wine from different welch's blends

got an experiement going on ! i have one gallon of welch's white grape/peach . the SG is 1.110 and the abv was 14.3% . ingredients are as follows:

1 gallon of welch's white grap/peach 100% juice concentrate.
3cups of sugar
1 packet flechmann's yeast (all i had access to at the moment )
1/2 teaspoon of pectin

please give info about the potential out come . this is my third batch of wine.:rockin:

If it will ferment down to 1.000 or below (probably not, using bakers yeast), this stuff will be dry...very dry!

Unless you can stabilize it, and then back-sweeten to taste. Even then, it should still have plenty of zing!

I hope that you like rocket fuel!

Pogo

that's what i kinda expected on this one lol . how do i get a wine to ferment to the point that i wouldn't have to back sweeten . would i have to use a stabalizer each time? what yeast perform differently than others? or should when i am taking my readings focous on it to be a lower abv , say around 10% ?

To get it to where you don't have to stabilize and backsweeten, you'd need to have a high enough gravity to overwhelm the yeast.

I have no idea about the alcohol tolerance of bread yeast, I've never used it for anything besides soda.

Lalvin ICV-D47 kicks out between 12 and 14% abv, so if you had a high enough OG that 14% would put it around 1.015-1.020, you wouldn't want to backsweeten it.

Really, though, I think it's easier to stabilize and backsweeten than it is to try to plan on doing it through alcohol. Just get some wine conditioner and you only have to add the one thing until it tastes right.

Pogo, I've made a few batches of this too, and as stated, it will be very dry. I have some potassium sorbate that I use to kill the yeast and then backsweeten before bottling.

It makes a decent drinkable dinner wine that my wife and I enjoy quite a bit.

I've made the white and the red wines from Welches and haven't been disappointed yet.

My mother in law used to make muscadine wine and she used no sorbate to kill the yeast but instead used enough sugar to overwhelm the yeast and kill it before the fermentation was complete. It was VERY powerful but sweet as it could be and since I love sweet wine, that was my Christmas present every year.
One 8 oz. glass would numb your lips and face, but boy was it smooth!

Dave -

Yeah, I know...since I've became a Type II diabetic, I've had to give up sweet wines and back-sweetening dry wines.

After a couple of batches of Apfelwein, a little light came on inside my head, and I realized that ALL bottled juices were suddenly ammunition for my fermentors!

When making wine, I no longer 'boost-the-juice' with sugar, or use Champagne yeast. I am very happy with a mildy dry, low ABV - 4 to 6 % - table wine.

But, I've got a friend who makes country wines, muscadine, etc., with his families "one" ol' handed-down recipe from many years ago...

1) Fill a 5-gallon bucket with crushed fruit (muscadines), then add 5 pounds of sugar, cover with a cloth, and wait 1 week.

2) Remove the cap (fruit solids), add another 5 pounds of sugar, top off with water, and airlock.

3) Bottle after a few months, when test samples taste righteous!

I did a SG test on a sample that he gave me the other day.

It was VERY sweet, after all, it had had 10 pounds of table sugar added to the sugar already in the vine-ripened muscadines, AND very strong.

The wild yeast (he wouldn't dare consider investing a nickel on a packet of cultured yeast!) had pulled the SG down to 1.060 before it hit the wall!

Not knowing the OG, or the FG before it was boosted, EITHER time, I have no idea what the ABV could possibly be, OR or how to figure it even if I did have the numbers!

Apparently, there are many who like his recipe!

He told me that he wished that he had a thousand gallons of this stuff, saying that he could sell every drop before the week was out...and this was on a Wednesday!!!

Pogo

i guess my next move will be trying to find out the alcohol tolerance of different yeast, but at this point and time all i had was regular baker's yeast but i am ordering some yeast in a few days along with wine conditioner and potassium sorbate . once i findout the tolerance levels of the different yeast then i can also determine how much sugar to bail the yeast out and ,but i would like some information as far as what numbers on the hydrometer would represent the three levels ( dry , semi- sweet , and sweet ) that would be easier i guess so that way i can project the potential out come and when the reading is right boom,, desired wine , but like i said this is my first few go rounds with wine making though i am picking up a lot of info through these forums. i made a mead and let me tell you, it was like drinkin moon shine with a light honey flavor, i ended up back sweetening with the honey to my taste which now is pretty good,and still contains a kick. but that's all i got for now . tomorrow i will check the specifics on the current batch and put it here to get helpful insite on the current situation. thanx again.

First on the mead, sounds like you made a pretty potent brew. Mead often has a good alcohol burn when it's strong, so aging is definitely required to let that burn mellow out.

Generally, Very Dry .990 - 1.006 - 1.010, Semi Sweet 1.006 - 1.015, Sweet 1.012 - 1.020, Dessert Sweet 1.020+

Pogo, that's how my Mother in Law used to do it. Wild yeast and no chemicals. Man, she could make some good wine. She's since passed away but I have those great memories of her Muscadine wine forever.
My sister in law likes wine just about like you do. I'm going down to Tampa in April and I'm going to show her how to make her own using the Welch's Concord grape concentrate. It'll save her a bundle of money, knowing how much she enjoys her wine, lol.

nathanhall said:

i guess my next move will be trying to find out the alcohol tolerance of different yeast, but at this point and time all i had was regular baker's yeast but i am ordering some yeast in a few days along with wine conditioner and potassium sorbate . once i findout the tolerance levels of the different yeast then i can also determine how much sugar to bail the yeast

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You might find this useful: Winemaking: Strains of Wine Yeast Regards, GF.