What do different juices fermented taste like?

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applescrap

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I posesd this question some other place, but I don't feel it really got answered. As everyone knows Daddy's Orchard and Daddy's juice 2.0 are what I have been drinking. But as I buy the expensive black cherry juice, and pomegranate juice, I can't help but wonder how they would taste fermented. At $14 a gallon on sale, this might not be the most inexpensive option, but this juice is perceptively really good. But as I looked around that isle, I saw many other juices that looked good. Ocean spray cranberry, also they have about 30 different flavors of cran something. Pineapple juice and on and on. The idea would be to ferment them just like cider I imagine. Anyone ever experiment with these juices? Especially the more expensive organic juices. Thanks in advance.
 
I have a cran/rassberry that's just over 2 months old, from start of ferment, that came our pretty good. I started with a gallon. Added too much sugar, then diluted with a gallon of water. Just water, juice, sugar, yeast. So far it's the only thing i've made that swimbo has actually liked.
 
I made a passion fruit wine out of the passion fruit nectar that comes in tetra packs (I think it is actually something like 10% passion fruit juice, rest is sugarwater). Just undiluted into the carboy and step feeding sugar till the yeast gave up. Then a little bit more sugar till it tastes nice und happy days :)

Some nutes shouldn't hurt though. Preferably Fermaid O.

SUPRISINGLY good. Everybody loved it, especially the women.
 
I have a cran/rassberry that's just over 2 months old, from start of ferment, that came our pretty good. I started with a gallon. Added too much sugar, then diluted with a gallon of water. Just water, juice, sugar, yeast. So far it's the only thing i've made that swimbo has actually liked.
Thats what I am talking bout. Think it's cool you gave it a try Whats the gravity of cran razz just juice? I've never added sugar to a juice or cider, maybe I should give it a try, I just figure if it's not there naturally why put it there ? It might be fun to make like a two and a half 3% version of these that you can sip all day. Give daddys juice 2.0 a try for swmbo, My wife drinks plenty of it and she rarely drinks any cider or beer, unless its really good.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/index.php?threads/662317/
 
I made a passion fruit wine out of the passion fruit nectar that comes in tetra packs (I think it is actually something like 10% passion fruit juice, rest is sugarwater). Just undiluted into the carboy and step feeding sugar till the yeast gave up. Then a little bit more sugar till it tastes nice und happy days :)

Some nutes shouldn't hurt though. Preferably Fermaid O.

SUPRISINGLY good. Everybody loved it, especially the women.
Sounds good and strong. Here honey have a drink and forget all about how much of an arse I am. I really admire your passion for experimenting and fermenting btw miraculix. Did the fruit flavor come through, did you drink it still? I think I should just get some juice today give it a try. Still I want to hear more.
 
I haven't, though I've thought about it for some future experiments.

However, without having tried, I can give you some very simple advice: these will behave just like apple, the sugars will ferment away. Just like apple, these juices are for drinking and lack the the bitter and sharp flavors that you get from fermentation blends or whole fruit.

Doesn't mean it will be bad, but it will lack complexity and probably won't stand up to ageing. These are not losses for me, so long as I understand this in advance.
 
True. It need a bit more bite. But it started very tart. As for the SG of the plain juice... No idea. Didn't have a hydrometer yet. No, actually i did. I just didn't measure the juice. Which is how guessing at the added sugar got me up to around 2.0. Since then i have learned several things including the importance of taking notes.
 
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As for the SG of the plain juice... No idea.
Most juice lists its sugar content. A little math/ratios and you can treat juice like extract brewing. Bottle of Motts AJ that I just looked up online is 18g sugar/8oz serving. Thats approx 288g/gal or 10oz/gal or between 1.020 and 1.025.

Same exercise on Martinelli was 24g/8oz or 13.5oz/gal or between 1.035-1.040. Sugar is approx 40pts/lb/gal. 1lb sugar in 1gal h2o = 1.040.
 
Most juice lists its sugar content. A little math/ratios and you can treat juice like extract brewing. Bottle of Motts AJ that I just looked up online is 18g sugar/8oz serving. Thats approx 288g/gal or 10oz/gal or between 1.020 and 1.025.

Same exercise on Martinelli was 24g/8oz or 13.5oz/gal or between 1.035-1.040. Sugar is approx 40pts/lb/gal. 1lb sugar in 1gal h2o = 1.040.
thanks.
 
So, is this 1.071? Dont know what alcohol percent that is, but that would be strong, no. Sounds good. Bottled still and prepared like wine?

Also can someone please help me with abv on hard cider backsweetend/diluted 1g backsweeten liquid to 4 g plain cider? Thanks.

Screenshot_2019-02-10-10-15-25.jpeg
 
So, is this 1.071? Don't know what alcohol percent that is, but that would be strong, no. Sounds good. Bottled still and prepared like wine?

Also can someone please help me with abv on hard cider backsweetend/diluted 1g backsweeten liquid to 4 g plain cider? Thanks.

I always understood that sugar is 46 points per pound per gallon, so somewhere between 1.071 and 1.082. Like wine, yes.. 9.3-11%. And I don't understand your 2nd question.
 
46pt/gal probably right. I don't recall where I got my number, just from memory. It may be dme vs sugar.

Either way, 8oz is 1/16 of a gal. Your juice:
16*50=800g, 28.2oz or 1.75lb (approx).
Rest is outlined by this post.
1.071 calculated @40pt/gal, 1.082 calculated @46pt/gal.
I always understood that sugar is 46 points per pound per gallon, so somewhere between 1.071 and 1.082. Like wine, yes.. 9.3-11%. And I don't understand your 2nd question.
 
Sounds good and strong. Here honey have a drink and forget all about how much of an arse I am. I really admire your passion for experimenting and fermenting btw miraculix. Did the fruit flavor come through, did you drink it still? I think I should just get some juice today give it a try. Still I want to hear more.
Yes, strong it surely was. Something around 15%abv, but doesn't taste like it.... Dangerous stuff :D . Yes, just keep it still. Wouldn't be bad sparkling I guess, but as the yeast gave up and as I don't keg, no chance for me to carb it.

It is the fruit bomb. Passion fruit in your face. Needs a bit of sugar to balance the acid from the juice, but if done correctly it's really nice.
 
I think you’d be disappointed to spend $14/gal for juice and compare it to cheaper (and still good) juices. Fermentation removes the sugar and a lot of delicate flavor nuance is carried out with the CO2. I’ve tried different juices (quality-wise) on cider beverages and it isn’t worth going over the top on quality for.
 
I haven't, though I've thought about it for some future experiments.

However, without having tried, I can give you some very simple advice: these will behave just like apple, the sugars will ferment away. Just like apple, these juices are for drinking and lack the the bitter and sharp flavors that you get from fermentation blends or whole fruit.

Doesn't mean it will be bad, but it will lack complexity and probably won't stand up to ageing. These are not losses for me, so long as I understand this in advance.

But you can add some powdered tannin (not too much- like 1/8 tsp per 5 gallons to start in many cases!), acid blend if it's not acidic enough, oak it, use honey to sweeten, etc, and it can come out very good in the end. It won't be a table wine, but could be a very refreshing pool drink or a punchy drink over ice.
 
I always understood that sugar is 46 points per pound per gallon, so somewhere between 1.071 and 1.082. Like wine, yes.. 9.3-11%. And I don't understand your 2nd question.
Thanks Maylar. Ok the second part if I have 4 g of 6.5 percent cider and backsweeten with 1g of juice, what is the resulting abv. Little embarrassed I am not sure.
 
Concentration/Dilution formula:
M=concentration V=volume.
M1*V1=M2*V2

For your example:
M1*V1=6.5%*4gal
M2*V2=M2*5gal
Working the formula
6.5*4=M2*5
26=M2*5 (solve for M2, divide each side by V2=5)
26/5=M2
M2=5.2% (abv)

Edit, written in solve for X format - more familiar to most.
6.5*4=X*5
26=5X
26/5=X
X=5.2%
 
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Whoa, dont feel as bad for not knowing. Also now understand why answer took some time to find. Thanks! How do you know something like that, pretty cool that you do.
 
Everyone has different tastes, you might like what I can't take a sip of.
So try small batches of different juices to see what might suit your taste.
Early on, I tried fermenting all different kinds of juices from the store and none of them made a very good drink. Fermented juice just isn't going to taste like the original fruit. Add to that, the fermentation process blows off most of your fruit aroma with the Co2. Aroma is a big component in perception of flavor,
My best fruit beverages so far have been full strength meads with fruit added in secondary.
 
Whoa, dont feel as bad for not knowing. Also now understand why answer took some time to find. Thanks! How do you know something like that, pretty cool that you do.
I may have learned that in highschool chem, but definitely in college chem.
I do use it at work thoughnot regularly anymore. I built an excel calc that solves the problem for my team.
It looks more complicated than it really is because I showed the steps. I also solved fo M2, but may appear more familiar if I would have written in solve for X format.
 
My approach is to ferment my best Plain cider - then tweak it with different fruit juice concentrates, spices etc etc afterwards. [emoji111]
 
I just saw 1kg passion fruit puree on Amazon for eight quid. That should be enough for one to three gallons..... Ok, there you go, weird project for next month, glad you found me.
 
I just saw 1kg passion fruit puree on Amazon for eight quid. That should be enough for one to three gallons..... Ok, there you go, weird project for next month, glad you found me.
You must start a new thread on this! My wife loves passion fruit and I have been trying to make some kind of beverage that she would enjoy. My best attempt so far was a passion fruit cream ale.
 
You must start a new thread on this! My wife loves passion fruit and I have been trying to make some kind of beverage that she would enjoy. My best attempt so far was a passion fruit cream ale.
I surely will. I will somehow incorporate vanilla in this one :)

One of my favorite students drinks was absolut vanilla vodka with passion fruit juice. Sounds awkward, tastes delicious.
 
Post it here, lets start some thinking! @Sbe2 check out daddys juice and daddys orchard. My wife loves them and she wont try much. Anyways, I am guessing cider backsweetened with quality passion fruit juice would work as well!
 
Fall 2017, I took 1 gallon pure cranberry juice (forget the brand, but it was not oceanspray cranberry cocktail), added 1 lb. honey and fermented with a pkg of Redstar Cote des Blanc. ABV was about 13 %. Got 4 wine bottles out of the 1G batch. Cracked open a bottle Christmas 2018. Wow, it was good. We have a local competition that also judges wines and meads. I think I'm going to sacrifice a bottle just to see what judges think.
 
I surely will. I will somehow incorporate vanilla in this one :)

One of my favorite students drinks was absolut vanilla vodka with passion fruit juice. Sounds awkward, tastes delicious.
Not a weird combination at all. The vanilla will give it a nice creamy taste kind of like vanilla ice cream and passion fruit. Makes total sense to me. I did something similar with peach a few years back.

I did not start this hobby to do math......:smh:
What about chemistry? Brewing is basic chemistry for the most part and this calculation is basic chem.
 
I posesd this question some other place, but I don't feel it really got answered. As everyone knows Daddy's Orchard and Daddy's juice 2.0 are what I have been drinking. But as I buy the expensive black cherry juice, and pomegranate juice, I can't help but wonder how they would taste fermented. At $14 a gallon on sale, this might not be the most inexpensive option, but this juice is perceptively really good. But as I looked around that isle, I saw many other juices that looked good. Ocean spray cranberry, also they have about 30 different flavors of cran something. Pineapple juice and on and on. The idea would be to ferment them just like cider I imagine. Anyone ever experiment with these juices? Especially the more expensive organic juices. Thanks in advance.

FYI: Most black cherry juice is either juice from sweet cherries, or a blend of juice from sweet & tart (pie type) cherries. Sweet cherries don't have as much cherry flavor as tart cherries do, but they can still make a good wine. There's a winery here (Ten Spoon) that makes a tasty Flathead cherry dry wine from sweet cherries. I've made Flathead cherry melomels that were pretty tasty. I've also done pear juice & it needs acid & tannin additions to keep it from tasting bland.

I've never fermented pineapple juice, but there was a guy here on HBT (Freezeblade?) who did with pure pineapple juice & said it was way too acidic & needed to be diluted and/or treated to reduce acid. Plums have a lot of acid too & the pure juice needs to be diluted as well. I did a 1 gal experiment with pure prune juice too, it was so acidic post-fermentation, you'd swear it could strip the enamel off your teeth; it also still tasted like prune juice; I won't be doing that again.

I've only used pomegranate juice blended with other juice (blackberry/blueberry), but those wines turned out to be tasty & the pom juice definitely added some depth of flavor & a bit of tartness. I've got an experimental batch of 50/50 concord grape/aronia berry wine aging now. The aronia has very mild flavor on its' own, but it has the exact amount of tannin to make concord grape juice taste REALLY good. I've also got 4 gallons of bilberry juice waiting for me to get around to fermenting it, not exactly sure how it'll turn out, but I love the juice. Hope that helps as to your question about other juices.
Regards, GF.
 
FYI: Most black cherry juice is either juice from sweet cherries, or a blend of juice from sweet & tart (pie type) cherries. Sweet cherries don't have as much cherry flavor as tart cherries do, but they can still make a good wine. There's a winery here (Ten Spoon) that makes a tasty Flathead cherry dry wine from sweet cherries. I've made Flathead cherry melomels that were pretty tasty. I've also done pear juice & it needs acid & tannin additions to keep it from tasting bland.

I've never fermented pineapple juice, but there was a guy here on HBT (Freezeblade?) who did with pure pineapple juice & said it was way too acidic & needed to be diluted and/or treated to reduce acid. Plums have a lot of acid too & the pure juice needs to be diluted as well. I did a 1 gal experiment with pure prune juice too, it was so acidic post-fermentation, you'd swear it could strip the enamel off your teeth; it also still tasted like prune juice; I won't be doing that again.

I've only used pomegranate juice blended with other juice (blackberry/blueberry), but those wines turned out to be tasty & the pom juice definitely added some depth of flavor & a bit of tartness. I've got an experimental batch of 50/50 concord grape/aronia berry wine aging now. The aronia has very mild flavor on its' own, but it has the exact amount of tannin to make concord grape juice taste REALLY good. I've also got 4 gallons of bilberry juice waiting for me to get around to fermenting it, not exactly sure how it'll turn out, but I love the juice. Hope that helps as to your question about other juices.
Regards, GF.
I see, I am not the only idiot who thought that fermenting prune juice might be a good idea.

Even after about a year of aging, it still tasted like crap :D

.... But it was worth the try. I think the juice is already heavily oxidized, also tasted a bit like port after fermenting it, but not in a good way.
 
Fyi

My passion fruit puree just arrived. Now we'll just have to wait till my mead finished, to make some space. And then I will give it a try with the tosna protocol. I think I will make about 5l wine or of the puree. Let's see.
 
Almost forgot, I've also used black currant juice, which is really high in ascorbic acid (vitamin C) & it definitely needs to be diluted/treated to reduce acid. It has something like 256% of the USRDA for vitamin C. I used it with apple juice & sweet Flathead cherries in a wine that turned out VERY tasty. Black currant is a flavor-bomb, it easily dominates other flavors. This has got me to thinking I might have to try a blend of diluted black currant juice & aronia berry juice, might be really good. I've added blueberry juice to a blackberry wine & that turned out to be pretty tasty, added quite a bit of depth to the wine. There are a lot of commercially produced juices out there to try; I've done a few 1 gallon batches just to experiment, it's a way to try new things with reduced expense.
Regards, GF.
 
I have fermented peach nectar, and I thought it tasted pretty good. Pomegranate also turns out pretty good.

I suggest not using a wine yeast though. If you do, halt the fermentation before it gets above, say, 9 or 10%. If you wait until the ABV is 14%+, then probably the flavor will be mostly gone. Alternately, use a yeast with low attenuation and low ABV tolerance, like Wyeast Sweet Mead.
 
Thanks everyone for your responses! It won't be long before I give something a try. If and when I do I will update.
 
I have fermented peach nectar, and I thought it tasted pretty good. Pomegranate also turns out pretty good.

I suggest not using a wine yeast though. If you do, halt the fermentation before it gets above, say, 9 or 10%. If you wait until the ABV is 14%+, then probably the flavor will be mostly gone. Alternately, use a yeast with low attenuation and low ABV tolerance, like Wyeast Sweet Mead.
Appreciate the tips. So this juice is much stronger than Apple Juice?
 
abv 14%, seems stronger than apple juice, whose abv iiac is under half that. Well that and it can bench more.
 

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