Grape Expectations
Member
I started off some cranberry juice (Ocean Spray Classic) and straight away (within 3 or 4 days) I could see there was hardly any bubbling or foaming going on. It stalled almost right from the start. Assuming it's a low pH level, I tested that and it was actually fine at around 3.4 pH. I have no idea why it ferments 6 times slower than the usual orange juice I make, but it does.
I have been making wine from orange juice in 5 days while this cranberry has been fermenting, for ages. It got to about 2 weeks into it and I had a batch of fully dry (0.991 SG) orange ready. Since the cranberry was at 12.5% ABV and it was still too sweet to drink - because I messed up starting it at 1.135 SG - I mixed 750ml of dry orange wine (18% ABV) into 1,750ml of cranberry.
After a few weeks aging, this is one of the nicest wines I have ever had, because it's so smooth. It's still a bit sweet even after mixing but it's vastly superior to the orange wine on its own.
I still have two "leftover demijohns" fermenting, that I have not got around to yet. I am going to mix them half-and-half with the orange, so the next mixture will be considerably more dry (longer fermenting + less proportion of cranberry wine).
The result up to now is a sweet Rose wine but it's just so smooth and easy to drink, while being around 14.5%. It has no acidity (at least to taste) but that could be the 0.5 tsp of bicarbonate of soda I added to the cranberry (while paranoid about pH levels before my pH strips arrived).
I have been making wine from orange juice in 5 days while this cranberry has been fermenting, for ages. It got to about 2 weeks into it and I had a batch of fully dry (0.991 SG) orange ready. Since the cranberry was at 12.5% ABV and it was still too sweet to drink - because I messed up starting it at 1.135 SG - I mixed 750ml of dry orange wine (18% ABV) into 1,750ml of cranberry.
After a few weeks aging, this is one of the nicest wines I have ever had, because it's so smooth. It's still a bit sweet even after mixing but it's vastly superior to the orange wine on its own.
I still have two "leftover demijohns" fermenting, that I have not got around to yet. I am going to mix them half-and-half with the orange, so the next mixture will be considerably more dry (longer fermenting + less proportion of cranberry wine).
The result up to now is a sweet Rose wine but it's just so smooth and easy to drink, while being around 14.5%. It has no acidity (at least to taste) but that could be the 0.5 tsp of bicarbonate of soda I added to the cranberry (while paranoid about pH levels before my pH strips arrived).
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