Alcohol + Juice = ????

[TStarr]

Hi all - can someone please explain why the following doesn't / won't / shouldn't work?

I have one of the Prohibition liqueur afffairs, whose approach seems to be - make a gallon of 20% proof water/alcohol, then add flavouring.

So why aren't we all making wines in the same way - say 7 pints of water, couple of pounds of sugar, ferment for a couple of weeks, to give say 14%, then add a pint of presumably sulfited, blackberry, damson, Ribena etc to bring it all back down to 12%, but with a fresh "full on", flavour.

Presumably you could get your fruit juice by either steam juicing, from a bottle like Ribena, or by reducing fruit on the stove like the Americans and their f-paks.

[Ted.B]

Why not give it a try, it sounds like a good idea to me !

However it might also be worth bearing in mind that I have been sampling a few this evening and just about anything would sound like a good idea to me right now.

[cpfan]

So why aren't we all making wines in the same way - say 7 pints of water, couple of pounds of sugar, ferment for a couple of weeks, to give say 14%, then add a pint of presumably sulfited, blackberry, damson, Ribena etc to bring it all back down to 12%, but with a fresh "full on", flavour.

I think that the result of this is more like a liqueur than a wine.

If you use a Turbo Yeast, the part that I bolded is quite easy. To get Turbo Yeast and flavourings, see Gert Strand's PartyMan site. Not sure about availablity in the UK, but I have talked to some British folk who knew about Gert. http://www.partyman.se/

I have used the Prestige 8kg Turbo Yeast (18%), and it turns out decent alcohol (you need to use some activated charcoal to remove off tastes). Then made liquors & liqueurs with their essences.

Steve

[fatbloke]

I think that the result of this is more like a liqueur than a wine.

If you use a Turbo Yeast, the part that I bolded is quite easy. To get Turbo Yeast and flavourings, see Gert Strand's PartyMan site. Not sure about availablity in the UK, but I have talked to some British folk who knew about Gert. http://www.partyman.se/

I have used the Prestige 8kg Turbo Yeast (18%), and it turns out decent alcohol (you need to use some activated charcoal to remove off tastes). Then made liquors & liqueurs with their essences.

The turbos are available in most of the HBS, just depends on whether they stock the alcotec ones, the stillspirits ones or the essencia ones. I believe there's one of the alcotec ones that will ferment to 23% if you use something like 10kg of dextrose and manage the ferment appropriately.

[P cuthbert]

The thing here is that when you ferment the juice, there are chemical changes that take place in the juice.

This will give you the basic structure of the wine sweetening through the addition of sugars or through some form of "sus reserve" will bring the wine a sweetness to counter acidity or alcohol. The basic structure of the wine will remain.

The proposed method would not result in a wine. It might bring you something like a cordial or a liqueur.

If the objective is to quaff till you drop, then the above method will suffice. If one wishes to savour the flavour and complexities, then fermenting the juice will be the better alternative.

[lockwood1956]

I agree with Pat,

The fermentation process produces all manner of by products that enhamce mouthfeel, and extract aroma and flavour, making wine the complex drink that it is. If it were as simple as adding fruit to alcohol, I'm sure the French would have been doing it for years!

regards
Bob

[Cellar_Rat]

Well put Pat - I couldn't think of a way to put it.

The two drinks are available today, both valid - one is claret and the other is a vodka & orange

[HappyKillmore]

been there and tried that, ended up with blackberry juice that gives you a bad head, it just does not taste wine like at all

[fatbloke]

Well put Pat - I couldn't think of a way to put it.

The two drinks are available today, both valid - one is claret and the other is a vodka & orange

And weirdly enough, the V&O would usually be cheaper....... and I'm enough of a philistine to drink both, just not out of the same glass........ :-D

[lockwood1956]

and I'm enough of a philistine to drink both, just not out of the same glass

love it

[Delmonteman]

Hi all - can someone please explain why the following doesn't / won't / shouldn't work?

I have one of the Prohibition liqueur afffairs, whose approach seems to be - make a gallon of 20% proof water/alcohol, then add flavouring.

So why aren't we all making wines in the same way - say 7 pints of water, couple of pounds of sugar, ferment for a couple of weeks, to give say 14%, then add a pint of presumably sulfited, blackberry, damson, Ribena etc to bring it all back down to 12%, but with a fresh "full on", flavour.

Presumably you could get your fruit juice by either steam juicing, from a bottle like Ribena, or by reducing fruit on the stove like the Americans and their f-paks.

I have some sympathy with this approach from two perspectives... The first one is that it is another drink to offer the homebrew naysayers/ none wine drinkers. It will make a fruity alcoholic drink which will no doubt be preferable to some people.

The second is that surely it is a similar approach to say late fruit additions and/ or backsweetening with syrups/ tinned fruit etc.

Fair enough it's not 'wine', but a lot of what we make isn't (as some would argue) technically wine. Further, it's just the base that's different. Whereas I am about to do a late addition of a tin of gooseberries to a batch of wine number one, I could just as easily be adding the tin to an alcohol base.

I have often thought that Ribena added to an alchohol base will give a nicer drink than the fermented version.

[cpfan]

Delmonteman:

Go ahead, give it a try. Hopefully you will like the results.

I have made the 18-20% alcohol and flavoured it a couple of different ways, although mostly with the Gert Strand essences. To me it doesn't taste like wine, not even the flavoured wines like Island Mist/Niagara Mist/Orchard Breezin' kits make. Perhaps part of it is the higher alcohol. I suspect the real diff is as explained by Pat & Bob in posts #5 & 6 above.

Steve