Anyone made wine from Hero brand "Nectars"?

[Hoxviii]

I was at the store today and came across this stuff. They call it fruit nectar (mango nectar, pear nectar, etc), it's fruit puree mixed with water, added sugar, and it's stabilized using lemon juice. The nice thing I noticed was the ingredients label tells you the percentage of fruit puree in the bottle so you can figure out how many "pounds" of fruit equivalent it is.

I've been wanting to make a 1 gallon batch of pear wine, and using the label was able to figure out that one bottle has the fruit of about 2lbs of pears so 2 bottles (2 liters) should be right to make a 1 gallon batch of wine once sugared and water added.


Now, I'd never recommend this for making a 5 gallon batch (just because i also wouldn't make a 5 gallon batch from supermarket price fruit), but for a 1 gallon batch it's actually cheaper to buy the juice than it is to buy the fruit needed to make the juice.


So anyone played with this stuff? I'm about to start a batch of mango wine and a batch of pear wine (if the pear turns out well I'm going to carbonate and put in beer bottles).

 

[Scooter68]

Sounds like the Jumex brand of nectars. Have you drunk any of it? I bought a single serving can of the Jumex peach or mango - Blah on flavor. Tasted like a flavorless pear.

 

[Hoxviii]

Haven't tried it yet, just grabbed the stuff because why not. If it turns out, great. If not I'll wind up mixing it with something or add more pear at secondary.

 

[Hoxviii]

I tried some this afternoon and it pretty much tastes just like biting into a pear. Not saying that means good results, but enough that I'm moving forward with the pear wine at some point shortly.

See how it all turns out.

 

[Scooter68]

Only issue might be the amount of lees from a puree. I'd aim high on the quantity of liquid - at least 6 gallons if you really want 5 or 1.5 gallons if you want 1 gallon. The more 'texture' pulp in that nectar, the more solids to drop out during fermentation.

 

[Hoxviii]

well, now you tell me! honestly, I only lose wine at bottling, so you really think a full half gallon is needed? I'll siphon until I'm pulling solids, so my rack-to-rack yield is pretty constant, but my clarification time is high.

but yes, it's pretty heavy on the solids and is thick. I actually had to cut the stuff 50/50 with water to get a Sg reading - it was too viscous otherwise.

I ran it right up to a gallon, corrected to 10.5% and 0.70 acidity. to get to 1.5 gallons, adding half a gallon of water with 1lb sugar and 2 tsp of acid blend would keep me steady, but dilute to pear out.

I've never worked with a puree, so I'm all ears.

EDIT:
recipe (qualifier, i have better notes, but until I know it's good I don't want a bad recipe floating around) now is 2 bottles puree, 2 asian pears coarse chopped and covered in sugar then heat reduced in just under 3 c. water, just over a quart of water with just under a pound of sugar, and about 5tsp acid blend/gallon. it smells *very* peary, so I have high hopes.

 

[Scooter68]

Wow I imagined something much less loaded with solids than what you are describing. Yeah, you will lose a lot of volume unless those solid compress a lot. I blended my last peach batch by mistake and as you mentioned it was hard to get a reading at first until things settled out a bit. In my case it was air intrapment in the mix but if yours is just solids - you could have great flavor but tons of lees to drop. I've never worked with a pure - puree but it sound like what you have is close to that.

One thing you could do at the first racking is to put those lees in a muslin bag and squeeze the remaining juice out of it. With the lees from 1.5 gallons - I'd use a square piece of muslin cloth (Cleaned and sanitized) tuck that into a collander over a fermentation bucket and then pour the lees onto the cloth. Grab the corners gather and slowly begin twisting to wring out the juices. Keep it over the collander just in case and keep twisting until you think you've maxed out the juices. If you are successful in getting more than your needed gallon for the batch - I'd put left-over extracted juices in the smallest possible jar and set that in the fridge. It's amazing how much more will settle out in the cold fridge. I've always wanted to find a tall narrow jar so that I can extract from that cold jar without disturbing those lees.

Anyway that's one way to handle a batch with that much lees and I do think you will get a lot. We've seen some berry batches on this forum where the lees took up 1/3 of the carboy. That's a lot regardless of what size batch you are talking about.

Good luck and keep us posted along the journey.

 

[Hoxviii]

This is the stuff. Depending on the solids I may strain through a piece of muslin or cheesecloth - thanks for the idea. It's fermenting along right now, already bubbling an popping

 

[Hoxviii]

We're in secondary!

went into primary at 1.082 and had a had fermentation through this morning. I got home from work and it had slowed down, but was still active. Took a sample and I'm down to 1.005, so in to secondary it went. Secondary is bubbling away, about 3 bubbles a second right now.



You can tell from the pic that the wine is heavy on the solids, but we'll see how it clears up. tried a little bit and it's definitely tart like I was going for, and actually still smells and tastes like pear.

so far I'm pleased, and hopeful for the end product.

 

[kevinlfifer]

I've used the Jumex nectar to make peach wine.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51117

They turn out quite good, At least they disappear quickly.

 

[Hoxviii]

Update on this stuff - good flavor, but WAY heavy on the solids. 1 gallon is going to yield about 3 quarts after two settling periods, and I'm still racking off of heavy solids. Thinking i'll be clearing in a few days, but there's a bunch of solids still in the bottom.

 

[barryjo]

Update on this stuff - good flavor, but WAY heavy on the solids. 1 gallon is going to yield about 3 quarts after two settling periods, and I'm still racking off of heavy solids. Thinking i'll be clearing in a few days, but there's a bunch of solids still in the bottom.

Are you in a big hurry for this? If not, I would wait till fermentation ceased, sorbate it and cold store it for a while. Should settle out much better.

 

[Scooter68]

"Are you in a big hurry for this? If not, I would wait till fermentation ceased, sorbate it and cold store it for a while. Should settle out much better."

Why do you suggest sorbating a wine that's being cold stored and has ceased fermentation. Did you mean K-Meta and cold store? Sorbate is only needed if there is residual sugar or it's been backsweetened. If it ferments dry all that's needed is Potassium Metabisulfate (K-Meta)

 

[Hoxviii]

Are you in a big hurry for this? If not, I would wait till fermentation ceased, sorbate it and cold store it for a while. Should settle out much better.

for the amount of solids coming out, I'm racking to stay ahead of it.

First rack was in to secondary, second rack was when the solids filled over 1/2 the container. I took the clear liquid, plus the less dense wine off the top of the soilds - what was left was goop.

Now I have a bit more than 3 quarts, but the solids are piling up again. this one I'm just letting run until it clears out.

So no, not in a hurry - just dealing with a LOT of solids.

 

[ljewels4u]

so do we have a recipe?? I just bought 20 Liters Of Jumex Mango Puree - ready to start lol I had seen some recipes that mixed skeeter peet with the mango and others that used bananas for added body?? looking for a recipe with the jumex nectar - anyone please

 

[hounddawg]

get if possible your purees straight from ITALY OR SICILIA,,, made there,, canned there,
Dawg

 

[Scooter68]

so do we have a recipe?? I just bought 20 Liters Of Jumex Mango Puree - ready to start lol I had seen some recipes that mixed skeeter peet with the mango and others that used bananas for added body?? looking for a recipe with the jumex nectar - anyone please

At the risk of becoming known as another Oscar the Grouch - When you go with the cheap stuff you are most likely to end up with a wine of the same quality. Spend a bit more for the good stuff and end up with a wine that is the good stuff.

 

[ljewels4u]

Yes oscar
I was almost gonna ask you not to Comment..but didnt want to be rude I understood your opinion!
I was hoping for some comments that were from 1st hand experience using good or bad not just poo poo opinions..
Obviously I already bought the stuff and am committed and personally I like the taste of the mango nectar..

So please if u didnt try making it with this fine .. you have nothing to offer to the question posted????

If this group doesnt want this side of questions I guess just delete the post and amend the rules..

Thanks
Ps the input had been good and helpful til u poo pooed on it..☹

 

[hounddawg]

At the risk of becoming known as another Oscar the Grouch - When you go with the cheap stuff you are most likely to end up with a wine of the same quality. Spend a bit more for the good stuff and end up with a wine that is the good stuff.

dang Scooter68, hehe, i think i just hurt myself laughing , whew that knothead just might be ok... lol
of course i still hold out for puree's from Sicily or italy,,,

 

[wpt-me]

I think there was a discussion on this product already but couldn't find it!! Didn't remember
the outcome. It had something to do with Dollar Tree juices.

Bill