Playing around with supermarket fruit juice and EC-1118 yeast at the moment.
Test batches were Golden Circle Grape Juice. 200ml removed from the plastic container. 1/8 teaspoon of EC1118 sprinkled on top. Covered with cling wrap held by elastic band. Hope poked in top with sanitised needle.
Ferments out to a very dry sort of shiraz. Bottled in stubbies as for cider with sugar for secondary fermentation. About 8%ABV.
Looks like sparkling shiraz and sort of tastes like it. In the second and third test batches I added some weak stevia syrup ( 1 tablespoon and 2 tablespoons). I preferred the batch with 1 tablepoon stevia solution.
Bulk ferment has just been bottled. 11 x 2 litres grape juice, 5 g EC1118. For tannins I soaked 6 teabags in boiling water and left for an hour (teabags removed before adding to fermenter). For flavour I added liquid from 6 raspberry/strawberry teabags soaked for 1 hour ( wouldn't bother again). For sweetness I added 500g frozen raspberries in a strainer bag. Ended up with the equivalent of 72 stubbies. This had some sweetness but was not overly sweet. Needs to sit for a couple of weeks before I can try it.
As supermarket grape juice is not that interesting, I am thinking of adding some black pepper to the next batch, possibly with cherries instead of raspberries.
Watch this space!