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I'm very curious how this tasted and I wonder why there isn't anyone selling them anymore (based on a quick Google search). If it tasted half decent I'm curiou

I'm very curious how this tasted and I wonder why there isn't anyone selling them anymore (based on a quick Google search). If it tasted half decent I'm curious if there could still be a market for something like this, given it seems to be able to be stored dry?

istjohn 5y ago
Fermenting alcohol that tastes good is not easy enough to justify a mass market product. Furthermore, why buy this when you can just buy cheap boxed wine that probably tastes much better than whatever you would get from fermenting reconstituted dry grape concentrate?
- sdenton4 5y ago
  I've often made one gallon batches of mead; it's pretty simple, and wine (if you don't get too fancy) is a similar level of difficulty. IME, one gallon batches about two hours of work from start to a clean kitchen. Five gallon batches take much longer to cool after boiling, so are a much bigger headache.
  - rndgermandude 5y ago
    Yeah, my late grandpa after he retired used to grow some grapes and make wine out of that on his small hobbyist gardening parcel[0]. And at least by the time I grew old enough to be allowed to drink it, he had become good enough at it that it was quite enjoyable and vastly better than cheap boxed or bottled wines in my humble opinion. His output was like 30 bottles of red and another 30 of white, so in gallons that would be a little more than 21 liters each or 5 gallons each. He gave away most of it to family and his friends - we had a lot of his bottles on regular barbecues he hosted - and even had my cousin help him design and print funny bottle labels. [0] A "Schrebergarten" with a small almost-a-shed house.
- carlmr 5y ago
  >Fermenting alcohol that tastes good is not easy enough to justify a mass market product. Not quite the same, but in Germany they sell Federweißer, which is an unfermented wine, but the yeast is already on the bottom. It turns from sweet grape juice (day 0), to sweet wine (day 2-3), then slightly sweet more alocoholic wine (day 4-5), until it turns into wine fully. Quite a lot of people enjoy it. It's not a proper competition to normal wine, but it tastes good in its own way.
lisper 5y ago
There used to be a retail store that let you use their facilities to make your own wine from concentrate packaged in plastic bags. We tried it once. The result was surprisingly good. Unfortunately the place only lasted a year or two before it went under.
dagw 5y ago
You can still buy something like this in Sweden. They sell it at my local food store (food stores cannot sell alcohol above 3.5% in Sweden). I, uh I mean a friend, might have tried it when in high school and it tasted not great, but not so bad you couldn't drink it. And honestly, I've had worse 'real' wine in my life.
gwd 5y ago
> I wonder why there isn't anyone selling them anymore Google "wine kit" instead; they have plastic packages of grape juice rather than solidified wine bricks. I've never tried one, because there's so many interesting things you can make without pre-packaged ingredients. So far I've made ginger wine, elderflower wine, cranberry wine, and chocolate mead. It's been a really fun hobby.

istjohn 5y ago

Fermenting alcohol that tastes good is not easy enough to justify a mass market product. Furthermore, why buy this when you can just buy cheap boxed wine that probably tastes much better than whatever you would get from fermenting reconstituted dry grape concentrate?

sdenton4 5y ago
I've often made one gallon batches of mead; it's pretty simple, and wine (if you don't get too fancy) is a similar level of difficulty. IME, one gallon batches about two hours of work from start to a clean kitchen. Five gallon batches take much longer to cool after boiling, so are a much bigger headache.
- rndgermandude 5y ago
  Yeah, my late grandpa after he retired used to grow some grapes and make wine out of that on his small hobbyist gardening parcel[0]. And at least by the time I grew old enough to be allowed to drink it, he had become good enough at it that it was quite enjoyable and vastly better than cheap boxed or bottled wines in my humble opinion. His output was like 30 bottles of red and another 30 of white, so in gallons that would be a little more than 21 liters each or 5 gallons each. He gave away most of it to family and his friends - we had a lot of his bottles on regular barbecues he hosted - and even had my cousin help him design and print funny bottle labels. [0] A "Schrebergarten" with a small almost-a-shed house.
carlmr 5y ago
>Fermenting alcohol that tastes good is not easy enough to justify a mass market product. Not quite the same, but in Germany they sell Federweißer, which is an unfermented wine, but the yeast is already on the bottom. It turns from sweet grape juice (day 0), to sweet wine (day 2-3), then slightly sweet more alocoholic wine (day 4-5), until it turns into wine fully. Quite a lot of people enjoy it. It's not a proper competition to normal wine, but it tastes good in its own way.

lisper 5y ago

There used to be a retail store that let you use their facilities to make your own wine from concentrate packaged in plastic bags. We tried it once. The result was surprisingly good. Unfortunately the place only lasted a year or two before it went under.

dagw 5y ago

You can still buy something like this in Sweden. They sell it at my local food store (food stores cannot sell alcohol above 3.5% in Sweden). I, uh I mean a friend, might have tried it when in high school and it tasted not great, but not so bad you couldn't drink it. And honestly, I've had worse 'real' wine in my life.

gwd 5y ago

> I wonder why there isn't anyone selling them anymore Google "wine kit" instead; they have plastic packages of grape juice rather than solidified wine bricks. I've never tried one, because there's so many interesting things you can make without pre-packaged ingredients. So far I've made ginger wine, elderflower wine, cranberry wine, and chocolate mead. It's been a really fun hobby.