# Oceanspray?



## cohenhouse77 (Oct 11, 2012)

I am at a point in my wine making walk where everything seems fermentable. I walk through a store and wonder what each fruit would smell like fermenting. I don't see a bowl of fruit, I see a carboy of sangria. This evening wifey brought home some Oceanspray Cranberry Blueberry juice. It is downright delicious. Three or four stages of flavor. Three sips in and I asked, why am I drinking this when I could ferment it? 100% juice. No additives or preservatives. Anyone have strong feelings either way about me going out tomorrow and buying enough to make a gallon of this, with the exception of that I don't have a spare carboy to put it in yet? Yet.....


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## oldwhiskers (Oct 12, 2012)

I just finished fermenting 6 gallons of the Ocean Spray Cranberry 100% juice blend. It really tasted promising when I racked into the secondary. I am planning to back sweeten with some frozen concentrate and after a couple of months I will be doing a taste test again.


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## roadwarriorsvt (Oct 12, 2012)

I picked up a few jugs of Ocean Spray Blueberry. I figure follow a recipe using fresh blueberries and instead of watering to X amount, use the Ocean Spray blueberry juice since its only 18% juice. I'm always checking out the frozen concentrate section also, seeing if something new came in.


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## cohenhouse77 (Oct 12, 2012)

This is very promising!!!!


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## dangerdave (Oct 12, 2012)

cohenhouse77 said:


> I am at a point in my wine making walk where everything seems fermentable.


 
Welcome to the Zone!


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## g8keeper (Oct 12, 2012)

cohenhouse77 said:


> I am at a point in my wine making walk where everything seems fermentable. I walk through a store and wonder what each fruit would smell like fermenting. I don't see a bowl of fruit, I see a carboy of sangria. This evening wifey brought home some Oceanspray Cranberry Blueberry juice. It is downright delicious. Three or four stages of flavor. Three sips in and I asked, why am I drinking this when I could ferment it? 100% juice. No additives or preservatives. Anyone have strong feelings either way about me going out tomorrow and buying enough to make a gallon of this, with the exception of that I don't have a spare carboy to put it in yet? Yet.....


 
i only have 1 exception.....why make only 1 gallon when with the same amount of work, you can make 6???.....lol...a lot of us use store bought juices and concentrates to make wine....you may not produce what would be dubbed a "fine" wine, but you will definitely produce a very good, delicious, quaffable table wine....and yes, possibly able to actually win awards with it....but absolutely gain praise from your friends and loved ones....lol...


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## cohenhouse77 (Oct 12, 2012)

I need more carboys. I guess I'm off to yard sales this weekend.


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## oldwhiskers (Oct 12, 2012)

cohenhouse77 said:


> I need more carboys. I guess I'm off to yard sales this weekend.



Sounds like you have caught the fever.


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## cohenhouse77 (Oct 15, 2012)

So now I am at the point of choosing recipes. I have 2 gallons of 100% juice Oceanspray cranberry blueberry. When using juice like this, do you add water like fresh fruit, or is it best to keep the juice as potent as possible? Would that make it too bold? Also, can I add sugar to it directly, or should I plan on dissolving it in hot water and adding that much non-juice anyway?


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## g8keeper (Oct 15, 2012)

cohenhouse77 said:


> So now I am at the point of choosing recipes. I have 2 gallons of 100% juice Oceanspray cranberry blueberry. When using juice like this, do you add water like fresh fruit, or is it best to keep the juice as potent as possible? Would that make it too bold? Also, can I add sugar to it directly, or should I plan on dissolving it in hot water and adding that much non-juice anyway?


 
using similiar juices, it has been my experience that the acid and ph levels are in line enough so that water is not needed....as a matter of fact, you will still have to add acid blend in order to bring the acid level up, so i would advise against adding any water....as for adding sugar, yes, you will want to add sugar in order to raise the specific gravity up to about 1.085....in order to do so, i would take some of your juice, and warm it on the stove, then add your sugar, and stir to dissolve it....


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## hvac36 (Oct 15, 2012)

Yup you have the fever all right!!! Here is what happens now.. You start thinking hmm If 1 gallon is great and 6 is awesome the you say hmm 100liters is over the top and you buy these... Then it gets even worse you step up to the 600 liters... Then you start thinking Hmmm Brandy to add real flavor.. Sorry dude but you have it...


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## arcticsid (Oct 15, 2012)

Something to keep in mind COH, cranberries can be notorious to get fermenting due to the natural Benzonate found in them. Use a strong yeast starter and it should be fine.

Personally I picked lots of cranberries but am not even going to bother with them again for wine.

One of the first threads I ever posted in here was about the darn things, I played hell trying to get it to ferment, after the gracious help of other members, I made a starter and was able to get it going, and it turned out fine.

If you are going to use store bought juice, of any type, read the label closely. Benzonate is used as a preservative in many of them, and its presence may cause you trouble.


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## oldwhiskers (Oct 15, 2012)

Of course the Ocean Spray Cranberry includes other fruit juices besides cranberry, it includes grape juice and apple juice. My batch that I pitched on Saturday had a starting SG of 1100 and tonight it is down to 1046. I am using a fairly strong yeast K1-V1116 in this batch.


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## cohenhouse77 (Oct 16, 2012)

I just love the flavor of this one which does have the four juices. It's gonna be a fun experiment.


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## oldwhiskers (Oct 16, 2012)

Just looked in on mine, the fermentation smell is wonderful. I tried something different on this one, since the juices are sterile to start with, I am doing the ferment without the addition of k-meta until after the ferment is done. I had been playing it safe and adding it at the beginning.


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