Langers Polmegranate Blueberry

[Neeb]

So I found 64 oz bottles of Langers for 2$ each so I decided this was definitely worth turning into a cheaper wine. Although they did not have the sugar that I wanted, 4 LB for 2.50$ (Which is still expensive, was looking to get a more unrefined sugar.) Instead I bought 1 LB of Turbinado sugar for 2.50$ which I mean, It will turn out better so whatever okay not going to complain about that, expensive for sure considering the juice I am using. Not really into consuming much processed sugar anyway, literally at all I do not consume it even in coffee. I am guessing the sugar will dissolve easily into the juice from shaking, I usually shake a good amount of times for an hour, does anyone have experience with this sugar and the way it dissolves. I figure it should be fine dissolving on it's own without any added heat. Anyway I am wondering if anyone has any extra suggestions maybe I should try because I am a beginner, maybe you have something I should try and take a risk so I can learn from it, type of thing.. Thanks am open to suggestions, the juice contains Vitamin E acetate and Vitamin A palmitate, with vitamin d3. I figure that is just more vitamins for the yeast, the juice I usually use is just a grape without as many additives so this will be my first wine with different fruit. Also I am wondering how do you determine the calorie count of a wine? Is it just the sugar added + the calories of the juice?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Neeb, I am unfamiliar with that particular kind of sugar, but the less refined it is the more flavors it will impart. I think that it may provide some caramel-like flavors and that may be fine.
Does the juice contain any preservatives? If sorbates that may inhibit fermentation.
The caloric value of alcohol is different from sugar - and remember if you allow the yeast to fully ferment all the sugar, by definition there is no sugar. Alcohol has about 7 calories/gm (sugar has 4 calories/gm and fat has 9 calories/gm). But note that when yeast ferments sugar half the weight of the sugar is converted into Carbon Dioxide gas, so there is only half the total sugar left to convert into alcohol (water is the other major ingredient and water does not possess any caloric value. It's not a source of energy.

 

[Neeb]

Yeah I made sure it didn't have those preservatives, it's just natural flavors (which are not really natural. And absorbic Acid. Another name for the sugar it is sugar in the raw, I realized it was a 2 LB bag (didn't lose as much money as I thought) also so I figure 1 LB of sugar for a gallon, seems good right? Maybe I'll use the other pound for my family otherwise, (buy 2 more bottles of juice?) Haha. I never knew that only half the sugar turns into alcohol so you helped me learn something, but I still do not exactly understand how to calculate the calories of the whole bottle exactly. I usually use grape juice when I do, this so this is a first really and am not sure if anyone really reccomends me to just drink the juice instead of trying to make the wine. That wouldn't be bad if you did suggest that, just looking for opinions here. Anyway I did make my first post a bit tipsy/drunk and this post I am tipsy as well, don't drink much so my paragraph is definitely not that intellectual. I had a few batches that were fails so I bought some wine and beer at the shop. Don't experiment too much I realized for the basics, just do what you know works.

 

[bernardsmith]

If each gm of alcohol = 7 calories, and your wine is 14% ABV then each 750 ml bottle will have about 625 cal (or about 90 gms of alcohol, where 1 gm (weight) = 1 ml (vol) in the metric universe. If your wine is 10% ABV then it will have 75 ml of alcohol and so about 525 calories. (7cal X the volume of alcohol in ml as % of total volume of water and alcohol per bottle (750 ml). Does that make sense?