Apple Raspberry Juice Wine from Concentrate

It has a magnificent glow

Since no new beer supplies were purchased over the weekend, I decided to make the most of my stockpiled juice supply (and space in the closet) and start a new batch of wine. This time I used apple raspberry juice from concentrate. A little while ago last year, I bought both the apple cherry juice and the apple raspberry juice to see which would make a better juice-blend wine. I forgot which juice was the better tasting one, so I decided to start with the apple cherry juice. I think I made the wrong selection initially, but now I am back to fix my mistakes.

Starting off with a recipe nearly identical to that of the apple cherry juice wine, I acquired the following materials:

The equipment necessary

Apple-Raspberry Wine (from concentrate)

2 cans Apple Raspberry juice concentrate

2.5 cups sugar

1 tsp yeast nutrient

1 packet Lalvin EC 1118 yeast

Water to make 1 gallon

The first step with any homebrew project is to clean and sanitize everything. Be throughout because you don't want to get any unwanted microorganisms such as lactobacillius of brettanomyces in your brew.

Yeast goes in

Reawakens

In preparation to pitching (about 15 minutes worth), I warmed up some water and pitched the packet of yeast into it.

Flocculation

Another preparatory measurement was to remove the juice from the freezer sometime before I opened the cans. But the first step I did this time was add the sugar to the carboy first. Since I already knew how much sugar I needed to add, I figure it might be wise to add it in first before the liquid so I do not clog the funnel later.

Into the jug it goes

Like sand in an hourglass

Next step is to add in the juice. It went easier than last time, but I still had to melt some of the ice chunks caught up in the funnel. I used the baster to do that.

Sweet stuff

Now comes the challenge to incorporate all of the sugar I adding in. Adding in little amounts of the necessary water and shaking the jug helped accomplish that. In doing so, this also aerated the must, and because this wine has really high sugar content, it needs all the oxygen it can get.

Sugar gradient is quite obvious here

Eventually got it all dissolved (and aerated)

Finally it came time to take a gravity reading and pitch the yeast. The OG for this batch was 1.092, slightly higher than the apple cherry wine. It'll get about 12%-13% ABV once finished.

Pitching the yeast

Yeast Away!

I'm guessing this one will have to age like the apple cherry wine. But given this one's higher sugar content, it might taste better than it without any aging. Regardless, most of the wine, once bottled, will sit in the closet for a few months time.

The label is always necessary.

I still have two more empty 1 gallon jugs. What should I use those to make? Leave a comment below.

Bottling Day