elements noted in the nose are repeated in the mouth. It tastes intense, but not well-balanced. It has a long finish that is filled with regret. There is still much of that Mountain Dew lemon-lime fruitiness, but the crisp, refreshing joy that we associate with Mountain Dew is quickly replaced with dry, yeasty overtones. If there was any sugar left in the jug it didn't find it's way into my sample.

Overall it was very dry. No sweetness. However with some back-sweetening I believe this could be a very complex, interesting wine that I would drink with regularity.

I believe my mistake (besides deciding to make wine from Mountain Dew) was that I didn't add more sugar at the beginning. I am thinking the yeast ran out of sugar, and that it could have gotten further than it did.

If it tastes yeasty then let it sit and rack it again after it has totally cleared. That will change the flavor a lot. That is not to say that i have any belief that this concoction will end up particularly drinkable, but at least it won't taste like yeast anymore.

 

[slowjerk]

If it tastes yeasty then let it sit and rack it again after it has totally cleared. That will change the flavor a lot. That is not to say that i have any belief that this concoction will end up particularly drinkable, but at least it won't taste like yeast anymore.

Alright, I will do that.

Next time around I'll make the girlfriend try it so I can video record it.

 

[LakewoodBrew]

Alright, I will do that.

Next time around I'll make the girlfriend try it so I can video record it.

I look forward to seeing that.

 

[slowjerk]

What should I back-sweeten it with? I was thinking corn sugar?

 

[LakewoodBrew]

I wouldn't try to back sweeten until all of the yeast has dropped out, or you will probably kick off another fermentation. When you do, I would use something like Lactose that doesn't ferment well.

 

[WIP]

Get some wine conditioner to sweeten with.

 

[Hoppin_Mad]

Alright I tasted it.

It has a long finish that is filled with regret.

lol

 

[DrJerryrigger]

You could bottle prime to add some carbonation to this atrocity. Or add some potassium metasulfate and then back sweeten. If you could get your hands on some mountain dew syrup for a fountain, the possibilities are endless... endlessly horrendous that is. You could also boil down some MD to make some syrup for further sweetening.
Any way I think I'll have to make something like this in the near future. Maybe with grape soda.... home made Night Train!

 

[Annubis]

I'd probably go this route, if you haven't racked off the yeast yet:

Boil down lots of dew to make a syrup (also, may help reduce the efficacy of the preservatives), and add that to bring up your gravity to a point where your yeast will kick off due to alcohol toxicity.

Cool it, add it, perhaps in fractions, so as not to shock the yeast with the sugar/preservatives. Maybe not necessary, but I'm prone to being overly cautious.

Let it finish fermenting, stabilize, and backsweeten (if necessary). I make meads, and SWMBO and I both like sweet-to-sack meads, so we start out with enough sugar to guarantee residual sugar even if the yeast over-attenuates (so far, it has every time by 2%-2.5%).

This could wind up tasting pretty drinkable, maybe even good. You should at least experiment. Drink some, add tannin to some, add acid and tannin, age it, etc. And I'm also curious about the effect fermentation has on caffeine- will the yeasts touch it at all?

 

[Jamesthorbjorn]

Did you use glass? I've always heard that those plastic bottles are cheap. If so there could be some harmful chemicals released into the final product.

 

[slowjerk]

Did you use glass? I've always heard that those plastic bottles are cheap. If so there could be some harmful chemicals released into the final product.

I used a 4 liter glass jug

and @Annubis, I'll rack it when I get a new jug to rack it into.

 

[Annubis]

I've been waiting for the next family get-together for a new gallon jug. My mother's side doesn't really care if the wine's good, so long as it has alcohol... so I can get some Carlo Rossi jugs this easter; maybe you're in the same boat?

Also... I'm going to ask our soda supplier about Mt. Dew throwback syrup; if they carry it, I'm thinking about buying one just to make this stuff with. That is... if you find it's good. Otherwise, maybe I'll do Dr. Pepper! Or something I can find at a huge discount.

 

[brazedowl]

When I lived in Michigan I worked at Gordon Food Services (GFS). It was a public restaurant supply store. They had 25# boxes of soda syrup for about $25-$30 depending on the variety.

 

[Annubis]

We have a GFS where I live. I'll have to check it for syrups, thanks for the info.

 

[sfxguy5470]

Pinot Dew! I'm a noob to homebrewing and have so far successfully brewed up 2 1 gallon batches of burnt spiced mead and am going to try joe's quick grape mead this weekend. Here's how I successfully got my Dew to ferment....

2 2 liter bottles of Mountain Dew
1 -1/4 Cup granulated sugar
1 package red star Cote de Blanc yeast
a handful of leftover grapes (wife brought home from work buffet)
3 lipton tea bags
1 tsp fermax yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer.
poland spring water

So the first thing I wanted to do was get all of the carbonization out of my Dew, so I poured the 2 2 liter bottles into a 1 gallon bottle with 1 cup of granulated sugar, airlocked it to make sure no nasties got into it and put it out on my back porch to "age". I went out to shake it up every six hours or so to help it along with the decarbonization process which my wife and kid found hilarious.

After about 48 hours the carbonation fizzed out and I started my yeast. Now I know that Mountain Dew contains sodium benzoate, which I knew would inhibit my yeasties ability to multiply and grow, so I wanted to make sure my yeast was ALREADY healthy and multiplying before I pitched.

I did this by raiding the fridge and tossing a handful of leftover (cut in half) red grapes into about 2 cups of poland spring water and boiling for about 15 minutes. Added 1/4 cup Wegmans granulated sugar turned off the heat and tossed 3 lipton tea bags into the mix. I let this cool to room temp, strained out the grapes and tea bags and added 1 tsp fermax nutrient and 1/2 tsp energizer. I had already sprinkled my cote des blanc yeast over about 1/4 cup 100 degree water and it was nicely reconstituting so I dumped my yeast and my yeast starter (grape/tea/sugar mixture) into a cleaned empty mountain dew bottle, loosely capped it and waited another day.

Voila! the very next morning I had some nice "Krausen" in my yeast starter mountain dew bottle, so I bit the bullet and just dumped my yeasties into my decarbonated Dew and hoped for the best. the first day was tense, the yeast did seem to mix into the dew and cloud it, but I got no airlock activity for the first 36 hours... my wife would watch me go check on my Dew and silently roll her eyes and sigh... my 4 year old daughter wanted to know why her daddy was so obsessed with that "big bottle of yucky stuff"...and then it happened! I woke up that morning and I had fermentation! very nice and steady airlock activity, about 1 bubble per second. It's been about 5 days now and I am still steady at about a bubble every 2 seconds.

For the record, I know that my Pinot Dew is probably going to taste like ass. I did this simply because it sounded like fun and as such I did not take any OG readings. Hope you enjoyed my little Mountain Dew wine story as much as I enjoyed making what will probably be the most unpalatable fermented beverage made since Zima.

 

[Rahahb]

And I thought I was creative.

But this...this is something I wouldn't even do. lol

 

[bengerman]

This kind of sounds like taking the long way around to get to this....

Good luck though!

that's illegal... at least it is in WA.

 

[Scruffy1207]

Hmmm interesting, I have plenty of 1gal carlo rossi wine jugs laying around. I think I may play around with this

Edit: I have access to Coke, Diet Coke, 7up, Dr.Pepper, Minute Maid lemonade, and Barqs Root beer syrups. What should I do with said.syrups?

 

[jackhawk]

that's illegal... at least it is in WA.

This entire thread should be illegal!

Good lord this is funny and I can't wait to try it.

 

[bengerman]

that's illegal... at least it is in WA.

let me rephrase....



has anyone tried monster/rockstar?

they both have varieties with made with fruit juice.....hmmmmm.... Monster Khaos wine?

 

[rycov]

Hmmm interesting, I have plenty of 1gal carlo rossi wine jugs laying around. I think I may play around with this

Edit: I have access to Coke, Diet Coke, 7up, Dr.Pepper, Minute Maid lemonade, and Barqs Root beer syrups. What should I do with said.syrups?

The diet may not ferment, I'm not sure what kind of sweetener they use, but some of the artificial sweeteners are unfermentable

 

[slowjerk]

I still have my Mountain Dew wine in the secondary under airlock. Not sure what to do with it. I need to sweeten it up a LOT.

My girlfriend refuses to taste it. I tasted it when I grabbed a gravity reading and it undrinkable in it's current state.

I think starting with syrup and water without the CO2 would be better, and even adding more sugar at the beginning would help things out.

There is not a lot of flavor once it's all done. Not worth it when you can use juice and get a way better end result. However, this recipe does make 4 liters of "wine" for about $5.

 

[oldmate]

Why don't you just backsweeten with more syrup? You'd get the taste and the sweetness pretty quick!

 

[slowjerk]

I don't have access to syrup. I also think doing that would take away from the whole thing. Syrup isn't "readily available" to most people. I don't even know where I could buy it.

 

[Scruffy1207]

I don't have access to syrup. I also think doing that would take away from the whole thing. Syrup isn't "readily available" to most people. I don't even know where I could buy it.

I can buy it at costco business, the only thing is it's like a 2-2 1/2 gallon box of syrup. I'd send you some but where I work doesn't have mountain dew, closest thing is 7up. If you want to make a 7up version, then we can talk.

 

[RobWalker]

Or grab a few cans and reduce them on the hob...

 

[calicojack]

so when we were... uh... well let's just say younger.... my friends and I used to drink mountain dew mixed with thunderbird.

I imagine THIS is going to taste MUCH worse. So much so that i'm going to start a batch of it tomorrow.

 

[oldmate]

I keep forgetting that Mountain Dew is an energy drink over there, here it's just a plain old lemonade. Pretty boring and no-one likes it.

 

[bengerman]

I keep forgetting that Mountain Dew is an energy drink over there, here it's just a plain old lemonade. Pretty boring and no-one likes it.

not really an energy drink. just a soda.
one of the more caffeinated ones, but just soda.