As I understand it, wine is produced by introducing bacteria into grape juice that eat sugar and urinate ethanol.
I would be curious to try bypassing this process by removing sugars and introducing ethanol, sans bacteria (i.e., using chemical processes). I imagine that all it takes to add ethanol is to find a high alcohol content drink and mix it in. But is there any way to remove sugars that will otherwise preserve everything and not change the flavor nor render the drink toxic?
Is there anything else introduced by the bacteria or traditional storage containers that I could fairly easily add?
And if you just want to stop by and ask, “Why do you want to do this?” Science, my friend. Science.
Just start with low sugar grape juice. You can buy Everclear 190 proof, a nearly pure ethanol in some states. Port wine makers often add grape spirits (distilled from crappy wine I think) to increase the amount of alcohol. You may lose some of the flavor from the yeast but maybe you can add processed yeast in to get that back.
BTW: Yeast is considered a fungus, but I’ve seen it referred to as bacteria often.
Removing sugar will, pretty much by definition, change the flavor of any kind of fruit juice.
If you want to see what grape juice and ethanol tastes like, your best bet is to find a college party and drink some of the purple stuff they’ve mixed up in a trash can.
The breakdown of sugars in fermentation leads to the creation of lots of other stuff, like carbon dioxide and carbonic acid, acetic acid (which will eventually turn the wine into vinegar), aldehydes and a bunch of other chemicals. That’s what gives wine a taste that’s distinct from alocholic grape juice.
You can steep most any kind of berry, grape, or other fruit in good alcohol and make what I refer to as Cordial. I make blueberry cordial and it is quite devine. It still involves a little natural yeast and added sugar.
But still the alcohol that you add was originally produced by yeast and some kind of fermentation process.
How would you get alcohol by bypassing the fermentation process and just combining a few chemicals? I do not know. Alcohol is a fairly free result of letting your yeast, sugars, and base interact.
Most of the pure alcohol that you find to add to your process, without added sugar or yeast, was probably originally made by some fermentation.
The simplest way to remove sugar from water is by distillation, but you’ll also remove some of the other components that give it flavor. With a wide enough distillation range, you can get some other aromatics besides plain water, but it won’t taste like sugarless grape juice.
You can make ethanol through chemical reactions other than fermentation, such as hydration of ethene with steam using phosphoric acid as a catalyst. This is used for some industrial purposes because of the high yield and relative purity.
If you mixed these together, you might end up with something drinkable, but it wouldn’t taste anything like wine. I’d guess it would be more like off-tasting vodka. I’m sure you could find wine flavoring extracts, but that seems like cheating.
Cheap 'wine" (the stuff “winos” drink (Thunderbird, Night Train, et al) is basically grape juice with ethanol added. These are called 'Fortified Wines;."
Also, the “Candy Wines” of youth were Fortified Wine with a ton of sugar and coloring added.
Is Ripple still even made?
Science, schmience—you’re taking all the fun out of it. The best way to get rid of the sugar is to convert it to alcohol. Just adding Everclear to grape juice will not afford that “I’m a pirate” satisfaction that you get from cobbling together your own fermentation apparatus from Tupperware, aquarium parts, pressure cooker gaskets, and duct tape. To really do this right, you have to make everything from stuff you have lying around the house and garage. The only thing you should have to go to the store to get is the grape juice and the yeast.