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Going to make the recipe below today, doubling it. But I was wondering, are the raisins necessary? Doubling the recipe would mean 2 lbs raisins, and that seems excessive. Any advice on doubling this? Link to recipe

6 pomegranates
1 lb / 450 grams raisins
2 lbs / 900 grams granulated sugar
2 teaspoon acid blend
1 teaspoon pectic enzyme
Wine yeast
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient / energiser
1 campden tablet
8 pints / 1 gallon water
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Raisins are dried grapes, containing around 65 % sugar by weight, and all that grape flavor in concentrated and slightly modified form. They add sugar, body, and flavor to the wine. If a recipe calls for raisins, there may be varying reasons why. In this case, I would believe that the raisins are included for all three reasons listed here. Although I have never tried it, I am guessing pomegranates and sugar alone would leave a rather thin wine.

While it may sound like lot much, recipes listing 1 lb per gallon of wine are quite common. Cutting down on the flavor-bearing ingredients is seldom a good idea.

By the way, it is a good idea to use "organic" raisins, as they typically have no sulphites added.

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  • Good to know its common. The few other pomegranate wine recipes had no raisins, so I was curious why they might be included. Thanks for the info
    – CDspace
    Oct 13, 2014 at 20:37
  • raisons are also used as a nutrient. Not in this recipe, in thise recipe it is to produce body, but in old recipes where yeast nutrient wasn't a known thing, raisons were a good source of nutrients for yeast in an otherwise nutrient devoid recipe (like mead)
    – Escoce
    Aug 30, 2019 at 21:57

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