President's Choice Blend Wine

[Al-Loves-Wine]

Hey guys! So I'm a relatively new brewer. Been doing wine for about 3 months, and have gotten totally addicted to the hobby! I don't get to crazy on beer brewing (yet), for now I have just done a couple Brew House kits, and was quite happy with them. But wines are another story, I'm always trying to think up some new recipe. So this is my latest, and I'm open to any input you more experienced guys may want to add.

Was in to the Superstore and bought 6 1.89L bottles of PC 100% Cranberry/Concorde grape juice. I was going to buy Ocean Spray, but the PC was cheaper and didn't have any additives that I suspected might hinder fermentation. Plus I blended up 2KG bag of frozen wild blueberries to add as well. So this is my recipe as follows.

6 - 1.89L Bottles PC 100% Cranberry/Grape juice
2KG of frozen wild blueberries blended
3KG of granular sugar dissolved in boiling water
6 tsp of pectic enzyme
1 tsp of tannin
6 tsp of yeast nutrient
3 tsp of yeast energizer
Water to top off to 5 Gallons and whip the crap out of it.
Lalvin EC-1118 Yeast

I considered adding some tartaric acid, however I believe its going to be fairly tart anyway. Now my only thing that I'm pondering is if it will need to be back sweetened. As for now my SG is 1.080, and if it ferments dry should get me into the 10% range.  

[Dave Savoie]

If you havnt tried lavlin 71-B yet give it a go

[Richard]

The 1118 will take that all the way down to 1.00 and beyond, so you might need to back-sweeten if you don't like it that dry.

Other than that, recipe looks great - would love to try some when it's done

[Chris Craig]

I did something similar last year, only with raspberry instead of blueberry.  Turned out great.  It was gone in a  flash.

I used 1118, and it went to about .995, so I decided to cut it with some more of the juice after it was stabilized, then bottled.

[Al-Loves-Wine]

Excellent! Thanks for the insight guys. I don't have much option for yeast strains from the local shop here in Woody. She is not really a craft brewer, just does kits only. So I try to get the stuff she doesn't normally stock when I'm down in the city. Sadly when I get into S&S there, I'm so busy looking at everything else I end up forgetting something.  :roll:

I expect it will be as Richard mentioned, may need to back sweeten a bit. I will check the SG periodically over the next couple weeks and rack once I get it down. I also have one that I'm getting ready to rack that was similar that I did with Welches white grape juice and blended green seedless table grapes. Was into the sauce a bit when I was making it and forgot the take my SG before I pitched, but I'm sure its going to turn out great. Smells awesome so far!

[Al-Loves-Wine]

Well it dried up very well. It is certainly tart, and fermented out to 0.995. So I added a package of sweet reserve, Sorbate and P. Metabasulphite, and clearing with Sparkolliod. Hopefully it is tasty, but expect I will still need to back sweeten a bit possibly.


Cheers all!    And a Happy New Year!!!!

[Richard]

I thought sweet reserve was for backsweetening? You mean you'll need to back-sweeten more?

[sdixon]

This should be pretty decent... I'd love to give it a try. I only make fruit wine with berries that I pick myself, but I'm interested to see if a good wine can be made from store bought stuff ;-) Hopefully you can make it to a meeting one day ;-)

[Al-Loves-Wine]

Yes Richard, that is what I meant. I added it to back sweeten, but I believe I may have to add some additional sweetener after it clears. It was super tart!

[Al-Loves-Wine]

Well I was pleasantly surprised with how well this turned out. Chris hit this one dead on, its not going to last long! The one package of sweet reserve was enough back-sweeten to just leave it a bit tart, but very tasty with a nice cranberry flavor!

[brew]

Sounds really good! Too bad you couldn't get to Freddy to a meeting - be nice to try it!