My sister has asked me for wines made from cranberries, any sort I might find. I'm looking to do a batch or two from Welch's 100% White-Grape Cranberry, and I will also be using Jack's Cran-raspberry reccipe from his site. But I was looking for any other suggestions, and also wondering iuf anyone had a recipe for straight cranberry juice, either using frozen concentrate(probably welch's again), or using 100% pure orgrnic juice from the bottle purchased at local natural foods store.
I made a 5 gal batch of wine from Welch's 100% Cranberry last year. I basically followed Jack's Cran-Raspberry wine recipe. It turned out very well, but it was a bit thin and light-bodied. So at the end I added a half can of Welch's white grape concentrate and a half can of Welch's cranberry concentrate, then sweetened it with sugar syrup to taste. I just make it as a novelty wine for the neighbors this time of year, there's no way I could drink 25 bottles of cranberry wine.
I will post a recipe I drummed up to use up a gallon of Ocean Spray cranberry juice I got at Big Lots. the result was lighter in color, like a blush. It is very tart, which came from having too much acidity I think. I have some suggestions I'll add after the recipe. I'm hoping somebody can give me some suggestions on using real cranberries since I got 6 pounds of them. I do like cranberry wine.
1 gallon Ocean Spray cranberry juice. Go mine in a jug that doubled as the fermenter.
1.5 lbs granulated sugar
2 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient One packet red wine yeast. I used Red Star Pasteur Red.
1 tsp bentonite (?) I don't have the quantity written but I'm sure I added it. I wanted faster results so I used that as a clarifying agent.
Take away two cups of cranberry juice, along with a tablespoon of sugar, to create a starter for the yeast. With the starter going, warm the cranberry juice in a pot in order to quicken transferring all that sugar. Don't boil. Introduce all the sugar, blend, enzyme, nutrient, and bentonite. Stir vigorously until dissolved and homogenous. When I used the original container as a carboy, I had leftover liquid. You'll want to take some juice out before adding yeast if you use such a small container.
I don't have the SG measurements since I started this before I began recording that kind of thing. I started the process on 8/27, racked in September, and bottled towards the end of October. During secondary fermentation, I kepted it in my kegerator at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. I noticed how a lot of red stuff had settled to the bottom of the containers I was using.
My post-mortem advice after the fact would be to take away the acids. I don't think the juice needs it. I was satisfied with everything else, but I wonder if I can expect the same color from real cranberries.
The resulting flavor has the unique tartness of cranberries, although there still is a touch of cranberry to the flavor. IMO it came out dry.
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