ABC Crafted Series - Beverage Infusions

[raelynn]

My local wine store recently got these in and I was wondering if anyone has tried them (or anything similar). I was specifically wondering if anyone has used one in combination with a kit. I'm hesitant to ruin a batch so I thought I'd ask here. If they are good, it would be an easy way to get peach or raspberry wine.

 

[Rocky]

My local wine store recently got these in and I was wondering if anyone has tried them (or anything similar). I was specifically wondering if anyone has used one in combination with a kit. I'm hesitant to ruin a batch so I thought I'd ask here. If they are good, it would be an easy way to get peach or raspberry wine. View attachment 99267

I have no experience with them nor have I heard of the product. Can you give us a list of the ingredients? That would be a good starting point. Also, where are they produced?

 

[Rice_Guy]

* as @Rocky said, what is in the ingredient list? I haven’t used this product either
* my experience with synthetic flavors is that they are one sided, they don’t give a natural food like balance, the photos show a transparent liquid which is typical of synthetic flavors. , , , , If I assume this is synthetic I would start with a lab bench trial. One ml in a five gallon may be OK but five ml is obviously not natural tasting.
* natural flavors as from Virginia Dare are excellent, but they don’t sell to retail customers

 

[QuiQuog]

According to ABC Crafted website: Invert sugar, water, natural flavour, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, potassium metabisulfite

 

[Rice_Guy]

According to ABC Crafted website: Invert sugar, water, natural flavour, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, potassium metabisulfite

Translation: this is the type of flavor agent that a soda manufacturer would use, or a bar tender would use for mixing cocktails. It is shelf stable.

 

[StimVino]

Interesting post. I’ve seen these bottle flavorings before, but have never tried them. My question is how do they age in the bottle? Lately, ive been moving away from sweetner or sugar to backsweeten and have had much better results with juice concentrates for backsweetening. Overtime, ive found that sweetener/sugar flavor tends to separate from some fruits wines and leaves a sweet non-descript backflavor that detracts from the taste. From my initial experiments, juice concentrate is much more integrated than sugar alone. Even if just using grape concentrate. I doubt that flavoring would produce a better result. However, if a little flavoring was added to a single varietal or fruit wine, it could be an easy way to add a complimentary flavor profile to an otherwise simple wine.

 

[Bill Pet]

Last year I bought an inexpensive 6 gal peach wine kit. It turns out it was actually your basic white grape wine with a peach flavored back sweetener. I didn't look at the ingredients of that back sweetener before adding it. Afterward, I wish I had. It turns out the flavoring agent was artificial and tasted like it. What I ended up with was high alcohol Kool Aid. I couldn't drink it but some friends liked it mid summer on the porch. Iced spiked Kool Aid.

 

[winemaker81]

If it was as small, inexpensive bottle, I'd bench test with a glass or bottle of wine. However, based upon the technical feedback from @Rice_Guy, I'd not spend $23 USD on a bottle that I might not like.

@StimVino's point about using concentrate is probably a better choice. If you can find frozen raspberry or peach concentrate, use that to backsweeten. You know exactly what you're getting.

Last time I made apple I used commercial apple juice. Next time I'll use frozen apple concentrate.

 

[raelynn]

If it was as small, inexpensive bottle, I'd bench test with a glass or bottle of wine. However, based upon the technical feedback from @Rice_Guy, I'd not spend $23 USD on a bottle that I might not like.

@StimVino's point about using concentrate is probably a better choice. If you can find frozen raspberry or peach concentrate, use that to backsweeten. You know exactly what you're getting.

Last time I made apple I used commercial apple juice. Next time I'll use frozen apple concentrate.

I am relatively new to winemaking and had not thought to backsweeten with fruit juice concentrate. Am I just looking for sugar-free/natural concentrate (in the cans)? I haven't bought frozen juice concentrate in decades and have no idea what's even out there.

Thank you to everyone who weighed in! I definitely won't waste my money on the product I posted above.

 

[winemaker81]

I am relatively new to winemaking and had not thought to backsweeten with fruit juice concentrate. Am I just looking for sugar-free/natural concentrate (in the cans)? I haven't bought frozen juice concentrate in decades and have no idea what's even out there.

I learn something new on this forum every week. As you have realized, posting ideas for comment is a good thing.

Old Orchard markets a variety of 100% juice concentrates. If this product is not available in Canada, hopefully you'll find a product that is.

They don't market peach, but have apple/peach/mango and apple/raspberry. Whatever you do, I repeat -- bench test with small amounts. It's far easier to add something to your wine than to take something out.

https://oldorchard.com/products/product-line/frozen-100-juice

 

[raelynn]

I learn something new on this forum every week. As you have realized, posting ideas for comment is a good thing.

Old Orchard markets a variety of 100% juice concentrates. If this product is not available in Canada, hopefully you'll find a product that is.

They don't market peach, but have apple/peach/mango and apple/raspberry. Whatever you do, I repeat -- bench test with small amounts. It's far easier to add something to your wine than to take something out.

https://oldorchard.com/products/product-line/frozen-100-juice

Google brought up Old Orchard on instacart.ca but I can't tell which grocery store it is from. It gives me hope that it's available here though. Otherwise almost everything else I'm finding is "punch" or orange juice.

If you've used frozen concentrate, how many cans per 6gal have you used? When we've backsweetened with white sugar, we've used 4 cups in 6 gallons. Both were dragon blood, one triple berry and one dark sweet cherry. We opted to bulk age before backsweetening the next batch of triple berry, which is what I'd like to get bottled this weekend (because we ran out - beginner winemaker mistake of not getting another batch going sooner LOL).

 

[winemaker81]

If you've used frozen concentrate, how many cans per 6gal have you used?

There's no set formula, as it depends on the wine and your tastes. There is no right or wrong, it's what you like.

Given that you used 4 cups in 6 gallons, I'd buy 3 cans of concentrate. Add one at a time, stirring well, and tasting before adding another.

This is a guess on my part -- it's entirely possible you might want more, or the fruit flavor may be preferable over sugar. You will have to experiment.

 

[raelynn]

There's no set formula, as it depends on the wine and your tastes. There is no right or wrong, it's what you like.

Given that you used 4 cups in 6 gallons, I'd buy 3 cans of concentrate. Add one at a time, stirring well, and tasting before adding another.

This is a guess on my part -- it's entirely possible you might want more, or the fruit flavor may be preferable over sugar. You will have to experiment.

Thank you, that is really helpful! It's gross out there today so I only want to make one trip out of the house.

 

[StimVino]

Good advice above. One thing to know about backsweetening with juice or concentrate as opposed to sugar is that you need to allow for additional settling time since these often come with some pulp in the concentrate. For this reason, i tend to backsweeten earlier than i normally would with concentrate. Of course you still need to use potassium sorbate and kmeta to prevent re-fermentation, just like with sugar.

 

[raelynn]

Good advice above. One thing to know about backsweetening with juice or concentrate as opposed to sugar is that you need to allow for additional settling time since these often come with some pulp in the concentrate. For this reason, i tend to backsweeten earlier than i normally would with concentrate. Of course you still need to use potassium sorbate and kmeta to prevent re-fermentation, just like with sugar.

do I need to add (more) potassium sorbate and kmeta if I stabilized it 3 months ago when I began bulk aging?

 

[winemaker81]

do I need to add (more) potassium sorbate and kmeta if I stabilized it 3 months ago when I began bulk aging?

Nope! Too much sorbate will produce an off flavor, and the dosage already added has neutered the yeast.

FYI -- if you age the wine 9+ months, the yeast has died, so you can skip sorbate.

 

[ratflinger]

The cure for poorly flavored wines - a still.