Tangelo Wine

[BrewinHooligan]

My grandfather has a Tangelo tree and he gave me around a gallon of fresh squeezed juice that I froze. I have a batch of Skeeter Pee going that used fresh squeezed lemon juice so I figured I would take the juice that I had frozen and turn it into a wine following a similar recipe as Skeeter Pee except I decided to use D-47 instead of the EC-1118 for a sweeter finish.

What I threw together last night:
1 gallon Tangelo juice
5 gallons water
10lbs sugar
Yeast nutrient
Yeast energizer
2 packets of D-47 due to the high acidity
Initial gravity reading is 1.080

I made a simple syrup boiling the sugar in water with some of the Tangelo juice and adding that directly to the fermentor that had the rest of the juice, water, and nutrient/energizer. Pitched the yeast and fermentation was going strong this morning. I am not sure what to expect and have not come across any recipes by searching so any suggestions on what to do from here are welcome. I will update as things progress and will add pictures when I rack to a carboy.

 

[aiptasia]

Skeeter pee or similar citrus based wines are going to be the way to go for brewing similarities. Tangelos are delicious, honey sweet oranges.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Thank you. Glad to know I'm not the only one with the same thought process. I thought the juice tasted incredible on it's own and am hopeful that the finished product will retain the fruit flavor.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I checked the gravity on day 10 and this has gone down to .095. This finished way drier than I anticipated so I will be stabilizing and backsweetening. There is a very distinct tangelo flavor that I think will be enhanced with some sweetness added back in. Pictures and updates to come

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Transferred to carboy to clear yesterday. I will wait a few weeks for some off-gassing and natural clearing before adding sparkolloid to clear completely, stabilize, and back sweeten.

 

[HawleyFarms]

How did this turn out? Have a box of tangelos sitting here waiting for a recipe

 

[bernardsmith]

One gallon fruit juice to 5 gallons of water? That is a pretty dilute drink, I would think that unless the tangelos are incredibly sour (acidic) simply fermenting the juice (with added sugar to raise the gravity) would make for a drinkable wine. What would be a good reason to dilute the fruit juice? Would you typically add water to the juice if you simply squeezed the juice and drunk it straight? I am sure it tastes... um ... OK .... but why the need to dilute it? You want six gallons of tangelo wine... you press six gallons of fruit. You have one gallon of fruit juice? You make a gallon of wine.

 

[HawleyFarms]

Tangelos are fairly acidic similar to oranges. I doubt yeast could survive in straight juice but 5 gallons of water seemed excessive which is why I was asking how it turned out. I have 25lbs of tangelos and was looking for something to do with them since my primary is empty.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

This actually turned out fantastic, I do the exact same thing with lemons. You could certainly use a higher juice to water ratio but everyone that has tried it has loved it.

 

[bernardsmith]

Tangelos are fairly acidic similar to oranges. I doubt yeast could survive in straight juice but 5 gallons of water seemed excessive which is why I was asking how it turned out. I have 25lbs of tangelos and was looking for something to do with them since my primary is empty.

I dunno. I have made wine from orange juice (no added water) and the yeast had no problem fermenting the juice but the wine was too acidic to be pleasant. I added cocoa (chocolate orange?) and the wine is now quite delicious... although it did need a little back sweetening to balance the acidity...

 

[HawleyFarms]

Fresh squeezed OJ or made from concentrate?