Dollar tree wine - REALLY

kevinlfifer · Sep 23, 2015

I made a batch of SP using Lemon juice from dollar tree. A nephew was talking about his attempt to make peach wine - his wife's favorite. He did not use sorbate, only K-meta. BOOM. On a side note he is having his first child at 52. He will need all the wine he can make.

I was in dollar tree and saw all this peach nectar - no preservatives. So I bought 15. 32oz each.

I took 1.5 gal of the SP and added 12 qts of the peach nectar. It took 2 months to get to dry. I took the remaining 3 qts boiled them down to 1 qt and added 4 cups sugar to backsweeten. Added sparkloid, k-menta and sorbate. It cleared in 3 days. I bottled 3 bottles and transferred the rest to a 4 gal carboy to rest.

It's pretty good. All the sweet wine drinkers like it, and it actually tastes like peaches. 4.5 gallons for a cost of about $18 total.

They have mango nectar and guava nectar. Any thoughts on those as wines?

sour_grapes · Sep 23, 2015

That is $0.80 a bottle! That is almost criminally cheap. Nice work.

CGish · Sep 23, 2015

kevinlfifer said:
I made a batch of SP using Lemon juice from dollar tree. A nephew was talking about his attempt to make peach wine - his wife's favorite. He did not use sorbate, only K-meta. BOOM. On a side note he is having his first child at 52. He will need all the wine he can make.

I was in dollar tree and saw all this peach nectar - no preservatives. So I bought 15. 32oz each.

I took 1.5 gal of the SP and added 12 qts of the peach nectar. It took 2 months to get to dry. I took the remaining 3 qts boiled them down to 1 qt and added 4 cups sugar to backsweeten. Added sparkloid, k-menta and sorbate. It cleared in 3 days. I bottled 3 bottles and transferred the rest to a 4 gal carboy to rest.

It's pretty good. All the sweet wine drinkers like it, and it actually tastes like peaches. 4.5 gallons for a cost of about $18 total.

They have mango nectar and guava nectar. Any thoughts on those as wines?

So you took 1.5 gallons of fermented Skeeter Pee and added 3 gallons of peach nectar, then let the residual yeast in the Skeeter Pee work on the sugars in the nectar?

What kind of ABV is this?

Thanks,
Cody

kevinlfifer · Sep 28, 2015

Yes. I actually put the nectar in a bucket first, added sugar to 1.08 SG (same as my starting sg on the SP) added pectic enzyme and nutrient and the 1.5 gal of SP already in progress but not done.

Pix of the Peach and SP

JSquared · Sep 28, 2015

I've bought canned plums from Dollar Tree and made a plum wine before. I also buy their frozen fruit for Dragon Blood and Tropical Daze! And he's, I've used their lemon juice too. They are a cheap resource for wine supplies for the fast drinking wines.

BlueStimulator · Sep 28, 2015

Haven't made a bottle of anything with alcohol yet so my cost per bottle isn't worth trying to figure out. Someday though someday.

hardworkin · Sep 28, 2015

I also have bought different types of frozen fruit from the Dollar Tree and made some variations of DragonsBlood with it. I found some frozen Boysen berries there one time, but not enough to attempt a batch of wine. I had never heard of them so I looked them up..... I hope to find enough to make a gallon or two sometime. They sound like a perfect addition.
The other fruits that I used turned out just fine.

heatherd · Sep 28, 2015

We should start a "hooch on the cheap" thread and sticky!

kevinlfifer · Feb 9, 2016

Here is the second attempt at dollar tree peach wine. The first batch is long gone. The first batch was one brand (cant remember or find the name) This batch is Jumex 33 oz containers. I bought 3 cases online. 1.5 cases and 4 lbs sugar per batch. 1 TBS nutrient and benonite, 1.5 tsp peptic enzyme. we'll see how it goes. I may add some SP to give is a little higher acid level. There is a lot of pulp/puree and it ferments violently.

Should rotate the pix but have to get back to work.

JSquared · Feb 20, 2016

kevinlfifer said:
Here is the second attempt at dollar tree peach wine. The first batch is long gone. The first batch was one brand (cant remember or find the name) This batch is Jumex 33 oz containers. I bought 3 cases online. 1.5 cases and 4 lbs sugar per batch. 1 TBS nutrient and benonite, 1.5 tsp peptic enzyme. we'll see how it goes. I may add some SP to give is a little higher acid level. There is a lot of pulp/puree and it ferments violently.

Should rotate the pix but have to get back to work.

Did you use canned peaches or frozen peaches?

Mountainjack · Feb 27, 2016

JSquared said:
Did you use canned peaches or frozen peaches?

Looking at his post I would say this is what he used.

https://www.dollartree.com/Jumex-Peach-Nectar-33-8-oz-/p314193/index.pro

Scooter68 · Feb 27, 2016

Found a nearby Dollar Tree today and stopped by intending to get some Peach Nectar for Peach Wine. UNFORTUNATELY I read the contents - No preservatives per se BUT the Jumex products contain Sucralose - a Chemical artificial sweetener. Problem is unless someone here is a bio-chemis I don't think we know positively what happens when the various chemicals we use for wine making hit Sucralose? There are such a wide variety of finings and other products/additives that can be used in a wine batch. Perhaps that's one reason for the "Violent Fermentation."

Not saying it's dangerous but it is an unknown since there are so many factors and time elements involved. I think I'm going to be patient and wait for some real peaches to show up.

Again not trying to rain on the parade - I was all set to get a batch started. The original poster noted that they bought a different brand before and I wonder if that brand had any artificial sweetener? I like Stevia but still I'm not sure I'd use a product with any artificial sweetener just on the chance it might give an off taste.

Arne · Mar 1, 2016

Scooter68 said:
Found a nearby Dollar Tree today and stopped by intending to get some Peach Nectar for Peach Wine. UNFORTUNATELY I read the contents - No preservatives per se BUT the Jumex products contain Sucralose - a Chemical artificial sweetener. Problem is unless someone here is a bio-chemis I don't think we know positively what happens when the various chemicals we use for wine making hit Sucralose? There are such a wide variety of finings and other products/additives that can be used in a wine batch. Perhaps that's one reason for the "Violent Fermentation."

Not saying it's dangerous but it is an unknown since there are so many factors and time elements involved. I think I'm going to be patient and wait for some real peaches to show up.

Again not trying to rain on the parade - I was all set to get a batch started. The original poster noted that they bought a different brand before and I wonder if that brand had any artificial sweetener? I like Stevia but still I'm not sure I'd use a product with any artificial sweetener just on the chance it might give an off taste.

Make a small batch. You won't be out much if it goes south, worst case will be "Wish I had made more." Good luck with it, Arne.

Scooter68 · Mar 1, 2016

Well since doing on the cheap isn't the critical thing to me I'm looking at frozen peaches 3# bag) some White Peach -White Grape juice and a can of sliced peaches. The Frozen peaches have citric acid for maintaining color. The 1# bags use malic acid for the same purpose. In either case I'll check acidity before starting fermentation. Probably do just 1 gallon for now and see how that turns out. By the time I know more, it will be about time for fresh peaches.

I did buy a single can of the Jumex Peach Nectar - Not impressed by the taste so that was an easy decision anyway.

I did 1 gallon of Peach last year from all fresh peaches. The only short fall was not enough peaches (used just 4 lbs) One thing that

kevinlfifer · Oct 25, 2018

Another version of Dollartree wine:

Skeeter as the base using 2 bottles of lemon juice. Added 10 bags of various frozen fruit from Dollartree:
Strawberries, Blueberries, Mixed fruit and Blackberries.

I added my own toasted dark oak, that added a vanilla note:

I got sugar on sale for 0.59/4lb from Kroger

Total cost $13.18, yield 30 bottles.

AND IT"S GOOD

Bts · Oct 26, 2018

I did mango desert wine back in the day, though my source was big cans of mango pure from the indian grocery for about a buck each. Added enough sugar to get to 18 or 20% ABV and let it go...finished sweet, strong, and dangerously easy to drink. My wife refused to believe it had alcohol in it...until she tried to stand up

. It's the one wine she's asked me to re-make.

Farmside · Oct 26, 2018

Bts said:
I did mango desert wine back in the day, though my source was big cans of mango pure from the indian grocery for about a buck each. Added enough sugar to get to 18 or 20% ABV and let it go...finished sweet, strong, and dangerously easy to drink. My wife refused to believe it had alcohol in it...until she tried to stand up . It's the one wine she's asked me to re-make.

I have a one gallon batch of mango going right now from purée and was trying to find ideas of finishing it. Did you back sweeten yours?

Bts · Oct 26, 2018

I just made it high enough ABV that it finished naturally sweet at something like 18% ABV. I was really pretty new to brewing and didn't have any sorbate, so that seemed like a reasonable way to get a sweet wine. Nowdays I'd probably back sweeten with sorbate+kmeta+sugar for a sweeter wine or maybe xylitol for off-dry. The high ABV method requires some luck, and while delicious, it's not the sort of wine you can reasonably have a second glass of.

Scooter68 · Oct 26, 2018

Bts said:
I just made it high enough ABV that it finished naturally sweet at something like 18% ABV. I was really pretty new to brewing and didn't have any sorbate, so that seemed like a reasonable way to get a sweet wine. Nowdays I'd probably back sweeten with sorbate+kmeta+sugar for a sweeter wine or maybe xylitol for off-dry. The high ABV method requires some luck, and while delicious, it's not the sort of wine you can reasonably have a second glass of.

Well you could..... but best not to drive afterwards. :wy

Scooter68 · Oct 26, 2018

I appreciate a good deal as much as anyone. I'll admit to not being a big spender in many areas. BUT having said that, when it comes to making a good fruit wine, most times a cheap juice source is going to be missing something like real fruit or it will have additives or cheaper fruit juices added. In one way or another cutting corners is going to leave you with a juice and eventually a wine that won't have full fruit flavor of the real deal.

I've looked and looked and still keep my eyes open for that magic combination but so far every time I find an additive like Sucralose or preservatives or other juices, or just plain watered down juice that is lacking what the real fruit has. I've bout a couple of cans of those juices and tried drinking them (Jumex) Blah, lacking so much.

You can still produce a wine that will taste a lot like the real deal, and for those looking for a cheap alcoholic drink you can get there with these dollar store deals. I just don't want to invest my time and effort into those juices when for a few dollars more I can get the real deal. ]

It's just my personal opinion - If you are going to invest the same amount of time and effort to make a wine with those low-dollar juices, as using a quality juice, it's just not not worth it to me.

Dollar tree wine - REALLY

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