Welch's Grape Juice Wine

sweet, thanks Rowdy...

Long time reader, first time writer. I started a 5 gallon strawberry/ grape batch right at a week ago. I was doing some reading on aerating the batch while in primary and then once in secondary restarting the yeast. For one, I was waiting on some supplies to show up in the mail. Now that its in secondary and I added a little bit of energizer and nutrient and half cup of sugar, the yeast is taking off like I've never seen before. Should I rack it again after it settles down or should I just leave it in secondary and clarify?

love_muscle said:

Long time reader, first time writer. I started a 5 gallon strawberry/ grape batch right at a week ago. I was doing some reading on aerating the batch while in primary and then once in secondary restarting the yeast. For one, I was waiting on some supplies to show up in the mail. Now that its in secondary and I added a little bit of energizer and nutrient and half cup of sugar, the yeast is taking off like I've never seen before. Should I rack it again after it settles down or should I just leave it in secondary and clarify?

Click to expand...

Rack once again when it settles down. I never aerate or add anything to secondary- as the point is to let it finish and clear, not restart fermentation. Once it clears up a bit, and settles down, and you have noticeable lees, it needs to be racked off of the lees.

This stuff is yummy and will probably only get better. I started a batch at the beginning of Jan. 2012. When my friends and I tried it a few weeks ago, it had a very strong alcohol taste. A few weeks later it mellowed nicely! It has been a hit with friends. I can't wait for another month or so to see how it tastes. It's nothing fancy, but it's still nice

I started another batch of Welch's White Grape yesterday! Can't wait

I'm curious if anyone has a picture of this once it's cleared? Mine's been in secondary for a week or so and it's still really opaque, even though I added pectic enzyme in the beginning (only let it sit for about 8 hours before pitching yeast, I was impatient... hope this won't reduce the likelihood of clearing)

HeruRaHa said:

Mine's been in secondary for a week or so and it's still really opaque, even though I added pectic enzyme in the beginning (only let it sit for about 8 hours before pitching yeast, I was impatient... hope this won't reduce the likelihood of clearing)

Click to expand...

It seems from your posts that you only started it 2 weeks ago, right? Impatient is right, ha
The OP has it 5+ weeks to finish.

i usually pitch the yeast right away, it takes alittle longer to get going but takes off none the less. i agree with midfielder tho, if it's only been a couple weeks i'd wait for it to clear or cold crash it or superclear it

ok so, here are the ingredients in my frozen welch's concentrates, please let me know if these ones will still work, thanks.

purple grape:
glucose-fructose
grape juice
water
sugar
concentrated grape juice
citric acid
natural flavour
ascorbic acid
vitamin C
colour


white grape:
glucose-fructose
white grape juice
sugar
water
concentrated white grape juice
citric acid
sodium citrate
ascorbic acid
vitamin C
*CONTAINS SULFITING AGENTS* this is in bold

hopefully these will still work, as they are the ONLY grape juices I can find in and around my area in southern Ontario

thanks for any help everyone.

Your purple will be fine as is your white should be good just give it a day or two before pitching yeast. I remember reading on another winemakingtalk site that a member has made many with sulfites and sorbates and they just took a bit longer to take off. Ymmv

hey hey Rowdy to my rescue again.... thanks soo much my friend...going to start em up tonight...I'll just do 1 gallon batches of each one, just to make sure they turn out first...thanks again.

I tried a cider with potassium sorbate in it and while I did get it to ferment it was not worth the effort in my opinion. I aerated it a few days in row, threw a few packs of ec1118at it, tried a huge 1 gallon starter and finally the slurry from a pear wine. It fermented then but didn't quite go to dry. The wife likes it tho. Calls it papple because of the pear flavor it picked up from the pear slurry. It is not something I will ever attempt again tho.

Sorbate and benzoate are the ingredients you have to watch out for. I wouldn't even try to ferment a juice with those preservatives although others have tried.

Yooper said:

Sorbate and benzoate are the ingredients you have to watch out for. I wouldn't even try to ferment a juice with those preservatives although others have tried.

Click to expand...

so my juices should be ok then Yooper? none of those ingredients in there

I started mine in a primary fermenter. When would it be okay to move to a carboy? Last time I made this (concord grape) it ended up bubbling up into the airlock and making a mess. I assume I moved it to a carboy too early?

Thanks!

HeruRaHa said:

I'm curious if anyone has a picture of this once it's cleared? Mine's been in secondary for a week or so and it's still really opaque, even though I added pectic enzyme in the beginning (only let it sit for about 8 hours before pitching yeast, I was impatient... hope this won't reduce the likelihood of clearing)

Click to expand...

I did mine in a Mr. Beer fermenter, and it was clear after 2 weeks. My house is usually 70-72 degrees.

chevs15 said:

I started mine in a primary fermenter. When would it be okay to move to a carboy? Last time I made this (concord grape) it ended up bubbling up into the airlock and making a mess. I assume I moved it to a carboy too early?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

You can move it when it gets below about 1.010. That way, you might not have too much of a purple mess.

Great! I moved it today and it was at .998.

midfielder5 said:

Impatient is right, ha

Click to expand...

You got me The hardest part of this hobby so far is patience. The only thing I can do to keep myself from wanting to mess with the stuff I've already made of one thing is to set off and try something else... by the time my first batch is ready to drink, I'm going to have a closet full of experiments...

I do realize this won't be drinkable for months... I just can't help but check in on it everyday as I'm still learning the basics and watching the process unfold... and I wasn't sure how much this type of wine would clear in the long run... I saw at least one picture someone posted that looked nearly as opaque as my young brew does when they bottled, but I suppose they may have been even more impatient than even I

I overcame my lack of patience for this hobby by slowly buying more and more gear. After a year of this, I'm up to 15 5 gallon batches going simultaneously! Even though some will take 6-12 months to finish, I've always got a batch or two finishing in a given month

OT: Wine (generally) takes longer to be drinkable than beer, so you might want to mix up your pipeline and try a Yooper beer recipe. good luck

I hate beer (I know, strike 1 against my man card), so I make Apfelwein and Skeeter Pee to satisfy my quick-turnaround needs

Sirthomas42 said:

I hate beer (I know, strike 1 against my man card), so I make Apfelwein and Skeeter Pee to satisfy my quick-turnaround needs

Click to expand...

I'm not a big beer drinker, but I just got into homebrew myself, and so far, I've enjoyed making couple of ciders, and I even made a hard lemonade and I'm working on a red and a white champagne. No strike against your man card.

Sirthomas42 said:

I overcame my lack of patience for this hobby by slowly buying more and more gear. After a year of this, I'm up to 15 5 gallon batches going simultaneously! Even though some will take 6-12 months to finish, I've always got a batch or two finishing in a given month

Click to expand...

lol same here. Been at this hobby for a year now and just bought my 25th carboy this last weekend. Turns out 5 gallons of wine isn't all that much lol.
I've taken over half the basement with them.

Ok, now that I've read the whole tread, I have a few questions.
1. Does the water you use matter? Should it be RO/filtered, spring, or other?
2. How did the batches with more concentrate and less sugar turn out?
My aim is to produce something similar to apothic red, big stuff red, etc. which are all soft dry red blends.... Only I have too much money invested in brewing and mead right now, so I want to do this least expensive as possible.
I'll be making a 3 gal batch. Was thinking 8 cans concentrate, 1/4 tsp tannin, then after fermenting out adding a few light toasted oak chips, and a handful of raisins. No acid blend, and maybe even correcting with calcium carbonate if too acidic and tart. Not sure about how much sugar to add yet. My aim would be about a 13% abv wine.
3. What is the best yeast for this wine? I have access to red star, lalvin, & lallemand.

What is the best yeast to use? I have some Lalvin K1-V1116. Would that work?

Thanks!

I use the 71B-1122 for this, though I think the K1V would work.

mcbethenstein said:

Ok, now that I've read the whole tread, I have a few questions.
1. Does the water you use matter? Should it be RO/filtered, spring, or other?
2. How did the batches with more concentrate and less sugar turn out?
My aim is to produce something similar to apothic red, big stuff red, etc. which are all soft dry red blends.... Only I have too much money invested in brewing and mead right now, so I want to do this least expensive as possible.
I'll be making a 3 gal batch. Was thinking 8 cans concentrate, 1/4 tsp tannin, then after fermenting out adding a few light toasted oak chips, and a handful of raisins. No acid blend, and maybe even correcting with calcium carbonate if too acidic and tart. Not sure about how much sugar to add yet. My aim would be about a 13% abv wine.
3. What is the best yeast for this wine? I have access to red star, lalvin, & lallemand.

Click to expand...

1. If the water tastes great that's all you need.
2. I haven't done that. Concord grape juice isn't really going to give a big bold flavor, though- it's tart. Think Manischewitz.
3. I've used montrachet, champagne, 71B, and premier cuvee, all with very similar results.

Thanks,
I ended up mixing this up last night. Used my RO water at home. 3lbs sugar, 8 containers of juice, the RC-212 and a little bit of love! Going good this morning. Smells nice. I have a small bag of medium roast French oak chips, and some craisins for a little complexity to add in secondary. This will definately be an experiment... We aren't wine snobs, but do appreciate a nice red blend, so I hope that my boyfriend finds it drinkable. I know how my first few beers, ciders and meads have been, so I want to try out this with the peace of mind knowing I have only $20 invested instead of $150 when I ultimately make a mistake. Gotta get the process down first. Thanks Yooper for a good and reasonable recipe that may open the door to many more wine fermentations!

I'm trying 2 one gallon batches. One is white the other is red. The white had a reading just as your recipe said. The red had a lot less sugar. So would that be a problem? Or will it just finish with a lower abv?

These are my first try's at wine. Im exited and scared I hope they work. Heck they're allredy cheaper then 1 reg bottle of wine.

Thanks for he recipe !

If you want, you can add more sugar to get to the OG you want. Or just leave it, for a lower ABV. Whichever you prefer is fine.

Ok. I've read enough posts.. I just had to try this.

2.5 lbs sugar
3 11.5 cans of welches white grape juice
2 11.5 cans of welches white grape with peach
2 tsp acid blend
2 tsp pectic enzyme
2 tsp bentonite - for clearing

Local home brew shop recommended Red Star Montrachet yeast so it would have a little sweetness left for the peach.

Topped off with water until sg was 1.095. total volume about 2.5 gallons

Put it all together and relized that I FORGOT TO BUY the yeast nutrient.


So pulled out the cheap and ez stir plate. Pitched the yeast into about 1.5 liters of must and stirred it for about 5 hours. About 20 minutes after I pulled the starter off the plate it was starting to bubble up so I pitched it.

So, did I forget anything or mess it up?


We'll see... Thanks for all the great information!!!

anybody ever try more than four 11.5 cans( have made many with 4 ) just wondering.. like a port very sweet and a meal...next was thinking about using 5 - 6 cans per gallon any thoughts

I read all 44 pages here!

I plant to use frozen concentrate white grape/peach and white grape/raspberry (2 different kinds for 2 different wines)

I will make 2 gallons of each in primary buckets and transfer to 1 gallon carboys to age.

One thing is not clear, is adding oak. I saw the question several times but not clear if there was an answer. If so, should I add it to both or just the white grape/peach?

I plan to freeze golden raisins and chop should it be added to both wines? Are raisins a good idea for both varieties? I prefer to use a mesh bag in the primary buckets.

Finally I have both K1-v116 and 71B-122 and plan to split the packet between each 2 gallons ( in 2 different buckets). Is one better of those yeasts better then the other. I will be starting both at the same time so should not be a problem adding 1/2 a packet to each bucket.

Any more tips anyone would care to share?

Can anyone answer my questions above, please?

I would make them as original recipe goes use your 2 gallon buckets to primary one gallon batches then rack to gallon carboys to finish. Don't mess with oak and raisins till he next batch. And make it to taste. I make all mine as described above and split pack of red star permier cuvee in each batch always making 2 batches at a time.

I started them both today. I used 6 cans of white grape/peach and in the other 6 cans of white grape/raspberry in buckets. Water to a little over 2 gallons per bucket.

I brought the SG up to 1.080. I did add a handful of golden raisins to each in a nylon stocking I sterilized.

Added pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient. Will add energizer in the morning and hydrate the 71B-122 and split it between the 2 buckets.

Sounds good keep us updated

Sammyk said:

I started them both today. I used 6 cans of white grape/peach and in the other 6 cans of white grape/raspberry in buckets. Water to a little over 2 gallons per bucket.

I brought the SG up to 1.080. I did add a handful of golden raisins to each in a nylon stocking I sterilized.

Added pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient. Will add energizer in the morning and hydrate the 71B-122 and split it between the 2 buckets.

Click to expand...

It sounds like your recipe should turn out well. The raisins are probably not necessary. I've done that before, but boiled and chopped them first. I'm not sure they really added "body" or flavor though. Just my opinion.

I have a 5 gal primary of white-grape raspberry going now using 13 cans of frozen Welch's juice -- so a little less than 3 cans per gallon. I also used bentonite at the start. I used Montrachet yeast and about 6 lbs of sugar -- enough to bring the SG to 1.095. At an SG of 1.000 or less, I'll rack it to a secondary, let it sit for about a month and rack it again. The SG should end below .998, and then I'll stabilize and back-sweeten slightly.

I've made this before, but with only 2 cans per gallon and I think some back-sweetening is necessary to bring out the fruit flavors. Anyway, my opinion. Also, with my first batch, I blended some brandy two weeks after stabilization. Enough to bring the ABV to about 17%. Not a true Port, but it turned out very nice as an after dinner wine. I'll probably do the same thing with this larger batch, as the first one was popular.

I back sweetened and bottled my 6 gallon batch yesterday. I really like this stuff. I will probably try white grape next.

Thanks, Yooper for all this information.