Latest Abomination: Sunny D

[u/warneverchanges7414]

My latest sin to winemaking brought me to Sunny Delight. Upon reading several posts about how it's a bad idea, couldn't/shouldn't be done, I decided to ignore all of them and do it anyway. In a 4L container I combined 1C of tea, fermaid o, 1/2tsp of pectic enzyme, Sunny D, enough sugar to reach a gravity of 1.100, and good ol' ec1118. It was a rough ferment the whole way due to a high pH I forgot to check. After adding 1/2 a tsp of baking soda and a whole 2 months of painfully slow fermentation it finally went dry. I decided to oak it on American oak just because I thought it was funny to oak sunny d. The results piss me off more than the fermentation did because it's actually really good. Like really really good. Better than some serious projects. No puke smell likely because the only thing Sunny d has in common with actual orange juice is being the color orange. The flavor was like a robust white wine with orange notes with hints of baking spices for some reason. I absolutely hate that it's an 8/10 compared to all the wines I've made. Pairs well with remembering people you went to high school with are more successful than you now and seafood.

[u/BroccoliOwn8193]

Could’ve done the primary right in the sunny d jug, I would’ve out of ease

[u/warneverchanges7414 → u/BroccoliOwn8193]

Certainly. I don't because r/winemaking is a bad influence. That and it gives me a bit more wine by the end.