Adding citrus to a concord

[loftybrewer]

I'd like to squeeze a half gallon or more of orange juice into my concord wine which is nearly done fermenting. It's bone dry and tastes like a pinot noir. No sulfites or anything, I'm letting this go all the way no matter what else I do with it. Anyone have experience or opinions on adding fresh orange juice to a dry red wine?

 

[novalou]

Be sure to add it to a sample first and see what you think. Concord is usually acidic to begin with, so I normally wold think that adding an acidic juice would not be a good idea.

But experiment and let us know how it turns out.

 

[Grey_Wolf_Spirits]

Why not use dried orange peel. add the hint of orange without all the acid.

 

[loftybrewer]

Should I be worried about it getting vinegary if I draw out a sample? Forgive my ignorance, this is my first batch of wine... Also, I plan on letting the sugars in the OJ ferment out as well so I don't think it will be an accurate approximation if I just mix OJ with a sample. My inspiration was sangria. If you let it sit for a few nights the orange wheels add this - don't think I'm weird - lemon pledge/orange clean kind of sharp citrus burst. In a good way.

 

[novalou]

Should I be worried about it getting vinegary if I draw out a sample? Forgive my ignorance, this is my first batch of wine... Also, I plan on letting the sugars in the OJ ferment out as well so I don't think it will be an accurate approximation if I just mix OJ with a sample. My inspiration was sangria. If you let it sit for a few nights the orange wheels add this - don't think I'm weird - lemon pledge/orange clean kind of sharp citrus burst. In a good way.

Use a sanitized utensil to daw out your sample. If its only a few ounces, don't worry about the head space created.