Dollar tree wine - REALLY

[Farmside]

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.

I did a third racking today on my mango wine (cooler?) I had started with an SG of 1.062 and now it is FG 0.994. My ABV is nowhere near what your talking about, there is an aroma of mango but zero taste. I took a sample and added a little lemon some lime juice and a touch of sugar, darn near tastes like Mike’s hard lemonade ........ not what I was trying to make but ....... not to mention the color now is more like lemonade, and not of that bright mango color.

 

[Scooter68]

I did a third racking today on my mango wine (cooler?) I had started with an SG of 1.062 and now it is FG 0.994. My ABV is nowhere near what your talking about, there is an aroma of mango but zero taste. I took a sample and added a little lemon some lime juice and a touch of sugar, darn near tastes like Mike’s hard lemonade ........ not what I was trying to make but ....... not to mention the color now is more like lemonade, and not of that bright mango color.

Some times you just have to make lemonade with what you are given.

The trick with some sources is determining how good and honest the fruit taste is in the source. I mentioned elsewhere that I had considered the Jumex beverages but when i tried an individual serving can it was weak tasting at best though it had a lot of pulp, the pulp didn't contribute to the taste.

Recently I made a mango-pineapple wine and it seems to be doing well. It's about 3 months into aging. The last racking I got to try it and found that it started off with the mango smell and flavor but finished with a pineapple taste. Very acceptable. I used Frozen chunks of Mango (6lbs/gallon) and 1 can (12oz) of frozen pineapple juice - a 1 gallon test batch.

Doing it again I would probably use 2 1/2 bags of (7 1/2lbs/gallon) and 1/2 can of Frozen Pineapple Juice for a gallon. Since I usually make 1 or 3 gallon batches likely as not I would go with 8 bags (24lbs) of mango pieces and 2 cans of Frozen Pineapple Juice. My ABV for the test batch is right at 12.7%

 

[kevinlfifer]

In my last batch I didn't use any of the fruit juices, only the reconstituted lemon. The fruit added was from bags of frozen berries, Pretty much a knockoff of Dave's Dragon Blood.