Welch's Grape Juice Wine

Taurii said:

Well, just over a week ago I made 2 batches exactly to the recipe. Looking back both of my OG's were 1.055 and 1.054. Did I screw up?

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did you heat to dissolve the sugar? if not that could be where your numbers are off from.

LoneTreeFarms said:

did you heat to dissolve the sugar? if not that could be where your numbers are off from.

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Yes, it was heated to dissolve the sugar. Since I followed the recipe to the letter, I am going to say my number was off or I misread my hydrometer.

Yooper said:

Welch's Frozen Grape Juice Wine
2 cans (11.5 oz) Welch's 100% frozen grape concentrate
1-1/4 lbs granulated sugar
2 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
water to make 1 gallon
wine yeast

Edit- note! You may want to skip the acid blend, at least at first, as some results say this wine is too "tart".

Bring 1 quart water to boil and dissolve the sugar in the water. Remove from heat and add frozen concentrate. Add additional water to make one gallon and pour into secondary. Add remaining ingredients except yeast. Cover with napkin fastened with rubber band and set aside 12 hours. Add activated wine yeast and recover with napkin. When active fermentation slows down (about 5 days), fit airlock. When clear, rack, top up and refit airlock. After additional 30 days, stabilize, sweeten if desired and rack into bottles.

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I have been making this wine for a few years, it always came out too sweet for me but my wife liked it. I now use 3 cans of juice and enough sugar to get .095 gravity, I rack it at 30 and 60 days, then age for about 6 months. Hey Yooper I live 25 miles south of Munising, is that anywhere near you?

YOPPER2 said:

I have been making this wine for a few years, it always came out too sweet for me but my wife liked it. I now use 3 cans of juice and enough sugar to get .095 gravity, I rack it at 30 and 60 days, then age for about 6 months. Hey Yooper I live 25 miles south of Munising, is that anywhere near you?

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We're along the Wisconsin border. Well, we live there but at this time of year we're in south Texas for a couple of months, as I hate cold and snow! Both our home and cottage are in Iron County, just a stone's throw from Wisconsin.

Yooper, do you back sweeten? A bit tart at 60 days. Wondering if maybe it needs to age a bit. Fg is well below 1.00

jcutch82 said:

Yooper, do you back sweeten? A bit tart at 60 days. Wondering if maybe it needs to age a bit. Fg is well below 1.00

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I don't. But I'm an anti-sugar Nazi type, and won't even consume ketchup due to the sugar in it. I don't eat sugar, honey, etc, or even artificial sweeteners, and I have no sweet tooth at all.

If it's too tart for you, and you will consume sugar or honey or whatever, you certainly could stabilize it with campden and sorbate and then sweeten to taste.

Sevenal said:

Got around to this today.
9 cans white grape
3 cans white grape/peach
7 lbs white table sugar
3 tsp acid blend
2 tsp yeast energizer
3 tsp pectin enzyme
5/8 tsp tannin
Filled water to five gallons

In 24 hours I'll pitch LALVIN-1118 Champange yeast
Will fix the air lock then

OG = 1.100

In three weeks or so I will add 1lb of chopped white raisins after soaking them a few days in some vodka.

A couple weeks after that I"ll yank the bag of raisins, rack to another bucket then add Sparkelloid and cold crash for several days prior to bottling.

The original bucket should have a lovely cake of yeast to start a five gallon batch of Skeeter Pee on. The Skeeter Pee is the true reason for this batch of sweet yellow wine.

More to come

AL
A.k.a. Sevenal

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Changing this up this weekend to a Red /12cans / raisins in later.
Same process and this time the cake will make another Lemon Wine or what is called Skeeter Pee / Hard Lemonaide. blush version

I'm doing this again this weekend. Doing a 2 gal batch that I will age on oak. Then I'll use that oak to age a Nelson Sauvin IIPA. Hoping for a really winey Ipa, if that's a word.

My first attempt at 2gallons wine resulted in making 7 of top ten mistakes but ended at sg close to 1.0. Racked off twice 30 days each, I bottled today and tasted a sample of the grape, tasted pretty good with no back sweetening. Bottled 5 red grape and 5 white grape /peach. The peach one seemed weaker in flavor.. Any chance it'll get stronger with aging? Next 2gallons of cran grape and 5gallons of IPA next weekend. I'm getting close to enjoying the fruits of my new hobby. Thanks to everyone for all the advice.

Made a new 1 gallon batch of a variation of my last variation of this.

1/2G McCutcheon's Concord grape
1 Quart Knudsen's "just blueberry"
2# wildflower honey
Top off water
Red star premier cuvée yeast

OG is 1.116 (PA 15%)
I plan to rerack in about a month.


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I've never made with concentrates before, so was wondering how does 2 cans per gallon work? best of my memory they only make like a quart of juice when you add water, seems like it would be a verrrrry light wine?

Has anyone tried to freeze distill this before? It seems like it would make something similar to an Apple Jack but with less methanol... Like a softer Brandy??... and what of a staggered nutrient addition like you would do with a mead or cider? Would this help it smooth out faster?

I just made two gallons of Welch's wine from the concord grape frozen concentrate. I need some advice on my technique. I racked the wine after 11 days to secondary when it was done fermenting and let it sit for a month in two one gallon glass carboys. I bottled it a few days ago after adding k meta and k sorbate and degassing. I didn't use any clearing agents but I did add pectic enzyme at the beginning. My wine looks more like grape juice than a clear red wine. I'm going to age it now for 6 months in the bottle.

Should I have done something to clear the wine? Am I going to end up with a lot of sediment in the bottles? What does everyone else usually do?

Got my second batch going, yesterday.
Use 1 gallon organic white grape juice, one frozen Apple juice concentrate and enough corn sugar to get to 1.080

Yermom said:

Has anyone tried to freeze distill this before? It seems like it would make something similar to an Apple Jack but with less methanol... Like a softer Brandy??... and what of a staggered nutrient addition like you would do with a mead or cider? Would this help it smooth out faster?

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I've freeze concentrated apple wine from concentrate and white grape peach also made from concentrate. Both batches I had backsweetened with an extra can of that particular concentrate then the froze it/concentrated it. Perfect amount of flavor/sweetness for my taste.

you can do a staggered nutient addition of you want, just makes for a healtheir ferment and would probably finish the ferment faster. The faster it ferments, the faster it'll start clearing, the faster it'll get to aging and the faster it'll be drinkable. Although probably not by much. Just my .02

Yermom said:

Has anyone tried to freeze distill this before? It seems like it would make something similar to an Apple Jack but with less methanol... Like a softer Brandy??... and what of a staggered nutrient addition like you would do with a mead or cider? Would this help it smooth out faster?

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I've freeze concentrated apple wine from concentrate and white grape peach also made from concentrate. Both batches I had backsweetened with an extra can of that particular concentrate then the froze it/concentrated it. Perfect amount of flavor/sweetness for my taste.

you can do a staggered nutient addition of you want, just makes for a healtheir ferment and would probably finish the ferment faster. The faster it ferments, the faster it'll start clearing, the faster it'll get to aging and the faster it'll be drinkable. Although probably not by much. Just my .02

siebercider said:

I just made two gallons of Welch's wine from the concord grape frozen concentrate. I need some advice on my technique. I racked the wine after 11 days to secondary when it was done fermenting and let it sit for a month in two one gallon glass carboys. I bottled it a few days ago after adding k meta and k sorbate and degassing. I didn't use any clearing agents but I did add pectic enzyme at the beginning. My wine looks more like grape juice than a clear red wine. I'm going to age it now for 6 months in the bottle.

Should I have done something to clear the wine? Am I going to end up with a lot of sediment in the bottles? What does everyone else usually do?

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You didn't leave it in the secondary long enough for it to clear. Time will eventually clear it. You can throw the whole carboy in the fridge if you've got room and the cold temps will help it clear faster. It'll clear in your bottles over time, too, but you'll have a layer of sediment on the bottom.

I haven't read all the way through this, so sorry if it's been answered. I've got a 3 gallon batch at 1.5 lbs cane sugar per gallon. When it's done and I rack to a secondary, I'll either pasteurize or add k-meta and sorbate and want to back sweeten a bit. I like a sweet wine with concord grapes and was wanting to add some concentrate back to sweeten it. I want a sweet, not desert wine. Any idea what the ratio would be for a back sweetened concord?

Also, if I use the concentrate, has it been pasteurized, or is there a chance for wild yeast to kick it off again? If I use the K-meta, it shouldn't matter, but if I pasteurize, it'd mean I'd have to sweeten before doing so.

Thanks.

just bottled mine - my goodness was it good - a bit sweeter than I thought it would be given the amount of time I gave it (11-22-13 to 3-1-14), but very enjoyable none the less. Will definitely be making some again, maybe bump up the tannin over my last batch, maybe try a different fruit juice (cranberry or blueberry).

SPR-GRN said:

just bottled mine - my goodness was it good - a bit sweeter than I thought it would be given the amount of time I gave it (11-22-13 to 3-1-14), but very enjoyable none the less. Will definitely be making some again, maybe bump up the tannin over my last batch, maybe try a different fruit juice (cranberry or blueberry).

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This thread is terrible about trying to get answers from. lol. I saw that Yooper's wine at 1.5 lbs sugar per gallon came out dry @ .995 or something. I just transfered mine to a secondary this weekend (Used 71B-1122 yeast) and as yours is, it is also very sweet. Desert wine sweet, but also very strong. The 71B yeast is good to about 15% and I think it got there, or close to it, but it's just a guess since I never took an O.G. Tasty, but I was thinking I'd have to backsweeten when I started it. Any more sugar in this one and a guy would risk diabetes. lol. I'll get a F.G. after it clears a bit.

I think I'll try another batch tonight and put in 1.25 lbs per gallon of sugar. Thinking I may end up just a pound per gallon additional sugar, but I'll try stepping it down a little at a time.

I just realized why my wine was so sweet. It's supposed to be 1.5 lbs sugar per gallon, but I was putting 1.5 lbs per 2 cans juice/water. That's only 96 ounces of juice, not 128 (Gallon) Oh well.. Just started a batch with 13 cans of juice.. All I could find. Ended up just above the 6 gallon mark on my bucket. Using the formula for the last batch at 1.5 lbs per 2 cans, that came to 9.75 lbs of sugar needed. I backed it off just a bit to just 9 lbs. Topped it off with some pectin enzyme and some 71B-1122 yeast. With that, I now have 36 gallons of wine bubbling on the kitchen bar. lol.

I just started two separate 1 gallon batches of this one all grape and one blueberry... I used red start montcharet in the grape and lalvin k111c I. The other. I had everything in the shelf pectic enzyme, tannin, acid blend, sorbate, and Camden tabs... Everything except yeast nutrient. I have used lalvin plenty of times without nutrient. But never the red star... Should I go out and pick some up?


The weather is awful here, but I will if I have to.

Just started drink a batch I made
12 cans of grape
8lbs sugar
Champagne yeast
Primary for 2 weeks
Secondary for 3 weeks

I carbed some it in 22oz bottle using conditioning tabs and it's awesome. I used 4 per and I think it was too much. Next time I'll use 3. The ABV was getting high so I dumped some potassium sorbate and bottled the rest.


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2 cans and a pound per gallon are just about right for us. Finishes dry and I stabilize and backsweeten with two cans of the same juice for 5 gallons at bottling. No water, just the juice.

I made a variant one month ago. Overshot of at 1.130, finished at 1.024. Used s04 because i had it onhand. Has quite the alcohol burn lol...

Update on mine.
Been in primary little over a month. Gonna rack it on oak spirals then use those spirals for a nelson Sauvin beer wine hybrid IIpa

I have a question. Is there any reason why I shouldn't use this Apple juice jug for the secondary? Last time I tried aging this on oak spirals I couldn't get them back out of the jug. This one has a wider opening so I can get the oak spirals out after I'm done aging.
I'll drink the juice and clean and sanitize the jug first, of course.

mmb said:

2 cans and a pound per gallon are just about right for us. Finishes dry and I stabilize and backsweeten with two cans of the same juice for 5 gallons at bottling. No water, just the juice.

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What kind of yeast are you using?

Brewmex41 said:

I have a question. Is there any reason why I shouldn't use this Apple juice jug for the secondary? Last time I tried aging this on oak spirals I couldn't get them back out of the jug. This one has a wider opening so I can get the oak spirals out after I'm done aging.
I'll drink the juice and clean and sanitize the jug first, of course.

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I don't see a realy good reason you couldn't. Just be careful about head space and make sure it can release the co2, otherwise that bottle will go boom.

If anybody happened to notice that my first batch of Welches Concord Grape turned out STRONG. I overshot OG quite a bit, there was quite a bit of residual sugar left, and it had some alcohol burn lol. Even so, it was tolerable. A few weeks has gone by, and that burn is dissipating, and now it's not so harsh to drink Still sweet, and 2 glasses put me in my happy place. Three and it's lights out.

And so I decided that it was time for round 2. And I decided to get more adventurous, because even if the first didnt turn out as good as it could have, it didn't turn out bad (considering) So I went with three 1 gallon batches this time. Cranberry, White Grape Cocktail, and Strawberry Breeze all by Welches. This time I was much closer to the recommended OG; 1.095 Bullseye on all accounts! The only difference, still, is that I had a few packets of yeast that needed to be used, and since I'm not starting any beer for another 2 weeks, I used ale yeast.

The strawberry breeze and cranberry both got S-04. I know it's unconventional, but with the upper range of about 10% and taking into consideration what some people have said about cranberry and strawberry, I figured it couldn't hurt to have some residual sugar left (that and the Mrs. prefers sweet wines).

The white grape cocktail got nottingham. It has a slightly higher alcohol tolerance, but not by much.

So all three should come out sweet (if I planned this right) they should all be finished somewhere in the range of 1.011 and 1.015 and in the 10% abv range.

All three got 1tsp of pectic enzyme, 1tsp of yeast nutrient, and 1tsp of yeast energizer, and that was in hopes of getting closer to the 1.011 FG. Anyway, as always, I'll keep you posted

Yooper said:

A couple of reasons- first of all, it's very foamy and ferments hard. If you used an airlock, it'd be plugged up right away. Secondly, for most wines, the yeast and fermentation NEED oxygen. I stir all of my wines in primary, until they reach about 1.010-1.020 and then put them in secondary and airlock.

Make sure you don't fill to the top during primary- it'll make a mess and grape juice stains hardwood flooring. (ask me how I know!). After it slows down, you can top up and airlock it.

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This is the problem I had with the Cherry Berry Mead recipe. The next morning after setting the airlock, I found it half way across the room, followed by strawberry slushy. That stains beige carpet, also. Next batch, I'll try the napkin trick.

LondoThePoet said:

This is the problem I had with the Cherry Berry Mead recipe. The next morning after setting the airlock, I found it half way across the room, followed by strawberry slushy. That stains beige carpet, also. Next batch, I'll try the napkin trick.

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I've had the fermentation foam thru the airlocks, but never blow one off... now I'm having regrets lol. My job involves travel every week. I have this habit of starting (a) batch(s), and then leaving. Just like I did today. That said, I did put the 1 gallon demijohns inside buckets in case they go all Vesuvius on me, but I didn't set lids on top, so if they do actually, literally, blow the airlock off, The mess will still be a mess...

Sweet jeebus...

I have a question about the difference using 100% grape juice not from concentrate? My local store sells some organic juice that is not from concentrate, its not cheap compared to welches but I'm wondering if it will be that much better? There are no preservatives in it either.. just 100% grape juice.

crispbrew said:

I have a question about the difference using 100% grape juice not from concentrate? My local store sells some organic juice that is not from concentrate, its not cheap compared to welches but I'm wondering if it will be that much better? There are no preservatives in it either.. just 100% grape juice.

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Should be better. I used organic grape juice from target. No preservatives, just 100% grape juice plus a can of 100% Apple juice concentrate

crispbrew said:

I have a question about the difference using 100% grape juice not from concentrate? My local store sells some organic juice that is not from concentrate, its not cheap compared to welches but I'm wondering if it will be that much better? There are no preservatives in it either.. just 100% grape juice.

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Betting you'll never be able to tell the difference. This is concord wine. You'll never get a $25 bottle out of any concord grapes, no matter the source. BUT... if you're the type that tries to only eat organic things, then by all means, spend the extra for it.

This is my first go at making wine and I made two one gallon batches of this recipe on 4/8.

The first batch stayed true to the original recipe. I used EC-1118 yeast and it blasted through the paper towel and spewed sludge down the side of primary. Its blowing gas(CO2?) so hard that it's making a low level whistle. I think I'll have to pay attention as this as it slows down as to prevent infection.

The second batch doesn't seem to be doing as well. I also used EC-1118 yeast. I changed up the recipe by substituting Welchs Apple-Cherry concentrate for the grape juice and adding some tannin(1/4tsp I think). It is not fermenting as well. It showed maybe 5 mm of foam at the top within 24 hrs but that has gone down. Should I be worried? Should I add more yeast nutrient? Why did the grape juice ferment so vigorously and the Apple-Cherry did not?

EDIT: I checked the Appple-Cherry juice and it did not have any preservatives.

I am a total newb at wine so I'm just trying to learn.

EZmacncheese said:

Its blowing gas(CO2?) so hard that it's making a low level whistle.

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I wish I had something more constructive to say, but I don't. But that sounds awesome lol!

I just started my gallon of Welch's frozen concentrate. I used 4 cans and no added sugar. After filling the rest of the one gallon jug's empty space with water SG was right at 1.090. Have anyone tried this before? Do you think it will turn out OK?

EZmacncheese said:

This is my first go at making wine and I made two one gallon batches of this recipe on 4/8.

The first batch stayed true to the original recipe. I used EC-1118 yeast and it blasted through the paper towel and spewed sludge down the side of primary. Its blowing gas(CO2?) so hard that it's making a low level whistle. I think I'll have to pay attention as this as it slows down as to prevent infection.

The second batch doesn't seem to be doing as well. I also used EC-1118 yeast. I changed up the recipe by substituting Welchs Apple-Cherry concentrate for the grape juice and adding some tannin(1/4tsp I think). It is not fermenting as well. It showed maybe 5 mm of foam at the top within 24 hrs but that has gone down. Should I be worried? Should I add more yeast nutrient? Why did the grape juice ferment so vigorously and the Apple-Cherry did not?

EDIT: I checked the Appple-Cherry juice and it did not have any preservatives.

I am a total newb at wine so I'm just trying to learn.

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1118 yeast is pretty much the "Kick a$$ and take no prisoners" in the world of yeasts, so I wouldn't be too concerned. Like most things in brewing... Patience Grasshopper! : )

does anyone have a recipe for dandelion wine, one gallon at a time?