My wife is Gluten intolerant and she likes the Wine Coolers, but we all know those are malt beverage and they make her extremely ill. I would like to know has anyone ever tried to brew this type of beverage. I also would like a recipe for one.
Wine Cooler
- Thread starter Augie62
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Some "wine coolers" are actually a vodka based drink. Something to think about.
Are their any winecoolers that are straight up wine and carbonated water? Or are they all malternative or vodka based drinks?
And even if there wasn't, for the OP's purposes couldn't he just bottle a mixture of wine and carbonated water? Seems with kegging it would be easy to make something, just from wine and fizzy water. Or a low gravity wine that was just carbed up?
ravensbrew
Active Member
My wife has brewed a few of the "island mist" wine kits that remind me more of wine coolers than wine. Very fruity and relatively low ABV. I've suggested we start carbonating and serving it from a keg in the future.
I would look that route if your looking for something very wine-coolerish.
I would look that route if your looking for something very wine-coolerish.
Yeah, but iirc their body is still heavier than coolers. It's been a long time for either. But I think they'd still need to be cut a bit with seltzer.
Wine coolers were made with wine, then the taxes went up on wine based items so they did the malternatives (malt based beverages), which don't contain wine in the name anymore, except by people who keep thinking of them that way. Like how Kleenex is any type of tissue. So you're looking for a wine coolers pre-1991 when they were still based off of wine? You'll notice that Bartles & James used to have "wine coolers" back in the day, but now they have "malt coolers".
I'd go with:
a) buying wine and mixing it with club soda/ice & juice & fruit. Sangrias and that sort of thing. But this doesn't really have the advantage of feeling like you've put effort into creating it.
b) Mist style wines and cutting it with anything if wished. Unfortunately it's difficult to compare to the decades old wine cooler to really compare body, especially since I was a touch below drinking age during those years. I usually drink mine on ice since the addition of water really doesn't affect it. Although, I think I did a touch too much water during my last mist wine, and I find that one to be better when adding a splash of vodka or real wine to it. (A michigan cherry wine usually). Othertimes I'll carbonate it directly in smaller containers, or add club soda for people who want it really watery. (I have one of those carbonator caps and a 8 ounce, 12 ounce and 2 liter bottle)
I've only made two so far, so I haven't tried out the others, but I think the body does vary. The sensation could have to just do with the flavor or juice additions. I'd need repeated trials to find out. But personally, I thought that the white zin mix was lighter than the cranberry malbec, even with my malbec having a touch too much water.
c) As mentioned, meads could work, you can either brew it at a 14% and cut with water, or brew a 4-5% hydromel with any flavorings. (I was going to do both, but I miscalculated and used 20 pounds of honey in a 6 gallon carboy this past Sunday. My next one is going to be a 5% with tart cherry concentrate for flavoring, I think.)
So depending on what you want to do with it, you can make it yourselves, or mix something up with a bottle of wine or vodka. If you want to feel like you're making something (6 gallons worth), go for the mist kits. They're really easy to work with and really fast and it'll be cheaper than buying bottles of wine and mixing with juice.
I'd go with:
a) buying wine and mixing it with club soda/ice & juice & fruit. Sangrias and that sort of thing. But this doesn't really have the advantage of feeling like you've put effort into creating it.
b) Mist style wines and cutting it with anything if wished. Unfortunately it's difficult to compare to the decades old wine cooler to really compare body, especially since I was a touch below drinking age during those years. I usually drink mine on ice since the addition of water really doesn't affect it. Although, I think I did a touch too much water during my last mist wine, and I find that one to be better when adding a splash of vodka or real wine to it. (A michigan cherry wine usually). Othertimes I'll carbonate it directly in smaller containers, or add club soda for people who want it really watery. (I have one of those carbonator caps and a 8 ounce, 12 ounce and 2 liter bottle)
I've only made two so far, so I haven't tried out the others, but I think the body does vary. The sensation could have to just do with the flavor or juice additions. I'd need repeated trials to find out. But personally, I thought that the white zin mix was lighter than the cranberry malbec, even with my malbec having a touch too much water.
c) As mentioned, meads could work, you can either brew it at a 14% and cut with water, or brew a 4-5% hydromel with any flavorings. (I was going to do both, but I miscalculated and used 20 pounds of honey in a 6 gallon carboy this past Sunday. My next one is going to be a 5% with tart cherry concentrate for flavoring, I think.)
So depending on what you want to do with it, you can make it yourselves, or mix something up with a bottle of wine or vodka. If you want to feel like you're making something (6 gallons worth), go for the mist kits. They're really easy to work with and really fast and it'll be cheaper than buying bottles of wine and mixing with juice.
dayflyer55
Well-Known Member
I would just try some Bacardi daiquiri concentrate and brew it up like you would a hard lemonade. Mix concentrate with water, maybe add a little sugar, dissolve in boiling water. Let it ferment to about 5% abv or whatever you want, then bottle. Let it carb for a day or two, then bottle pasteurize to kill the yeast. (there's a sticky for this in the cider forum). Do this for lemonade all the time, turns out great and actually tasting like lemonade.
jjanderton
Member
Hi there...
The list on the link below says that all wines are gluten-free. Maybe it was something that you ate with the wine that made you sick?
From this link may be you will get, what you want.
http://www.celiac.com/articles/222/1/Gluten-Free-Alcoholic-Beverages/Page1.html....
Actually, that's not entirely true. There have been some wineries that had used a wheat based paste inside of their barrels.
And as I mentioned before, in the US, wine coolers used to be wine based beverages, but when an increased tax hit wine, but not beer, producer switched to malt based beverages. Some people still call them wine coolers despite not being wine. They're correctly called "malternatives" or malt based beverages, and as such are not gluten free. This is also why high alcohol malt beverages are popular and cheap.
I believe this is different in some parts of europe where wine coolers are still made from wine processes and grapes.
And as I mentioned before, in the US, wine coolers used to be wine based beverages, but when an increased tax hit wine, but not beer, producer switched to malt based beverages. Some people still call them wine coolers despite not being wine. They're correctly called "malternatives" or malt based beverages, and as such are not gluten free. This is also why high alcohol malt beverages are popular and cheap.
I believe this is different in some parts of europe where wine coolers are still made from wine processes and grapes.
dayflyer55 said:
I made 1 3/4 gallons like this a few weeks ago. Based on BODWB's 3 day wine cooler thread.
2- bacardi strawberry daquiri concentrate
7- cps brown sugar
1-wine yeast dry pck
Ferment 4 days from 1.090 to 1.060.
Stick in freezer till slushy then drink.
My wife loves it and I'm planning on doing a few more batches with frozen fruit.
hvacjoe68
New Member
I am wanting to figure out a recipe to copy a Matilda Bay original fruit malt cooler, however, I do not want to use vodka for my base. I want to stay as close to original as possible.
I know that it was a malt beverage made by Miller Brewing Back in the 1980's. I am able to get one good bottle full with the cooler in prestine condition. I just don't know how to go about cloning it, or where to get the ingredients to produce the malt base or aquire the right flavorings.
Any help would be appreciated.
I know that it was a malt beverage made by Miller Brewing Back in the 1980's. I am able to get one good bottle full with the cooler in prestine condition. I just don't know how to go about cloning it, or where to get the ingredients to produce the malt base or aquire the right flavorings.
Any help would be appreciated.
You're probably going to want to ask this in the main brewing threads. This thread happens to be in the gluten free section of the forum, and our ingredients are more along the lines of fruit, sorghum, rice, millet and quinoa.
If you're looking to do a malt beverage, you'll definately want to ask in the other threads since we're allergic barley and wheat, which is normally used to create a malt beverage.
If you're looking to do a malt beverage, you'll definately want to ask in the other threads since we're allergic barley and wheat, which is normally used to create a malt beverage.
