What do different juices fermented taste like?

Miraculix · Feb 12, 2019

gratus fermentatio said:
FYI: Most black cherry juice is either juice from sweet cherries, or a blend of juice from sweet & tart (pie type) cherries. Sweet cherries don't have as much cherry flavor as tart cherries do, but they can still make a good wine. There's a winery here (Ten Spoon) that makes a tasty Flathead cherry dry wine from sweet cherries. I've made Flathead cherry melomels that were pretty tasty. I've also done pear juice & it needs acid & tannin additions to keep it from tasting bland.

I've never fermented pineapple juice, but there was a guy here on HBT (Freezeblade?) who did with pure pineapple juice & said it was way too acidic & needed to be diluted and/or treated to reduce acid. Plums have a lot of acid too & the pure juice needs to be diluted as well. I did a 1 gal experiment with pure prune juice too, it was so acidic post-fermentation, you'd swear it could strip the enamel off your teeth; it also still tasted like prune juice; I won't be doing that again.

I've only used pomegranate juice blended with other juice (blackberry/blueberry), but those wines turned out to be tasty & the pom juice definitely added some depth of flavor & a bit of tartness. I've got an experimental batch of 50/50 concord grape/aronia berry wine aging now. The aronia has very mild flavor on its' own, but it has the exact amount of tannin to make concord grape juice taste REALLY good. I've also got 4 gallons of bilberry juice waiting for me to get around to fermenting it, not exactly sure how it'll turn out, but I love the juice. Hope that helps as to your question about other juices.
Regards, GF.

I see, I am not the only idiot who thought that fermenting prune juice might be a good idea.

Even after about a year of aging, it still tasted like crap

.... But it was worth the try. I think the juice is already heavily oxidized, also tasted a bit like port after fermenting it, but not in a good way.

Miraculix · Feb 17, 2019

Fyi

My passion fruit puree just arrived. Now we'll just have to wait till my mead finished, to make some space. And then I will give it a try with the tosna protocol. I think I will make about 5l wine or of the puree. Let's see.

gratus fermentatio · Feb 19, 2019

Almost forgot, I've also used black currant juice, which is really high in ascorbic acid (vitamin C) & it definitely needs to be diluted/treated to reduce acid. It has something like 256% of the USRDA for vitamin C. I used it with apple juice & sweet Flathead cherries in a wine that turned out VERY tasty. Black currant is a flavor-bomb, it easily dominates other flavors. This has got me to thinking I might have to try a blend of diluted black currant juice & aronia berry juice, might be really good. I've added blueberry juice to a blackberry wine & that turned out to be pretty tasty, added quite a bit of depth to the wine. There are a lot of commercially produced juices out there to try; I've done a few 1 gallon batches just to experiment, it's a way to try new things with reduced expense.
Regards, GF.

NeverDie · Feb 19, 2019

I have fermented peach nectar, and I thought it tasted pretty good. Pomegranate also turns out pretty good.

I suggest not using a wine yeast though. If you do, halt the fermentation before it gets above, say, 9 or 10%. If you wait until the ABV is 14%+, then probably the flavor will be mostly gone. Alternately, use a yeast with low attenuation and low ABV tolerance, like Wyeast Sweet Mead.

applescrap · Feb 26, 2019

Thanks everyone for your responses! It won't be long before I give something a try. If and when I do I will update.

applescrap · Feb 26, 2019

NeverDie said:
I have fermented peach nectar, and I thought it tasted pretty good. Pomegranate also turns out pretty good.

I suggest not using a wine yeast though. If you do, halt the fermentation before it gets above, say, 9 or 10%. If you wait until the ABV is 14%+, then probably the flavor will be mostly gone. Alternately, use a yeast with low attenuation and low ABV tolerance, like Wyeast Sweet Mead.

Appreciate the tips. So this juice is much stronger than Apple Juice?