Who has made Juice wine? Tell us your story!

[Sky Pilot]

Hello everyone. I hope all is well. I am enjoying some concord grape wine that I made from Welches grape juice and Champaign yeast, and (according to my records) 1 1/2 cups of sugar. OG 1.096. FG 0.986
I started on the 11th of July 2021 around the time I made my first batch of beer.
I did not keep good records, and I am not sure when I bottled it. It did not taste very good 7/25/2021 when I noted: "stopped bubbling, yeast flavor, sweet."
Now: the smell of concord grape, very dry, clean finish. I enjoy this better than most commercially available labels.
This first batch was made from a brand name, I will try the same recipe with the store brand and wine yeast, as I am out of champaign yeast. I like this recipe. I will not change it for now.

 

[Coffee49]

I am seeing some dry concord at the fingerlake wineries this year, the back sweetening will determine the RS, I made a dry Ives in 2019 and backsweetened it with a cup of sugar, it turned out very good.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Northland blueberry, blackberry, acai. Various cranberry/other fruit (cranberry pomegranate atm) mango peach, concord grape, apple cherry, guava. SWMBO and I really like the fruit wines I make from bottled and frozen concentrated juice. I'm sure there are others I have done as it is my preferred goto for must.

 

[jeebuzz]

We like pear and blackberry when they are producing, but have adopted a juice white wine for our family "table wine" and always have a batch going! Super simple to source, make and clarifies really well.

White Juice Wine - 5-gallon Batch
(5) - Simple Truth Organic™ White Grape 100% Juice - 64oz ($2.49/e at Kroger)
8 lbs sugar
(1) - Red Star Premier Blanc Wine Yeast
(1) - tbsp Yeast Nutrient
(2) - gallons water +-

Wife likes this base recipe as is, but I also make one for me and add the following:
1 1/2 tsp Grape Tannin
2oz medium toasted White Oak chips

We like it so much I am thinking about starting to keg it to make things even easier, more research to do there though.

 

[Tennessee Brew]

I make concord grape all the time, its my favorite. Right now have a gallon batch of Black Cherry and Concord grape finishing up. They always come out amazing. I usually get the OG up to 1.100 so they come out a bit of sweet.
I've also used a tropical mix that made an amazing wine.

 

[MaxStout]

I made 4 gallons of apple/black cherry with juice from Aldi. About 50/50 apple/cherry. Pitched S-04 and added 1/2 tsp. yeast nutrient.

The black cherry gave it a nice bit of sourness, and the ale yeast didn't completely dry it out. Fermented in primary 2 months, bottled and carbed to about 2.8 vols.

 

[MaxStout]

I made a batch of @Yooper's Welch's grape juice wine a few years ago. It turned out well--very tasty.

 

[jkuhl]

I made a blueberry wine about a month ago. It's still on secondary fermentation and will be for a while, but from what I tasted, it was pretty good.

I used about 3 of these, RW Knudsen Blueberry Juice, in a one gallon batch with about a pound of sugar and enough water to finish it to a gallon.

I'm waiting for it to age and finish whatever slow fermentation it might still be doing (it might be done by now, I just haven't measured it for a while) but I'm looking forward to drinking it.

 

[JordanfromOK]

Hello everyone. I hope all is well. I am enjoying some concord grape wine that I made from Welches grape juice and Champaign yeast, and (according to my records) 1 1/2 cups of sugar. OG 1.096. FG 0.986
I started on the 11th of July 2021 around the time I made my first batch of beer.
I did not keep good records, and I am not sure when I bottled it. It did not taste very good 7/25/2021 when I noted: "stopped bubbling, yeast flavor, sweet."
Now: the smell of concord grape, very dry, clean finish. I enjoy this better than most commercially available labels.
This first batch was made from a brand name, I will try the same recipe with the store brand and wine yeast, as I am out of champaign yeast. I like this recipe. I will not change it for now.

Hey Sky Pilot,
Besides the yeast selection, your recipe is the same as the 1st wine I made a few years ago when I got into homebrewing. I got the recipe from Brian & Derika @ City Steading.
1 gal of GV or any 100% grape juice, teaspoon of Fleischmann's active dry, & 2.5 cups of white sugar. Give it a month to settle and enjoy. It's usually better young. Comes out sweet & tastey.

 

[Meadini]

I made a batch back in February with store bought apple juice, fajc, 2 tsp cinnamon and brown sugar to 1.075. I used 71b yeast. This batch had a funky aftertaste for months, but it turned the corner last month. I just back sweetened it yesterday and it turned out quite nice.

 

[sddingman]

I made black cherry wine from 100% organic black cherry juice, Lalvin K1V-1116 yeast. I start with a syrup that's about 1.095 and let it go to .99. I ferment in all glass. Age for 6 months. It came out fantastic. Of all the fruit wines I have made, I have had some of my pickiest wine friends demand I make more. I do not use sulfite tablets.

 

[FromZwolle]

Hello everyone. I hope all is well. I am enjoying some concord grape wine that I made from Welches grape juice and Champaign yeast, and (according to my records) 1 1/2 cups of sugar. OG 1.096. FG 0.986
I started on the 11th of July 2021 around the time I made my first batch of beer.
I did not keep good records, and I am not sure when I bottled it. It did not taste very good 7/25/2021 when I noted: "stopped bubbling, yeast flavor, sweet."
Now: the smell of concord grape, very dry, clean finish. I enjoy this better than most commercially available labels.
This first batch was made from a brand name, I will try the same recipe with the store brand and wine yeast, as I am out of champaign yeast. I like this recipe. I will not change it for now.

i've done a bunch of frozen juice wines. they taste fine to me and are the only economical way to have a few gallons of cooking (poached pears) handy.

that said, my wine palate is akin to a chimpanzee's understanding of socio-economics.

 

[Warhorse_383]

I made black cherry wine from 100% organic black cherry juice, Lalvin K1V-1116 yeast. I start with a syrup that's about 1.095 and let it go to .99. I ferment in all glass. Age for 6 months. It came out fantastic. Of all the fruit wines I have made, I have had some of my pickiest wine friends demand I make more. I do not use sulfite tablets.

Sounds delicious!! how about a recipe??

 

[madgardener]

I just bottled my first batch of wine from purchased juice- apple- today. K1-V116 yeast, SG 1.092. Let it go to all the way to .99, didn't like the flavor or the mouth feel, stabilized it and added 11.5 oz of Langer's apple juice concentrate. My FG was 1.01 at bottling and the added juice seemed to fix the issues I had with it before adding the juice.

All that being said, I also do blueberry, raspberry, sour cherry, red currant and rhubarb wines, all from home-grown fruit, and I start from juice with everything except the rhubarb; I haven't found a truly effective way to press rhubarb yet

 

[bellhp]

haven't gone there yet ... Found this site when searching for muscadine wine recipes . Since then I've done several batches of muscadine and Persimmon wine , got back into beer brewing , made vinegar ... mead is next ... I'm all over the map.

 

[Yeast Farmer]

I've made several good red wines from store bought juice. I have my first white one in the fermenter now. I used:
9 quarts of Great Value white grape juice
6 quarts of apple juice
4 quarts pear juice
4 quarts white cranberry peach
2 quarts white grape peach
5 cups of sugar
3 tsp acid blend
1 tsp wine tannin
5 tsp yeast nutrient
Premier Classique yeast

I'm hoping it will be something like a fruity Chardonnay, but it will probably be pretty good either way. I hope. The Great Value brand white grape juice had potassium metabisulfate in it, but it didn't seem to hurt the fermentation. I did wait until the airlock was bubbling good to add it, probably not necessary but I was paranoid about wasting all that juice.

I'm not crazy about the Concord grape flavor, but I discovered that adding some cranberry juice to the grape juice in my red wines cuts the grapey flavor somewhat and makes it taste a little more like a "real" wine.

 

[thetick]

I made Chocolate Pomegranate wine last year similar based on this video. People who like pomegranate really liked it — unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

However, I tried some commercially produced cherry wine over the summer and found that I really liked it.

So, I’m planning to start some chocolate cherry wine today. I have a gallon of cherry juice that I’m going to add sugar to and bring up into the 1.1-ish range for SG. Then I’ll ferment with EC-1118, and repeat the add-sugar/fermentation cycle until I need up with a slightly-sweet base wine.

When it’s done, I have some chocolate extract made with Crio Brew that has been conditioning since last summer that I’ll add, along with a touch of vanilla (if needed) for balance.

I’ve never tried this particular recipe before I’m curious to see how it turns out.

 

[madgardener]

I made Chocolate Pomegranate wine last year similar based on this video. People who like pomegranate really liked it — unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

However, I tried some commercially produced cherry wine over the summer and found that I really liked it.

So, I’m planning to start some chocolate cherry wine today. I have a gallon of cherry juice that I’m going to add sugar to and bring up into the 1.1-ish range for SG. Then I’ll ferment with EC-1118, and repeat the add-sugar/fermentation cycle until I need up with a slightly-sweet base wine.

When it’s done, I have some chocolate extract made with Crio Brew that has been conditioning since last summer that I’ll add, along with a touch of vanilla (if needed) for balance.

I’ve never tried this particular recipe before I’m curious to see how it turns out.

Sounds intriguing. Are you committed to using EC-1118? The reason I ask is I've had really good results preserving the flavor of the fruit, particularly dark fruits, using 71-B

 

[thetick]

Sounds intriguing. Are you committed to using EC-1118? The reason I ask is I've had really good results preserving the flavor of the fruit, particularly dark fruits, using 71-B

For this go-around yes (already purchased it and going to pitch this afternoon). Really, the only reason I picked EC-1118 is because I’m familiar with it. I primarily brew beer and cider, this will only be the second batch of wine I have ever made.

Appreciate the tip, though. I will definitely make a note of that for next time. Turns out I really like cherry wine so I’ll probably be making more of it in the future.

 

[madgardener]

For this go-around yes (already purchased it and going to pitch this afternoon). Really, the only reason I picked EC-1118 is because I’m familiar with it. I primarily brew beer and cider, this will only be the second batch of wine I have ever made.

Appreciate the tip, though. I will definitely make a note of that for next time. Turns out I really like cherry wine so I’ll probably be making more of it in the future.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out. My experiment batches this year are a mint wine (s-l-o-w-ly working it's way towards bottling now) and a blueberry port that I'll be starting next week.

 

[fluketamer]

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/supermarket-juice-wine-how-to-guide-and-recipes.49462/
the above link is from the sister site. i got lost down that rabbit hole for two years making any 100 percent fruit juices that i could find into wine.

years ago before the lhbs opened up the nearest was two hours away and had questionable ingredients. i got sick of paying for exorbitant shipping and found this thread after reading about fermenting/ brewing with ingredients in the supermarket (mead ((JAOM)) root beers and ginger ales come to mind) but found very decent wine can be made from the supermarket. if you can get to exotic food stores you can find all sorts of 100 percent juices to ferment into wine.


2 litre any 100 percent fruit juice juice.

1 litre white grape juice (dark grape juice masks the color of the base fruit)

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)

 

[jkuhl]

I made some recently from Knudsen's Black Cherry juice. I only had enough to fit a 1 liter mason jar but I got a 750 ml bottle and a 500 ml bottle out of it.

If I find more at my grocery store, I might scale up to a gallon and repeat, especially since you don't really get much room for racking and clearing in small mason jars without losing significant amounts. But I use those mason jars for experiments to see if I'd even like the flavor, and this one has a lot of potential for a really good wine.

 

[fluketamer]

some of my supermarket juice wines

 

[Coydee]

I just bottled my first batch of wine from purchased juice- apple- today. K1-V116 yeast, SG 1.092. Let it go to all the way to .99, didn't like the flavor or the mouth feel, stabilized it and added 11.5 oz of Langer's apple juice concentrate. My FG was 1.01 at bottling and the added juice seemed to fix the issues I had with it before adding the juice.

All that being said, I also do blueberry, raspberry, sour cherry, red currant and rhubarb wines, all from home-grown fruit, and I start from juice with everything except the rhubarb; I haven't found a truly effective way to press rhubarb yet

I have found the best way to extract the juice of Rhubarb is the one used by CJJ Berry in his well-known book "First Steps in Winemaking" - dry sugar or cold extraction.
Cut the Rhubarb in to 1" segments and place them in your primary.
Pour over them the sugar needed for your recipe, cover and leave for at least 24hrs until most of the sugar has dissolved.
Gently squeeze the pulp. Next stir the pulp in a little cold water and finally rinse the pulp as you remove it. A beautiful pink syrup is left behind.
Berry preferred this method because the Oxalic acid remains in the Rhubarb.
It is bitter tasting and harmful if consumed in enough quantity.
He also stressed using young Rhubarb in low quantities - 2 1/2lbs per gallon.
I have used this method for more than 45 years and have produced many good tasting German-style wines and even a sparkling one or two. Even the not so good wines have been great for blending with an overly sweet wine or mixing with a small quantity of fruit juice.

 

[Coydee]

Welch's and GV Concord Grape. Mango. White Cran-Peach. Apple. Spiced Cider.
Blueberry, Blackberry & Acai.

 

[madgardener]

I have found the best way to extract the juice of Rhubarb is the one used by CJJ Berry in his well-known book "First Steps in Winemaking" - dry sugar or cold extraction.
Cut the Rhubarb in to 1" segments and place them in your primary.
Pour over them the sugar needed for your recipe, cover and leave for at least 24hrs until most of the sugar has dissolved.
Gently squeeze the pulp. Next stir the pulp in a little cold water and finally rinse the pulp as you remove it. A beautiful pink syrup is left behind.
Berry preferred this method because the Oxalic acid remains in the Rhubarb.
It is bitter tasting and harmful if consumed in enough quantity.
He also stressed using young Rhubarb in low quantities - 2 1/2lbs per gallon.
I have used this method for more than 45 years and have produced many good tasting German-style wines and even a sparkling one or two. Even the not so good wines have been great for blending with an overly sweet wine or mixing with a small quantity of fruit juice.

Thank you for the useful tip; I'll try next time

 

[SFC Rudy]

I was a young Soldier in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield. I came across some grape juice in flip top bottles and some bakers yeast. So I of course mixed them together. Only thing is I didn’t know about pressure during fermentation.

We were living in rail cars at an old labor camp and I stashed the bottles in the wall. After about a week I was asleep when I heard aloud POP and a fizz. Then heard it again about 15 minutes later. Then the smell of wine seeping into the wood floor. Thank god for pine sol to cover the smell!

Anyway, it didn’t taste bad but didn’t taste good, either. We got a buzz, so mission accomplished!