Cashew Juice Concentrate: Can I use it?!

[bobdaferret]

I learned recently where the cashew comes from. Surprisingly, they come attached to a "false fruit" that looks a lot like apples from an apple tree. This is known as the cashew apple.

When I saw this, I immediately thought to myself... CIDER! However, these little buggers are hard to come by in the States; they're mainly grown & harvested in Brazil, and are very sensitive to transportation. So, without hesitation, I went on Amazon and purchased a cashew juice concentrate to brew with.

I've never brewed a cider before, and I was unaware (until after I made my purchase) that one has to watch out for preservatives & other unwanted additives in fruit concentrates.

Unfortunately, what I purchased is nowhere near pure... but, does that mean it would be impossible to brew with?! I want to at least brew a 1-gal experiment to satisfy my curiosity, so I'm looking for any information/advice/positive encouragement I can get!

This is the list of ingredients on the concentrate:

Cashew juice
Water
Concentrated cashew juice
Citric acid
Xantham gum
Sodium benzoate
Sodium metabisulphite

I also want to add coconut & key lime juice at some point, and back-sweeten to finish it off... like I said earlier, TOTAL newbie at this, so any help is very much appreciated!

 

[heliummuppet]

I would say no since there is Sodium benzoate in it. Yeast hates that stuff!

 

[botigol]

I made wine from passion fruit concentrate from the same company. The fermentation and end result were fine; not much lag time and the wine tasted great. My theory is that the preservatives are sufficient for the concentrate, but once diluted are not enough to hinder fermentation. Again, this is just a theory.

 

[bobdaferret]

I made wine from passion fruit concentrate from the same company. The fermentation and end result were fine; not much lag time and the wine tasted great. My theory is that the preservatives are sufficient for the concentrate, but once diluted are not enough to hinder fermentation. Again, this is just a theory.

That's encouraging to hear! Is your recipe online somewhere? I'd be curious to see your process in making that wine.

 

[botigol]

Nothing online, but it had to be pretty simple; this was an experiment soon after I started making wine. I will track down the details and post (hopefully tonight).

 

[WVMJ]

I forgot which forum it was on but a guy who lives where they grow cashews makes wine from the fruit part and says its pretty good so there is hope. WVMJ

 

[bschot]

Subscribed

 

[botigol]

Sorry for the delay. Here are the highlights (with one lowlight thrown in):

I was worried about the preservatives in the concentrate, so I had a couple of extra steps at the beginning of the process:
Day 1:
1. Added concentrate (16.9oz/500ml) and 3 liters of filtered water to 1-gallon jug
2. Capped and shook jug to aerate.
3. Removed cap to ventilate.
4. Replaced cap and moved jug to refrigerator.

Day 2:
5. Removed jug from refrigerator and shook to aerate.
6. Removed cap to ventilate.
7.Left out of refrigerator to warm for a couple of hours.
8. Added simple syrup: was shooting for an OG of 1.080, but due to impatience and inexperience ended up at 1.094. The juice before the syrup was 1.010.
9. Added yeast nutrient.
10. Pitched Red Star Pasteur Champagne yeast dry.
11. Moved to my basement where the temperature is pretty steady; 62-65F.

Day 30:
12. FG = 0.985! That's right, the meniscus of the wine was a little higher than the lowest reading (0.990) on my hydrometer. I double-checked the calibration and re-took the reading three times to make sure. It was DRY, but very tasty.
13. Racked to clean jug and topped up with filtered water. I was fine with this due to overshooting the OG, the FG coming in so low and I felt as if there was more than enough flavor to stand up to the watering down.

Day 31:
I had time, so I was going to work on backsweetening; it was so dry, it needed a bit of sugar. I was stabilizing when disaster struck...the neck of the glass jug snapped! The back end of my stir paddle was just a bit too large for the jug neck. I had been wiggling it in and out, but it was obviously too much pressure.

So, I never got to the final product. However, I remember how tasty the almost-finished wine was...time to revisit this recipe!

Like I said, pretty simple. For a cider, just shoot for a lower OG. Fruits tend to ferment to completely dry (well below 1.000), so take that into consideration when planning the alcohol level and know that you will be backsweetening extra due to this as well.

Good luck!

 

[bobdaferret]

Amazing!! Thank you for all your help, can't wait to give my version a try. I'll be sure to keep you posted!

 

[fosaisu]

Amazing!! Thank you for all your help, can't wait to give my version a try. I'll be sure to keep you posted!

I assume since you're still posting that this wasn't an elaborate April Fools joke. I'd never heard of cashew juice before and will be very interested to hear how the end product turns out (and please give us some tasting notes on the cashew juice itself, while you're at it!)

 

[bobdaferret]

I assume since you're still posting that this wasn't an elaborate April Fools joke. I'd never heard of cashew juice before and will be very interested to hear how the end product turns out (and please give us some tasting notes on the cashew juice itself, while you're at it!)

Haha, not a joke, my friend! C'mon, I even gave you links!

As far as the juice itself goes, it definitely compares to normal apples. However, the aroma is much sweeter, and the taste more astringent. Also, there's an overall creaminess to the mouthfeel that reminds me a lot of the cashew nut.

 

[Revvy]

I assume since you're still posting that this wasn't an elaborate April Fools joke. I'd never heard of cashew juice...

You mean the first thing you didn't do was this?

Am I the only one who when they hear something they never heard of before, actually does a little research?

 

[fosaisu]

Haha, not a joke, my friend! C'mon, I even gave you links!

Well the links and back-story are what would have made it an "elaborate" joke

Seriously though, looking forward to hearing how this brew comes out!

 

[IslandLizard]

So when the neck of the jug snapped off, you didn't think twice to dump the batch? You could have strained it through a sanitized (Starsan come to mind) coffee filter or so. I'm sure not the only one curious to know how the final product tasted.