Pruno, more seriously

Post date: Nov 18, 2012 2:14:52 AM

Apparently the "classic pruno" recipe comes from Jarvis Masters, a death row inmate in California, as described here.  Translating and scaling, lets see what this comes to.

Original ingredients in the poem:

10 peeled oranges

8 oz bowl of fruit cocktail

16 oz water

40-60 cubes sugar

6 Tbsp ketchup

Converted into mere convenient units:

20 oz orange juice with pulp (orange yields 2 oz of juice, and I don't feel like peeling a bunch of oranges)

8 oz fruit cocktail with syrup

16 oz water

6-9 oz sugar (one sugar cube = 4.2g)

3/8 c ketchup

So that's 47 fluid oz plus the additional volume you'll get from the sugar, but perhaps 1 oz from the ketchup and 3 oz from the fruit cocktail will be solids that won't make it into the final wine.  So let's say 43 oz.  Fermcalc says with 6 oz of sugar, that ends up as 46.7 oz, with 9 oz it's 48.5.  So to get a gallon (128 oz), the recipe needs to be multiplied by between 2.63 and 2.74.  Making allowances for adds, racking, etc. I'm going to say multiply everything by 2.8 and call it a day.  I'm going to shoot for about the high end in terms of sugar, since if you're going to make pruno, it might as well be strong.  It comes out to 17-25 oz sugar, so 1-1/2 lbs is good.  I read on the web that industry standard SG of orange juice is 1.044, so ignoring the amount of sugar in the fruit cocktail and the ketchup, that means a SG of 1.0987, so about 13.3 ABV.

So for a 1 gallon batch of Jarvis Masters' pruno:

56 oz orange juice with pulp

22 fl. oz fruit cocktail with syrup

45 oz water

1-1/2 lbs sugar 

1 c ketchup

Plus the following, non-authentic ingredients

1 tsp yeast nutrient (I have no idea if OJ and ketchup have free nitrogen for the yeast - if not, that would explain some of the skunkiness of classic pruno)

1 tsp Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast (again - bad yeast is probably a major reason pruno is usually awful - plus, this stuff is acidic and "71B also softens high acid musts by partially metabolizing malic acid")

1 Campden tablet (sanitation is key, eh?)

11/23/12 6PM

I have a name for it - "Pruneaux One", and a label that I designed when I thought that would be the name of the ketchup wine.  When I actually make it, I'll update the ABV.

12/14/12 6:50PM

Ok, started making it.  Derv drank some of my orange juice, so I'm using 55oz rather than 56 of Tropicana Grovestand Lots of Pulp OJ, and 30oz of fruit cocktail rather than 22 (two 15oz cans of generic "Essential" Star Market store brand mixed fruit in 100% juice).  Used a stick blender on the fruit cocktail to chop it up in the can before adding.  The ketchup is 1/2c Wild Harvest organic. 1/2c Heinz.  Mixed it all up in a mesh bag (ketchup and OJ too) in the plastic primary and added 1 crushed Campden tablet at 8PM after a bunch of stirring.  Right now it tastes quite pleasant - a little like a smoothie.

12/15/12 8PM

Made a yeast starter because I'm sick of my fermentations sticking.  I also switched to Cote de Blancs yeast because I'm out of the 71B.  Will pitch around 10.

12/15/12 9PM

Tested the pH and it was over 4.4.  Added the juice of 1 lemon.  Looks like pH is now around 4.2 or so.  Also added 1tsp each of yeast nutrient and peptic enzyme. SG is 1.088 at 69.7F.

12/20/12 5PM

Removed bag - squeezed for authenticity.  The wine doesn't smell great, have to admit.  Pretty sour - I think the lemon may have been too much acid.

12/22/12 3PM

Transferred to 1g carboy - left a lot of loose lees in the bucket.  Filled a carboy way up the neck. FG is 0.998 at about 68 - 12.1% ABV.  Taste is a little better now that it's settled some.  Color is kind of awful though - looks like very watery orange juice (which it is).

1/2/13 4:30PM

Racked.  About a 1/4 inch if loose lees.  Wine is clearing - now kind of straw colored.  Taste is more innocuous now - the saltiness has died down some.  Will need to rack at least once more.

1/17/13 4:30PM

Racked.  Just a film of yeast on the bottom, but still kind of hazy.  Taste continues to improve, but it's a bit thin, sour, and salty.  Not sure if I'll rack again before bottling.  I may back sweeten - I thinik for authenticity this should probably be sweet, given that the traditional bread yeast is not highly attenuative.

3/11/13 8PM

Racked.  Nice and clear now.  Again, better than the last time, but not what I'd call top shelf.  The saltiness has abated somewhat.  Maybe a year in the bottle will improve it.

5/4/13 8AM

Bottled. 5 750s.  Taste has improved markedly since the last sampling.  Saltiness is pretty much gone, just a tiny hint of "savoriness", if that's a word.  Now it's a dry white with a very thirst quenching quality.