Juice Concentrate (kits?)

[Midwest Vintner]

We just made a batch of cranberry from those vintner's harvest concentrate. they come in a can you can get from a few online sources. anyway, i know there are some on the site that do kits and would like to start in making wine from juice. to me, this is one of the easiest ways to make wine. IMO, it seems like a kit to me. the recipe it comes with is about as exact as you can get as far as sg and acidity. they have it figured out already. SG was 1.070 with 10 lbs and with the recommended 12 lbs, it was 1.084. added acid blend in the amount stated as we've used these and they are always very close. pH was 3.46. it's nice to be able to make this in ~30 min, including sanitation. it might not be completely "fresh" way to make wine, but it's easy, allows for good practice and makes pretty good wine.

just thought i would share the experience i have with these vintner's harvest juices. so far i've made cranberry (x2), raspberry (x ~4), blackberry (x ~3) and many merlot batches (20+) mixed with fresh fruit juices.

 

[djrockinsteve]

I just bottled some Plum from them and I'm sweetening 3 gallons too. I also have a Blueberry to do.

You're right they are great and easy. Most of my wine comes from pure juice. I'll let everyone know soon how it turned out. It looks great in the bottle.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

good juice is probably the best way to make wine. means you don't need any tools or machinery to get a good final product.

we did plum this way too. it was good. never did blueberry as we tried them fresh. it should be great though. let it age, man! blueberry got better up to 2 years (when we ran out!).

 

[Tom]

Now the next thing to try (if you can get it) is fresh juice from CA in the fall or Chilean juice in May

 

[vvolf34]

Where would you buy fresh juice like that? Maybe Reisling as well?

 

[Tom]

There are places around. Best to look in your area. You will be surprised that they may sell it real close to you. Ck @ Produce distributors. Ask them if they know where. Look for a Home Brew store, A wine ferment on premise place etc...

 

[vvolf34]

Well I found Brehm Vineyards in Wine Maker Magazine. They are kinda close to me. a 5.5 gal frozen bucket will produce about 5 gals they say. A 50 gal drum will prouce about 44 gals they estimate. They are probably 3 to 4 hours away from me. Not to bad I guess. Plus you can pre order fresh grapes ahead of time. But for Reisling it was $150 for a bucket, or $6.00 a bottle. I figured a drum out to about $5.00 a bottle, not included additives, yeast and an empty bottle. Pricey or resonable?

 

[Tom]

Pricey? Yes and no.
Where can you buy a high quality wine for $6.00 a bottle?
You can get a high end kit for $4-5.00 a bottle
You can hopefully find someone near you where you can get fresh CA juice maybe for $50.00 for 6 gallons.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

You can hopefully find someone near you where you can get fresh CA juice maybe for $50.00 for 6 gallons.

that price there sounds very reasonable. i wonder how much the norton juice goes for around here.

 

[Wade E]

I have heard nothing but Super great things about Brehm!

 

[vvolf34]

Thanks for the responses, I might have to go see him in person one day!! We are usually over in his area around memorial day.

 

[Virgin Vintner]

I've been looking for a cranberry wine kit. Can you please provide all the details about the cranberry kit? Thanks!

 

[Midwest Vintner]

you can get them here

http://www.homebrewit.com/aisle/1205 or check vendors on here

basically, it's juice and sometimes it has solids (cranberry does) that they've already got a recipe for and the amounts of sugar and all are spot on for making a good wine. for some reason, mine had trouble starting, so had to move it and make a starter. it was probably ~68F in the room, so not good.