Frozen Welch's Wine

New to the Forum and winemaking in general..

Just started my first batch of wine after i was given a recipe from someone who has made many many batches using the same recipe.

5 gallon carboy
10-11.5oz welches frozen concentrate(8white 2 red)
5lbs cane sugar
2.5 campden tablets.
K1-V1116 Lalvin yeast
before bottling 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of potassium sorbate


Im on day two of fermentation and i just covered the bottle to keep light out(does it make a difference if its covered or not?)

My airlock is a rubber stopper with a 3/8 tube going into a glass container of water.

is there anything i am doing wrong? just dont want to screw this up.

Only thing i can find is i didnt sanitize the carboy.. im using a 5 gallon water cooler jug. I soaked it in oxyclean and rinsed it with hot water very very well..

I need advise on bottling as well.. dont think it will stay in the bottles longer than 3 weeks.. I would like to keep costs to a mininum not trying to spend 100s of dollars on bottle trees and this and that

Although not sanitizing is a cardinal sin you will probably be perfectly fine.

If you let it ferment out dry then you don't need sorbate, you only need that if you want to kill the yeast and sweeten.

If you want to bottle on the cheap then call your friends and scoop up their old bottles and throw them in a trash can full of hot water and oxyclean. Bottle trees are not necessary but they sure are nice.

Inner10 said:

Although not sanitizing is a cardinal sin you will probably be perfectly fine.

If you let it ferment out dry then you don't need sorbate, you only need that if you want to kill the yeast and sweeten.

If you want to bottle on the cheap then call your friends and scoop up their old bottles and throw them in a trash can full of hot water and oxyclean. Bottle trees are not necessary but they sure are nice.

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Don't forget restaurants. They usually throw their wine bottles away. Ask around and see if any will save them for a day or a week or whatever and pick them up. Hot soapy water, then boiling water...and you've got free wine bottles. A bottle corker is nice, but not mandatory. A rubber hammer and one cork on top of the one you are putting in will do the job just fine.

If your area has the facebook "online yard sales" then put an "In Search Of free or cheap wine bottles" ad ... you'll likely get plenty of free bottles this way. I got 30 of them in one day. A bag of corks from your nearest brewery supply or hobby shop is really cheap. Get a hydrometer one week, get a corker a few weeks later, Get a 5 gallon bucket and lid from Lowes or Home Depot another week... drill a 1/4 inch hole in it and put a $1.99 air lock in it... Until you get this, an empty milk jug with a balloon on top is a fine fermenter.

This doesn't have to be an expensive hobby. Hope some of this was helpful.

I put an ad on kregs list for empty wine bottles and got about 50 responses.

Inner10 said:

If you let it ferment out dry then you don't need sorbate, you only need that if you want to kill the yeast and sweeten.

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I think one of the most common misnomers floating about on every winemaking forum I have visited is the one about sorbate killing yeast.
Sorbate will not kill yeast. It prevents yeast from reproducing, but will not kill them. So, let's say your wine is not yet dry and the yeast are chomping away on sugar kicking out CO2 + alcohol, and you dose with sorbate; the yeast will eat away at that residual sugar until it is gone or until the yeast die off on their own. We all wish it were as simple as adding sorbate at that magic moment and killing off the yeast, but it just does not work that way.
So, if you plan to backsweeten with a fermentable sugar after your ferment is complete you definitely want to use sorbate plus k-meta/Campden. This is because the sorbate performs better in the presence of Campden/k-meta. Typically you do not add sorbate to a wine you do not backsweeten but many times sorbate is added to a wine that has been fined and just has issues staying clear. I do not understand the science behind using sorbate for clarity sake but it does work. Jack Keller's website has a great glossary and he also shares a wealth of info for millions of visitors, check it out...you will likely visit many times. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/glossary.asp

Oh, and do not add sorbate to a wine you want to bottle carb. You can add if you plan to force carbonate though.

Welcome to the forum! And have fun in your future fermenting endeavors.

Sara

Inner10 said:

If you let it ferment out dry then you don't need sorbate, you only need that if you want to kill the yeast and sweeten.

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In the future you can clean with oxiclean and sanitize with Campden tabs. Also, if you plan to backsweeten this after it has fermented dry you will need to add Campden/k-meta at the same time as the sorbate...they work better together for this stage called stabilizing. Of course if you have no plan to backsweeten with a fermentable sugar you need only stabilize with Campden/k-meta. Just remember when working with Campden know that there are typically two strengths available, and Campden is well known for leaving sediment. You may find you like working with k-meta granules.
I would recommend, if you have not already done so, take a look at what role sorbate and Campden/k-meta/SO2 play in winemaking along with how they work. Neither is known for killing yeast.....that is likely the most common piece of misinformation floating around. Jack Keller has a website that millions visit for information & explanation along with a load of recipes, and his blog. Very good starting point and you will find yourself referring to it time and time again.
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/glossary.asp

Welcome to the forum!
Sara

my wine is very very cloudy how do i clear it up..

Travis91 said:

my wine is very very cloudy how do i clear it up..

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Time, cool temp, or sparkolloid.

Travis91 said:

my wine is very very cloudy how do i clear it up..

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Icinglass, you can get it where you get your other winemaking supplies. It's not terribly expensive and will clear most wines in a few days.

Travis91 said:

my wine is very very cloudy how do i clear it up..

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You've only had it going for a few days. You need to give it a lot more time. Winemaking is not for the impatient! Give it at least several more weeks before even thinking about it being cloudy. Welch's wine usually clears in between 2 and 3 months for me. Leave it be.

You can buy clearifing agents also form your local brew shop. Im not traditional like most I dont mind adding chemicals to clear it up. Plus i'm impatient!