# blackberry steamed juice / brix question



## ashappar (Aug 27, 2010)

I know it will vary based on type and growing conditions, but can anyone chime in on the average brix of blackberry juice that comes from their steamer?

I havent steamed mine yet, they are still in the freezer - but I'm curious about how sweet the product will be. There is a place north of here that sells blackberry juice concentrate in bulk, no preservatives, and the concentrate is approx. 65 brix and reconstitutes to about 10 brix. 

I havent tried the stuff yet since you have to buy it in 5G pails (reconstitutes to about 30G) - they say that winemakers use their juices.

just trying to get a feel for how sweet the extracted juice from a steamer is. the concentrate may be an easy way for me to make a lot of blackberry wine without needing to collect a lot of fruit.

I had *really* good results using cherry juice concentrate to make wine, and I was able to buy it 32oz at a time from brownwood acres. Unfortunately they dont sell blackberry or black raspberry concentrates.


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## Sparky (Aug 27, 2010)

Hi,
Not sure if this will help. I don't steam my blackberries but I do test brix with my refractometer. I measure 9-11 brix on my blackberries.


Regards,
John


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## Tom (Aug 27, 2010)

ashappar said:


> I know it will vary based on type and growing conditions, but can anyone chime in on the average brix of blackberry juice that comes from their steamer?
> 
> I havent steamed mine yet, they are still in the freezer - but I'm curious about how sweet the product will be. There is a place north of here that sells blackberry juice concentrate in bulk, no preservatives, and the concentrate is approx. 65 brix and reconstitutes to about 10 brix.
> 
> ...


1st not the same as all they did was take the water out to get the high brix. The trick is to know when to STOP the steamer. remember the longer you steam the more water will be added to the juice.
Brix will vary but the 7-10 is about right.


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## ashappar (Aug 27, 2010)

thanks guys. Sparky, the brix from the berries is a helpful reading.
when I steam my blackberries I'll take a reading also to see what that gets me. 

I haven't steamed long enough to be an expert so always appreciate advice. Its hard to tell when to stop, and to resist fiddling with the lid. I do remember seeing a thread someplace where people quoted their average yield from a steamer for blackberries, pounds (or gallons?) of fruit to gallons of juice. I wrote those down to help guide my steaming when I get to the blackberries. 

I was assuming the reconstituted juice would be close to the original brix of the juice they concentrated but I figure that can vary as well. 

cheers


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## Luc (Aug 27, 2010)

I just did a story on my web-log on blackberries:

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2010/08/bramen-oogsten-harvesting-blackberries.html

I measured an acidity of 8 and an SG of 1.045 (ofcourse after
treating the blackberries with enzymes: read the story).

An sg of 1.045 will be around 11.3 brix (according to Pambianchi's table).

I am now doing tests with the berries and that will be in the follow up story.

Luc


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## ashappar (Aug 27, 2010)

nice blog post Luc thanks for pointing to that. I used your same picking strategy part way through the season. there were so many berries this year, I decided to be choosy and only take the fat sweet ones. Heres hoping they make a wine as delicious as they were to eat.


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## BobF (Aug 28, 2010)

ashappar said:


> I know it will vary based on type and growing conditions, but can anyone chime in on the average brix of blackberry juice that comes from their steamer?
> 
> I havent steamed mine yet, they are still in the freezer - but I'm curious about how sweet the product will be. There is a place north of here that sells blackberry juice concentrate in bulk, no preservatives, and the concentrate is approx. 65 brix and reconstitutes to about 10 brix.
> 
> ...


 
I have a 24oz sample of bb concentrate from a supplier I haven't tested yet. They sell min 5g. They recommend 7.2|1, water|conc to achieve 10 brix.

If the concentrate tests well, I'll be splitting a 5g with somebody. They get $237.50 (plus unknown shipping) for 5g. This might be a great deal or a not so great deal depending how much conc is needed to get a rich bb wine.

They also have other juices:
http://www.milnefruit.com/

If anybody here has used their products, PLEASE tell us how it worked out!


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## Tom (Aug 28, 2010)

That seem way to high $$!
For that price I would use fresh or frozen blackberry.
remember you need to bring the Gravity up to 1.080 and thats about 20 brix.


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## Roatan_Mark (Aug 28, 2010)

Wow! I was getting all excited about ordering some bb concentrate and shipping down here but at that price........do let me know if you try it and how it comes out. I am always trying new things but around here you get tropical fruit only (unless you order or find conentrate), of course since I am located in the tropics @ 16 Deg North  Biggest reason I am making wine this time of year and beer when it cools down somewhat.


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## ashappar (Aug 28, 2010)

hey BobF, nice link and they have similar products to these guys :

http://www.greenwoodassociates.com/products.asp

greenwood has a large selection of juice and puree, and even wine grape concentrates. They are near chicago and closer to my area, and yours too it seems. 

I think $237 + ship per 5G pail would be a pretty good price if the reconstituted juice is of high quality. the 32oz bottles of cherry concentrate I used (from another vendor) stated that each bottle was from 24lbs of fruit on average. 24lbs of fresh fruit would be quite expensive and time consuming to extract the juice. The reconstituted juice (2 gallons) had a very strong and fresh flavor. 

My goal is to make quality regular and port style fruit wines and even though the initial cost is high I think the yield in wine makes up for that. Cost per bottle of wine is still low if you calculate it out.. I've also been recruiting locals to go in on volume. Yes I know, a traditionalist may not like the idea of a concentrate - or many would associate these products with walmart's frozen section concentrates that are mostly apple juice blends and other cheap stuff. But there is no comparison. 

I'm really interested to hear how your test of the sample goes bobF. Did you get the marion BB concentrate or the other type?

here is a link to a place where I bought some concentrates this year :

http://www.brownwoodacres.com/fruit_juice_concentrates.php

they ship fast and sell as little as 16oz at a time. They have a limited selection of juices, but I cant stress how happy I was with the quality of the cherry wine I made from their concentrate. I have some blueberry and also pomegranate concentrate of theirs waiting in the freezer until carboys are freed up.

I'll get a quote from greenwood this coming week on their Black Berry concentrate and post the info here.


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## Tom (Aug 28, 2010)

Ty here $78.00
http://www.walkersfruitbasket.com/Pail Prices.html


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## ashappar (Aug 28, 2010)

looks like single strength juice Tom. previous vendors listed have 7:1 concentrate which works out to a better price if you want volume. I wish they would quote the brix for their pail products, but I suspect its around 15 - 25. wonder if there is added sugar to up the brix on the fruit products, since they are for direct ferment?

still an interesting link. There are local wineshops here that sell single strength juices of grape and fruit for direct fermentation in the shipping bucket. One vendor told me that their fruit products had added sugar and were from concentrate and pulp.


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## ashappar (Aug 28, 2010)

I looked a bit and found 21brix for their juice products. thats pretty good for a ready made must.


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## Tom (Aug 28, 2010)

ashappar said:


> looks like single strength juice Tom. previous vendors listed have 7:1 concentrate which works out to a better price if you want volume. I wish they would quote the brix for their pail products, but I suspect its around 15 - 25. wonder if there is added sugar to up the brix on the fruit products, since they are for direct ferment?
> 
> still an interesting link. There are local wineshops here that sell single strength juices of grape and fruit for direct fermentation in the shipping bucket. One vendor told me that their fruit products had added sugar and were from concentrate and pulp.



I would call Walkers. I'll bet its around 20 brix or 1.080


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## ashappar (Aug 28, 2010)

ashappar said:


> I looked a bit and found 21brix for their juice products. thats pretty good for a ready made must.



21 brix is what I found on Walker's website.


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## BobF (Aug 28, 2010)

Tom said:


> That seem way to high $$!
> For that price I would use fresh or frozen blackberry.
> remember you need to bring the Gravity up to 1.080 and thats about 20 brix.


 

If I find a place that will sell me 41g of bb juice for $237.50, I'll buy it.

That's $5.79 per gallon of reconstituted juice. Expensive? Hardly.


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## BobF (Aug 28, 2010)

Roatan_Mark said:


> Wow! I was getting all excited about ordering some bb concentrate and shipping down here but at that price........do let me know if you try it and how it comes out. I am always trying new things but around here you get tropical fruit only (unless you order or find conentrate), of course since I am located in the tropics @ 16 Deg North  Biggest reason I am making wine this time of year and beer when it cools down somewhat.


 
Why does that seem high? $5.79 a gallon is cheap for bb juice. That 5g pail makes 41g of juice.

I've seen the comments about needing to increase brix, etc., but I don't understand why they would treat 1\1 juice any different than juiced blackedberries. I seriously doubt anybody here juices enough bb to get 12g, then reduce it to 6g to ferment. That's just crazy talk!  They 4#/g of berries and add sugar just like everything else. Why treat concentrate any differently? I have considered adding 1#/g of berries to get some skins in it.

I did the math on this and using enough concentrate to get the amount of juice you'd get out of 4#/g of berries, 3g of wine runs $8.xx for the juice plus whatever the shipping cost is. VH cans at $34 for 3g is whole lot more expensive, IMO - and a whole lot less juice.

Oh well ...


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## Tom (Aug 28, 2010)

Yes if you reconstitute it to 1.010. Wine needs to be 1.080 so it is expensive


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## BobF (Aug 28, 2010)

Tom said:


> Yes if you reconstitute it to 1.010. Wine needs to be 1.080 so it is expensive


 
Tom - I don't understand. Tell me how you make wine with blackberries. Maybe that will help me understand.

How many pounds of bberries do you use to make 1g of wine?

Do you juice the berries and reduce the juice until you get to 1080?
Do you use straight juice, add water and sugar?
Or do you use straight juice and add sugar?


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## Tom (Aug 28, 2010)

BobF said:


> Tom - I don't understand. Tell me how you make wine with blackberries. Maybe that will help me understand.
> 
> How many pounds of bberries do you use to make 1g of wine?
> 
> ...



6#'s per gallon so, 6 gallons = 36-40# a batch. 
You can freeze and then thaw add pectic enzyme and 5 gal water and depending on the sweetness level you may get a gravity on a good day of 1.020. Then add sugar and water to 1.080
or freeze fruit and Steam juice them. This way you will get a higher gravity maybe 1.025-1.030 tops. add sugar to 1.080
Grapes are the only fruit that is picked at a high brix 22-25
These never need sugar or water.
Walkers has 5 gallon of BBerry already done at a gravity of 1.080 and U just add yeast.
thats the shortened version.


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## BobF (Aug 28, 2010)

Tom said:


> 6#'s per gallon so, 6 gallons = 36-40# a batch.
> You can freeze and then thaw add pectic enzyme and 5 gal water and depending on the sweetness level you may get a gravity on a good day of 1.020. Then add sugar and water to 1.080
> or freeze fruit and Steam juice them. This way you will get a higher gravity maybe 1.025-1.030 tops. add sugar to 1.080


Why would I do anything different with concentrate that has been recon to single strength?


> Grapes are the only fruit that is picked at a high brix 22-25
> These never need sugar or water.


No kidding?! 


> Walkers has 5 gallon of BBerry already done at a gravity of 1.080 and U just add yeast.
> thats the shortened version.


 
At $5.79/g as I listed earlier, I would have 5g of 1010 bb juice for $28.95. That leaves $49.80 to buy sugar. Walker's is the one that sounds expensive to me.

Is their 5g a concentrate? 
Is it single-strength with sugar added?
Is it diluted (less than single-strength) with sugar added?

The link you provided doesn't say.

I'm still not seeing why you think $5.79/g for single-strength bb juice at 1010 is expensive.


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## Tom (Aug 28, 2010)

_Is their 5g a concentrate? 
Is it single-strength with sugar added?
Is it diluted (less than single-strength) with sugar added?_

Now thats a good question and I have no answer. Call them and see what they say and get back.


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## BobF (Aug 28, 2010)

Tom said:


> _Is their 5g a concentrate? _
> _Is it single-strength with sugar added?_
> _Is it diluted (less than single-strength) with sugar added?_
> 
> Now thats a good question and I have no answer. Call them and see what they say and get back.


 
Better yet, when YOU make a recommendation over another, why don't YOU find out a little bit about what YOU are recommending before you recommend it?

That would be far more helpful than saying "Wine needs to be 1080", don't you think?


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## Tom (Aug 28, 2010)

Bob, 
Point taken. But if these juices are wine quality I wonder why they say nothing about making wine.
Walkers makes Wine quality juices and I know everyone who bought them are happy.
I looked at the specs @ milne they state acid 2-6% _"Acidity: 2.0 to 6.0% as citric; varies with crop year"_ which is high. Not sure if thats the diluted or concentrate.
If you have a 24oz sample why dont you use it, make a small batch before you bet the 5 gal can and report.


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## BobF (Aug 29, 2010)

Tom said:


> Bob,
> Point taken. But if these juices are wine quality I wonder why they say nothing about making wine.
> Walkers makes Wine quality juices and I know everyone who bought them are happy.
> I looked at the specs @ milne they state acid 2-6% _"Acidity: 2.0 to 6.0% as citric; varies with crop year"_ which is high. Not sure if thats the diluted or concentrate.
> If you have a 24oz sample why dont you use it, make a small batch before you bet the 5 gal can and report.


 
That is exactly the reason I have the sample. When I posted the link, I made it clear that I had not tested it yet.

I did talk to a Milne rep on the phone. His claim is that a lot of places use their concentrate for winemaking - but, as I said, I haven't actually tested yet.

I WILL report back here with the results when I do test it.


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## Tom (Aug 29, 2010)

I also emailed them last night for all pricing and request for samples. Also asked @ winemaking.
It's alot of $ for an untested concentrate so testing is the way to go. Funny that on their web site they say nothing about wine making. I would think that mentioning this on the web it would help sales.
Keep an eye on the acid once diluted.


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## BobF (Aug 29, 2010)

Tom said:


> I also emailed them last night for all pricing and request for samples. Also asked @ winemaking.
> It's alot of $ for an untested concentrate so testing is the way to go. Funny that on their web site they say nothing about wine making. I would think that mentioning this on the web it would help sales.
> Keep an eye on the acid once diluted.


 
GREAT! We'll eventually have two tests! I'm not sure that a blurb about winemaking would help that much. It's blackberry (and other) juice. I checked out their process chart and there is nothing different from any other supplier's process - in the end it's juice that you should be able to do anything with that you could do with juice you've pressed yourself.

My quest for concentrates started when I asked at a local winery where they got their fruit and how they processed it.

The answer was that they get concentrates in drums for all of their fruit wines. They did not reveal their supplier, or their method for using the concentrate. All of their fruit wines are very good even though, obviously, I like some better than others. Their bb wine is SWMBO's favorite commercial wine.

I found several bulk concentrate suppliers online. Most of them are B2B only. Milne was the first I found willing to sell retail.

Unfortunately, all carboys are full and I'm in the peak elderberry harvest. Once I have enough elderberries, I'll be tending the carboys, getting ready for some bottling - and then I'll test the Milne bb concentrate.

I'm pretty sure the acid content is concentrated. Reconstituting 2-6% would give .24-.73%, which is what I would expect from fresh, ripe berries.


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## ashappar (Aug 29, 2010)

BobF said:


> My quest for concentrates started when I asked at a local winery where they got their fruit and how they processed it.



pretty much same here BobF.
finding a US based retailer of pure blackberry concentrate was also a challenge for me. Cherry / blueberry was fairly easy to find. (brownwood acres)

as far as advertising on their website that its for making wine, well actually most dealers don't go much farther than posting a data sheet (which is good info). Then finding the application is up to you, usually you already have one in mind. I did talk on the phone with greenwood and the guy was friendly, mentioned winemakers buy their bulk concentrate, and said that retail is an option but in 5G pails minimum. They prefer to deal in high volume as B2B.

I just wanted to start this thread to bring some awareness on pure concentrates for fruit winemaking. To see if anybody else was working along the same lines or had experience. I am really surprised at the quality of the reconstituted juice I worked with when I used some montmorency cherry concentrate to make wine. It was really better than any store bought juice, had no additives so you had to keep it frozen. cost per bottle was really low, much better than fresh fruit (barring that its free fruit of course) - and the labor involved was greatly reduced.

another upside to the pure concentrate is that you can get a very strong flavored wine by fiddling with the ratio when you reconstitute. Another thing I did was reconstitute with white grape juice. It gave an amazing mouthfeel / body to a batch of cherry wine and I used no sugar to get to 1090. Another experiment was reconstitute with welches white grape peach juice. interesting flavor and another delicious wine. 

I was just glad to make cherry wine that didnt taste like cough syrup, but ended up getting something very good. so I thought I'd share my experience and give a heads up on how high quality a concentrate based wine can be.

cheers


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## countrygirl (Aug 29, 2010)

ashappar, what was your reconstitution? did you use the 1oz./7 oz. as they recommend when using as a supplement? i haven't been able to find any tart cherries locally, and this might be a fun way to do a first ever cherry batch.


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## ashappar (Aug 29, 2010)

thats a good question CG, I should gather up my notes and post something in the recipe section.

what I did when I got the concentrate was first do a taste test on single strength juice after reconstituting with water per the bottle instructions. It was quite good and the gravity was ~1050 if I remember correctly. dont quote me on that though. For drinking as a juice, I would maybe add more water than the instructions said. it was a bit strong / sweet, especially if you are used to store juices cut with apple.

after that it was a series of experiments on small 1G batches. 

usually I would add a base other than water, like the white grape or white grape peach, then add the concentrate and stir, then measure gravity, also a taste test. the concentrate is a thick syrup when frozen. My goal was to get strong flavor and not add sugar unless I had to. 

the wine result with montmorency concentrate was appealing because it has this pattern when tasted - tart / sweet / tart finish. Color is a deep ruby red. I did have to adjust acidity a bit but not anything unusual compared to a typical fresh fruit recipe.

after fermentation it was about as good as I expected, rather tart and alcohol was very forward in the flavor. the smell was great however. Very cherry. I do remember that I used K1V-1116 yeast. I finished them as a dessert wine by adding more concentrate. The alcohol flavor is hidden now, but still ABV estimated > 12% on most batches. Masking the alcohol is important to me for cherry, but on other wines I can use a dryer style. I suppose thats a preference of the winemaker, I enjoy fruit wines that are at least a bit sweet because the fruit seems to come forward better.


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## ashappar (Aug 29, 2010)

for volume, I had two 32oz bottles of cherry concentrate and ended up with about 4G of finished wine. I could have been more efficient, but experiments can be wasteful and I did drink some of the juice too.


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## countrygirl (Aug 29, 2010)

ashappar said:


> for volume, I had two 32oz bottles of cherry concentrate and ended up with about 4G of finished wine. I could have been more efficient, but experiments can be wasteful and I did drink some of the juice too.



so, two 32 oz. bottles, how many cans of grape concentrate? and no water? right?


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## ashappar (Aug 29, 2010)

*montmorency cherry dessert wine from concentrate*

my notes are awful. I'll try to expand them from memory as I sip the wine. A larger batch I did in a 3G better bottle and 2x 1G glass carboys. final yield was about 4G and some drinking during bottling by me and helper/bystanders. 

I used the 64oz bottles of welches white grape peach (1055 SG) from walmart because they were on sale and tasted really good. I also had 2 cans of welches white grape. skip the white grape conc or use it exclusively if you like, I used it because of a freezer cleanout at the time. the WG peach juice was a good flavor combo with the cherry. I'll definitely do it again.

I planned to add cherry concentrate until I got to 1090. but I overshot by quite a bit (doh!) and had to pour some into 1G carboys and top all up with white grape peach juice and cherry concentrate - more slowly that time. They were all 1090 or a bit above when I started ferment. No sugar added. I started the 3G better bottle fermenting, then used the fermenting wine to start the 1G carboys. there was a small amount of blowout in the 3G.

I aimed for 1090 at first but fed it with cherry conc during secondary ferment to up the alcohol. No quantities on that or an explanation of why I fed the secondary fermentation. I seem to remember a conversation (lecture?) about 1090 OG not being high enough for a true dessert wine, maybe that was my motivation there.

I also drank a fair amount of the cherry juice outright. so its hard for me to say how much cherry concentrate I fermented / wasted by drinking / used to backsweeten.

alcohol taste was strong/forward when secondary fermentation settled down. I let it sit for a while to make sure it was done, I stabilized and sweetened with more concentrate. I didnt record a gravity after sweetening. It was to taste, without measure. I let it sit to clear (didnt record how long), got impatient and used super kleer KC, more settling and then bottled. I did two rackings - at 10 days and 60 days. At fist racking one of the 1G carboys was used to top up the other two and it went away. On first rackings I bring some sediment over. On second racking I try to leave it all behind. When I bottled, there was a fair amount of sediment that had dropped during clearing. I racked all carboys into one 6.5G carboy and siphoned into bottles from there. Just because it was easier to bottle that way. 

Start to finish this was a 4 month wine. I bottled it in splits (375ml). I found some shrink caps that almost matched the color of the wine.

I wanted a dessert wine - strong flavor and higher alcohol, then masked with sweetness and more flavor. 

to make a recipe for yourself, I would proceed by testing the single strength juice. Test taste, gravity, acidity. standard drill on sulfites and pectic enzyme and use your acid of choice when doing adjustments. I am too lazy it seems recently to take good notes on the must mixing. Maybe too headstrong? I should work on better notes. Most of the text is about racking and bottling state. 

Feel free to use cane sugar if you want, to get a wine with a flavor that is where you want it as far as strength goes. With cherry, I'm paranoid of making cough syrup so I really up the fruit flavor. you can finish the flavor during backsweetening. The aroma survived the ferment but the flavor weakened somewhat.

I have blueberry concentrate, and I'll do a 1G batch from single strength juice, then sugar to 1080 adjust acid etc, and see how it turns out. I'll probably try a blueberry dessert wine.

so my notes are poor quality from this years work. but when I drink the wines, I recall the process. Does that happen to anyone else?


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## myakkagldwngr (Aug 30, 2010)

I did a welch's grape concentrate and didn't backsweeten it any. At first the alcohol was very evident, but now that it has aged 6 or 8 months, it's not too bad.
I can't seem to find any white grape concentrate at any of the walmarts or other stores around here.


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## BobF (Aug 30, 2010)

ashappar said:


> ...
> I just wanted to start this thread to bring some awareness on pure concentrates for fruit winemaking. To see if anybody else was working along the same lines or had experience. I am really surprised at the quality of the reconstituted juice I worked with when I used some montmorency cherry concentrate to make wine. It was really better than any store bought juice, had no additives so you had to keep it frozen. cost per bottle was really low, much better than fresh fruit (barring that its free fruit of course) - and the labor involved was greatly reduced.
> ...


 
I'm glad you started the thread. I hope my results are as positive as yours. I want to make wine, I don't want to be a farmer. By the time all is said and done, I have far more hours into harvest & processing than I do in making wine from the fruit.

I can't think of any reason why the concentrates won't make terrific wine - it seems to work well for the commercial guys.

It will be interesting to see how the trials go.

Even if I end up adding a bit of fresh fruit for skins, the volume of fruit req'd would be drastically reduced.

I think I'll keep detailed notes as I go though! ::


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## Tom (Aug 30, 2010)

Here is how I keep my records

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8365


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## BobF (Aug 30, 2010)

Tom said:


> Here is how I keep my records
> 
> http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8365


 
My notes are much more verbose ;-)


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## winemaker_3352 (Aug 30, 2010)

BobF said:


> My notes are much more verbose ;-)



Yeah i just keep a composition notebook with me and i write what i do, when i do it, and how much of something i do.

Easier for me at the time to hand write what i am doing that to bring my pc with my and type it.

Plus - i would spill something on the pc.


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## Tom (Aug 30, 2010)

BobF said:


> My notes are much more verbose ;-)


OK whats verbose?


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## Tom (Aug 30, 2010)

winemaker_3352 said:


> Yeah i just keep a composition notebook with me and i write what i do, when i do it, and how much of something i do.
> 
> Easier for me at the time to hand write what i am doing that to bring my pc with my and type it.
> 
> Plus - i would spill something on the pc.


Oh no. I print it out and keep in in a binder.


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## BobF (Aug 30, 2010)

Tom said:


> OK whats verbose?


 
Lotsa' words to go with the numbers. I use columnar sheets without special blanks to fill in. Each line, or group of lines, can be anything I wish to note.

Nothing wrong with forms, they just don't fit my free-form nature


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## BobF (Aug 31, 2010)

Tom said:


> Ty here $78.00
> http://www.walkersfruitbasket.com/Pail Prices.html


 
I got this response to an email query:

"Our juice is single-strength, pure marion blackberry. It is not concentrated or diluted. We purchase the berries frozen and press them ourselves adding potassium metabisulfite & pectic enzymes when crushed. Once pressed, the brix is tested and a liquid sugar is added to raise it to 21. 

 Each 5 gallon "hotpack" comes with instructions, yeast, & nutrient to add when you start your fermentation. And will make a dry wine between 11 - 12 percent alcohol. You should get about 24 - 750 ml bottles of wine from each 5 gallons.  
 Each pail weighs 49 pounds."


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## Tom (Aug 31, 2010)

Sounds good to me..

Great info


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## BobF (Aug 31, 2010)

Tom said:


> Sounds good to me..
> 
> Great info


 
$78.75 = $15.75 per gallon. 

$237.50 for 5g concentrate = $5.79 per gallon. (5g makes 41g)

Not so cut/dried to me. Walker's quoted me $33.50 to ship. If I did that 8 times to get 40g, the shipping alone would be $268 above and beyond the $15.75 price per gallon.

OTOH, If I ordered 8 pails at once, I might get a break on price and shipping.


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## Tom (Aug 31, 2010)

But thats alot of BB concentrate for one person. Now, if you had a group.. Hmm...
Lets wait for your test..
BTW. the email I sent them was forwarded to 2 "sales" people who have yet to respond.


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## BobF (Aug 31, 2010)

Tom said:


> But thats alot of BB concentrate for one person. Now, if you had a group.. Hmm...
> Lets wait for your test..
> BTW. the email I sent them was forwarded to 2 "sales" people who have yet to respond.


 
BTW, in a previous email from Walker's, they said the acid in the BB pails is 1.49 ...

Two of us are planning to split a 5 if the tests are good. Still a lot of concentrate. I may just get a BA fermenter and go for a very large batch if we go this route.

Prior to ordering the sample, I called and spoke to "Rocky". A few days later, I ordered the sample(s) via the web form.

I got nothing back from them via email. 3 or 4 days later I got the package.


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