Ingredients

~6 oz. frozen strawberries, 12 oz. frozen blueberries, ~18 oz. frozen blackberries, 24 oz. frozen raspberries, 24 oz. frozen cranberries, ~34.5 oz. of Farmers’ Pick 100% Mixed Berry cocktail juice, 15 oz. golden raisens, 3 oz. currants, 10 oz pitted prunes, 1 dried grapefruit peel, 2 dried orange peels, 1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme, 1 Campden tablet, ~126 sugar cubes (1 pound), 4 oz. brown sugar, 5.5 oz. raw sugar, 2 rock candy sticks (sticks removed), 2 teaspoons yeast nutrient, 3 packets of Spike Your Juice yeast

Recipe

This recipe is a premium prison wine because it uses equipment and ingredients that I imagine only a well-connected prisoner would get be able to acquire. First defrost all frozen fruit. Empty fruit into primary fermentation vessel, and pour in remaining juice cocktail. Using a potato masher (or blunt instrument) crush the fruit as much as possible. Sprinkle pectic enzyme over crushed fruit. Finally crush and dissolve one Campden tablet in a glass of water and stir into crushed fruit concentrate. Wait 24 hours. Add raisens, prunes, and dried orange and grapefruit peels. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Top off with tap water to 1.75 gallon mark and take hydrometer reading. Stir in yeast nutrient and then sprinkle contents of yeast packets on top of the must. Seal fermentation vessel with airlock. Transfer to a secondary after 8 weeks and filter with clean coffee filters. Enjoy and trade for cigarettes or illicit contraband.

Brew Notes

I was moving and had some store-bought frozen fruit that needed to be used up quickly. Sanitization was minimal, just a rinse of the old bucket.

Tasting Notes

Wow. Surprisingly good actually. Feels like a red wine when you drink it and even sort of tastes like a fruity red wine. The alcohol isn’t too hot on the tongue, which I would have expected for the high ABV.