new here with questions

[Grod]

Nice to meet everyone i have been brewing beer for a while now and my love for lambics have lead me into fermenting fruit.I would like to brew a cherry wine.I would like to start with a 1 gallon batch and i have found a few recipes online.
I have one main question every recipe calls for fruit in water. Why can i not use pure cherry juice.Trader juice sells 100% cherry juice w/ no preservatives for 4.99 a 1/4 gallon. 1 gallon = 10.5 pounds of cherries.Thanks all for the input.

 

[TonyR]

Yes it will work no problem.

 

[bkisel]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[rustbucket]

Glad that you joined the WMT forum.

Since you are a beer brewer, you are familiar with specific gravity readings. Check the specific gravity of the juice you intend to use. You may have to add sugar to the juice to get it to a SG of about 1.08 to 1.10. You'll need the additional sugar to get an adequate ABV in your finished wine. If you want an off dry wine, you'll also need sugar for back sweetening . There are calculators on line that can help you determine how much sugar is needed at each of these two stages in the fruit wine making process.

In addition, search this forum for fruit juice wine discussions. The discussion threads that will lead you to a better understanding of fruit juice wine production.

 

[BernardSmith]

Welcome, Grod. Truth is I have no idea why recipes call for diluting fruit juice. I suspect that that idea comes from the idea that it is easier to add water to fruit to produce the amount of "juice" that the wine maker wants than it is to obtain the appropriate amount of fruit from which the wine maker can extract the juice. No one would add water to grapes to make a wine. No one would add water to make cider... That said, there are some wines that do require additions of water - wines made from flowers (elderflower wine , for example, or hibiscus) - because flowers have no liquid to extract , or wines made from honey - meads, because there is insufficient liquid in honey for yeast to transport the sugars through their cell walls. But bottom line - wine ain't beer and if you have access to extracted juice then you can certainly use that to make your wine. My one (small) concern is that fruit skins often add interesting complexities to the flavor so you may find that simply using the fruit juice will give you an acceptable wine but not a really good wine. If you can find some (fresh or frozen) fruit you might consider adding them to the juice and allow the fruit to "macerate" in the juice for a couple of weeks while the juice is being fermented.
Good luck!

 

[Scooter68]

Nothing wrong with a pure fruit juice as you mentioned other than as already mentioned - check the SG and the pH of the juice before you jump in and purchase a bunch of it.

The typical fruit wine must, when ready to start fermentation, will taste a lot like a can of frozen grape or apple juice (Sweetness amount) but even those are not quite at the SG you need to start.

 

[Grod]

wow thanks so much for taking the time to clear that up for me . I assumed pure fruit juice was fine. I will purchase some bottles and check the gravity of the un adultered juice/ add sugar untill it brings it to my desired level.I will do one with added cherries to try and create a more complex flavor. Thanks so much to those who took the time to respond . I appreciate the knowledge being shared.

 

[salcoco]

the majority of water additions to fruit is to reduce the acid, some is to actually reduce the fruit content so that wine may resemble a grape wine.

 

[Grod]

How do i figure out what abv i can expect is there a calculator? I'm use to using brewers friend but they dont have any wine yeast options.
nvermind a quick google search resulted in a half dozen sorry guys.I would still like to hear the recommend

one.http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/hydrom.asp for anyone who finds this thread in the future.

 

[Scooter68]

If your hydrometer doesn't have a built in 'translation index' You can use a simple online calculator that will give you the answer. We usually assume that a completed fermentation of wine will end at .990. Sometimes it may stop a little sooner at .996 but basically anything below 1.000 is could be considered finished. This site is the one I use all the time this may be what you are already using ?? : http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/ Yeast variety really doesn't matter in doing this calculation. Starting and Expected finishing SG is all you are going to need.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Starting SG-finished SG *131 = %ABV

 

[Grod]

okay so probably a stupid question.Do i even need to boil 100% juice before adding yeast?I would assume its already pasteurized. Wont boiling it ruin flavors?

 

[heatherd]

You are correct, no need to boil and it would affect flavors.

 

[Grod]

so i can add cane sugar right out of a bag to the juice without having to worry about contamination? Or do i have to boil the cane sugar in water and add it.That will reduce the ratio of pure juice in my wine.

 

[user 32114]

WELCOME TO WMT
i have never done a kit nor a grape wine, only country wines, from fresh fruit, fresh berries and canned or bottled juices/berries,, and i have always just added my cane sugar, and if you like country type wines check out homewinery.com
Dawg

so i can add cane sugar right out of a bag to the juice without having to worry about contamination? Or do i have to boil the cane sugar in water and add it.That will reduce the ratio of pure juice in my wine.

 

[user 32114]

oops an go to homewinery.com
concentrates
Dawg