Pomegranate Wine Recipe Recommendations

[superman1451]

I have a pomegranate tree and therefore a lot of fruit. We usually end up juicing the fruit and making jam out of it.

I was wondering if you guys had a favorite recipe that you've used in the past. There does't seem to be much information on fermenting pomegranates.

Also most of the recipes I've found call for using whole fruit. Is it better to use the juice or take the seeds out and use those?

 

[GodsStepBrother]

I made a pomegranate wine last year from my tree that died during the winter. Anyway we got about 40 pomegranates and sat down taking all the seeds out. Once we had them all in a huge bowl we put them in a nylon bag (you can get at any home depot etc&#8230 and squeeze all the juice out into two 1 gallon fermenters. We only got about a gallon of juice so we split the juice in half between both of them added some sugar and topped off with water along with some acid blend, wine tannin and yeast nutrient. Then added a campden tablet to each and let it hang out overnight. My fiancé and I pitched yeast in the morning. I do not have the exact recipe with me, but once I get home I will post it. Everybody loved it and it was well worth the time. Unfortunately my tree died so I cannot make more.

This is the only photo I have of it. You can see the 2 one gallon fermenters on the top right of this picture, it was a nice pinkish red.

edit recipe:
Half the 1 gallon carboy full of Pomegranite Juice
1 lb Sugar
2tsp Acid Blend
1/4tsp Tannin
1tsp Pectic Enzyme
1tsp Nutrient
1 Campden Tablet (Crushed)
1pkg Nottingham

Thats the recipe I used.

 

[superman1451]

The recipe I ended up using was
4 quarts of pomegrante juice
12 pounds of sugar
4.5 pounds of raisins
4 gallons of water
5 juiced valencia oranges and 4 juiced lemons
2.5 teaspoons of Fermax
added 5 campden tablets, let it sit overnight and added a pkg of EC-1118

I ended up using the juice pressed from the whole fruit since it is a lot quicker and it did not seem to taste that different from juice pressed from the seeds.

How long did you ferment for and when did you bottle it?

 

[GodsStepBrother]

Mine fermented for about 2 weeks or 3 weeks if I remember, I racked it off the yeast at that time. Then I went ahead and racked it another two times after that to help it clear over the period of 6 months. It was super clear after all that, and I had enough home brew to hold me off. I didn’t have a set time, the moment I realized it was done fermenting, I transferred to secondary. I bottled after 6 months and tried the first one a week after that.

I also used champagne yeast, your yeast will be different while fermenting.

Let me know how yours comes out,

 

[RfIiCrHeE]

I followed a recipe similar to yours. I was excited about this recipe. I pitched the Yeast today and I see nothing happening. I thought that 10 lbs of sugar seemed like a lot. I looked at different blogs and they say that if too much sugar is in the batch that it can kill the yeast. Is that what happened? how do i know the yeast is still working? I do not see any co2 bubbles coming out of the bubbler. Please help!!!!!

 

[seanstermatic]

RfIiCrHeE,

yeast are working if original specific gravity is decreasing. yeast coinsume sugar to make alcohol, so if there's less sugar (indicated by hydrometer gravity reading) then the yeast are working

 

[GodsStepBrother]

I followed a recipe similar to yours. I was excited about this recipe. I pitched the Yeast today and I see nothing happening. I thought that 10 lbs of sugar seemed like a lot. I looked at different blogs and they say that if too much sugar is in the batch that it can kill the yeast. Is that what happened? how do i know the yeast is still working? I do not see any co2 bubbles coming out of the bubbler. Please help!!!!!

This doesn't ferment like wine ferments, I remember when i did mine there was no krausen or anything like that. All you will see with your eye are tiny little bubbles rising to the top, did you add yeast nutrient?

 

[superman1451]

I followed a recipe similar to yours. I was excited about this recipe. I pitched the Yeast today and I see nothing happening. I thought that 10 lbs of sugar seemed like a lot. I looked at different blogs and they say that if too much sugar is in the batch that it can kill the yeast. Is that what happened? how do i know the yeast is still working? I do not see any co2 bubbles coming out of the bubbler. Please help!!!!!

It also takes a few days for it to start bubbling. I think mine started bubbling on the 3rd day after pitching the yeast and it has been bubbling vigorously ever since.

 

[superman1451]

Just bottled this. Finished at 14.5% ABV or 1.000 FG. It has a good smell, but finished extremely dry. Hopefully it mellows out over the year. I also took a gallon of this, added 200 grams of sugar, and put it back in a carboy. Trying to sweeten it up a bit.

 

[superman1451]

bump. still looking for more recipes with pomegranate juice

 

[TexasWine]

I made this recipe from Jack Keller last Thanksgiving and it tastes incredible now! One major difference between it and your recipe is the back sweetening step. I think doing this brings out the pomegranate flavors more. It's just barely off bone dry.

Pomegranate Juice Wine
2 quarts pomegranate juice
1/2 cup light dry malt extract
very fine granulated sugar to s.g. 1.090 (about 1 lb, but use your hydrometer)
6 1/2 cups water
1 large lemon, juiced
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Lalvin RC212 or EC-1118 Wine Yeast
Bring water to boil, remove from heat and immediately stir in 3/4 pound sugar and dry malt extract until completely dissolved. In primary, combine pomegranate juice and sugar-malt-water, cover and let cool until room temperature. Measure s.g. and add additional sugar if required, stirring until completely dissolved. Add lemon juice and yeast nutrients and stir again for one minute. Add activated yeast as a starter solution and cover primary. Transfer to secondary when s.g. drops below 1.020. Do not top up, but affix an airlock and ferment to dryness. Wait approximately 30 days and rack, adding one finely crushed and dissolved Camden tablet or 1/16th tsp potassium metabisulfite. Top up and reattach airlock. Set in dark place and forget it for 90 days. Rack again and add 1/2 tsp potassium sorbate, dissolved, and 1/2 finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet or a pinch (about 1/32 tsp) of potassium metabisulfite. Attach airlock and set in dark place 2 weeks. Sweeten just enough to pull off bone dryness (to about 1.000-1.002) – or sweeten to taste – and return to dark place for 30 additional days. Rack into bottles and cellar 6-12 months, the latter being preferred. [Jack Keller's own recipe, © 2013]
For those who just can't wait and drink their wines young, this wine was so-so at 4 months, won a Grand Champion at 9 months and a Best of Show at 10 months. It peaked at 13 months and declined slowly and gracefully until consumed at 16 months, still quite nice.

 

[bernardsmith]

This doesn't ferment like wine ferments, I remember when i did mine there was no krausen or anything like that. All you will see with your eye are tiny little bubbles rising to the top, did you add yeast nutrient?

Sorry, but I beg to differ. Pomegranate juice ferments just like wine. Wine does not have krausen. There is no protein or starch in most wines. If you have some fruit pulp then the CO2 may produce foam but if you are working with fruit juice then I would not expect a great deal of foam... There is really nothing to strengthen the surface of the liquid to trap the gas and if you add pectic enzymes to prevent the fruit from forming long chains of pectins then you are even less likely to get a layer of froth and foam unless you whip the CO2 out of the liquor but that lasts only momentarily. .

 

[ajrod27]

I am also looking for a proven pomegranate wine recipe. Recently, I happened upon a large quantity of pomegranates. So far I have about 5gallons of must, and counting (if I don't give up on the deseeding, what a pain!) I have made a few batches of wine from grapes, so I'm familiar with that process. I'm not familiar with testing of non-grape must; what levels am I looking for in TA and pH?

I plan on adding sugar to bring the must to a SG of 1.09, then adding pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient and K-meta, wait 24 hours then pitch ES488 yeast (since I have some leftover from grape harvest.) I've heard poms are high in acidity so I may have to water down to a certain unknown level of TA. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ajrod27]

I am also looking for a proven pomegranate wine recipe. Recently, I happened upon a large quantity of pomegranates. So far I have about 5gallons of must, and counting (if I don't give up on the deseeding, what a pain!) I have made a few batches of wine from grapes, so I'm familiar with that process. I'm not familiar with testing of non-grape must; what levels am I looking for in TA and pH?

I plan on adding sugar to bring the must to a SG of 1.09, then adding pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient and K-meta, wait 24 hours then pitch ES488 yeast (since I have some leftover from grape harvest.) I've heard poms are high in acidity so I may have to water down to a certain unknown level of TA. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I didn't find much on the interwebs regarding pomegranate wine. So I'm going with a lot of assumptions for this one. This is my first non-grape wine so I'm taking detailed notes, which I've shared below. Feel free to provide any suggestions or comments you might have.

Harvested on 11/1/2014 from Porterville, CA
Peeled and crushed by hand. Made a great effort to eliminate as much pith and membrane as possible.
~6 gallons must (22L), seeds and all
OG: 1.076
pH: 3.9
TA: 0.6% (not sure of the accuracy of this number, the color change indicator wasn't definitive.)

11/6/2014
Primary fermentation in 8 gallon bucket sanitized with OneStep
Added ~3/4 teaspoon KMeta(winy) dissolved in water at crush
Added 2tsp. citric acid and 2tsp. tartaric acid dissolved in water
Added ~1lb. raw sugar dissolved in water

11/7/2014
Added 2tbs. Pectic enzyme directly to must

11/8/2014
SG: 1.089
pH: 3.7
Added 1/2 teaspoon ES Energy directly to must
ES488 Yeast 10 Grams
Started yeast in 1/2 cup warm spring water for 10 minutes then added 1/2 cup must, left for 30 minutes. After vigorious fermenation was apperant, pitched starter into must and stirred briefly.

11/9/2014
Obvious signs of active fermentation are apparent.

 

[Aspwiz]

I'm sorry to drag up and old thread but....
I came across this pomegranate syrup and it made me wonder if it would ferment. Would anybody know if it's fermentable? I assume it would need boiled first if so.

Would anyone know more specifically if this could work?

Thank you for your help.

 

[fluketamer]

Pomegranate wine. from the sister site homebrewforum

2 litre Pomegranate juice.

1 litre white grape juice

700g Sugar.

1 tsp citric acid or juice of one lemon.

1 tsp Tannin or a mug of strong black tea.

1 tsp wine yeast ( i ve used montrachet, d47 and kv1116)

1 tsp Nutrient.

1 tsp Pectolase.

1 tsp Glycerene. (optional)

from my experience making juice wines you dont use syrup you use juice and aim for 100 percent juice at that.
the first ingredient in that syrup is glucose. imo you want to make wine out of juice not glucose sugar.

 

[Aspwiz]

Hey thanks for the input. I wrongly assumed the syrup was like a concentrate but what you have said makes sense. Cheers

 

[JAReeves]

I'm sorry to drag up and old thread but....
I came across this pomegranate syrup and it made me wonder if it would ferment. Would anybody know if it's fermentable? I assume it would need boiled first if so.

Would anyone know more specifically if this could work?

Thank you for your help.
View attachment 828795View attachment 828796

In the ingredient list, this contains preservative, whatever that might be. That should inhibit the yeast from working as that would be why you add preservative to a sugar solution in the first place.

 

[Northerngal]

The sorbate will likely prevent fermentation.