Lower-Alcohol Wine

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I have a friend who has had to severely restrict his alcohol intake. He has always enjoyed wine, especially reds (on one occasion some years ago we got through five bottles in an evening between the two of us) and he currently drinks a lot of the alcohol-free stuff.

He wondered about the possibility of a (relatively) low-alcohol wine. I'm thinking in the 5-6% range, so similar to cider in strength but with more of a wine-like flavour profile. I'm hoping this will be possible using just fruit juices, so I'm thinking of something like the following:

2L RGJ (or 2 bottles RGJ concentrate)
1L cherry juice
200g blueberries
1 tablespoon dried elderberries
Water to top up (aiming for an SG of ~1040)
Plus the usuals - 10g oak chips, 2tsp glycerine, 1tsp nutrient.

I'm guessing that I may need to reduce the acidity a bit, but I'm not sure how much by. Do people think this will work, have any suggestions for improvements or other recipes, or think there are problems I've missed?

 

[DirtyCaner]

That seems reasonable, but I'm no expert.

My suggestion would be to make the wine you propose, and if it overshoots og, ferment out, liquor back to desired volume. Stabilise, then maybe increase body with a little cordial of some sort?

Let me know how you get on, either way.

DirtyC

 

[tonyhibbett]

Sounds good. There is a risk, of course, of drinking larger quantities to compensate for the lower alcohol, but the real harm comes from high concentrations of alcohol rather than the actual quantity, because the body can cope better with low concentrations.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

The cartons say to drink within 5 days of opening, i believe the wine has to be a certain % ABV to act as a preservative, too low and it will not keep, i may of course have this all wrong but am sure i have read something about this in the forum.

 

[tonyhibbett]

This is true to a point, but the main issue is exposure to air. Wine boxes get around this problem. For long term storage, sulphites are used commercially as a preservative. High strength wines like port and sherry can take repeated exposure to air, because of the high alcohol content.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

One thing that worries me is that the wine could end up tasting thin. I'm thinking about adding half a dozen black bananas, along with amylase and pectolase, to add some body. Do people think that will work?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

As you are thinking of adding 6 bananas i assume 5 gallons you are making.

When i made a 5 gallon WOW (apple/raspberry + WGJ) i used 10 litres of juice and it was as good as the gallon versions i make, if you only use the juice in your OP (see quote below) i think it will be thin, i haven't a clue what the bananas will do to it, would it not be easier to add more juice to bring it up to 10 litres?

2L RGJ (or 2 bottles RGJ concentrate)
1L cherry juice
200g blueberries
1 tablespoon dried elderberries

 

[tonyhibbett]

1 black skinned banana, without skin, per gallon, seems to be the norm, mashed and pulp fermented for 3 days. A carton of cheap apple juice would also improve the body at low cost.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Jack Keller's banana wines use up to 2kg (4.5Lbs) of bananas per gallon, and have only a mild banana flavour but plenty of body, which is one thing I think this wine is likely to lack. My reasoning behind using them rather than apple juice is that they add body with less acidity or fermentables. The relative lack of fermentation could leave the wine more acidic than I'd want in a red, since amounts of both malic and citric acid are reduced by fermentation. It's all a question of balancing more body with less alcohol.

As it happens, my original plans have had to be changed as I cannot find anywhere in my town that sells pure cherry juice, so I've rethought a little and will be using a load of frozen fruit. I had to buy a bag of frozen cherries to make a gluten-free blackforest gateau for my mum, but I'll only use about half of them so the rest can go into the wine alongside a bag of mixed blackberries, blackcurrants, raspberries & redcurrants. It sounds like a lot, but it's actually about 750g of fruit replacing 1L of juice, so it's actually quite a big reduction. It also means there's more complexity in the flavour of the finished wine. Even with the elderberries & blueberries, it'll be less than 1kg berries total, giving me at most about 100g sugar. Add that up along with 3 bananas and 2L RGJ and there'll be about 400-450g sugar in the DJ, for an ABV of around 4.5-5%, about a third to two-fifths that of a conventional table wine.

This means the price per bottle will be in the £1.25-£1.50 range, at the upper end of what I'd normally spend on making a full-strength wine, but a lot less than if I'd actually bought it. I'm really hoping it works as a) I'll have done something new and inventive (I love creating new things) and b) it will mean both my mum (who gets plastered on half a glass) and best friend can enjoy wine a little more often.

I'm also thinking of doing a white wine, and keeping relatively simple compared to the red: swapping the RGJ for WGJ, and the kilo of berries for five grapefruit, but keeping the bananas for body.