"Welch's" Wine / N00B questions

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I'm going to be doing a run through batch of "welch's" wine to work on my wine-foo and need a few questions answered.

I'm looking at the frozen Welch's 100% Juice White Grape / Mixes or the Old Orchard offerings and was wondering why not use the liquid 100% offerings from the juice isle? If they don't have sulfates or sorbate in the liquid juice shouldn't they be fine? Or is the standard 2 - 3 cans of concentrate for a gallon a "stronger" mix than what is in the liquid offerings?

I'm thinking a pomegranate/cranberry and white grape/peach for two one gallon batches boosted to 1.080 - 1.090 with table sugar.

I'll be using

2 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient

From a recipe found at the WinePress.US forum although I really don't know exactly why. Any explanations on why would be great. :) As for the acid addition, I don't have a TA kit so I'm adding based on the recipe

Pitching 1/2 packet of Montrachet each 12 hours after the pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient for a one gallon batch.

Ferment primary and rack to secondary. Rack to another carboy and purge airspace with CO2 to avoid oxidation and mixing of top off wines.

I know I have good two - four months before I need to worry about it, but where does everyone pickup their bottles? I want to try wine making, but I'm a beer drinker first and foremost. Wine bottles are rare in this house. :D

Any holes in my process or things I should do differently?
 
Pitch the whole pack of yeast.
Method is ok.
I don't care for acid blend....until you need it, and that won't be known till bottling time.
Beer bottles work great for wine....even giving you the option to prime and carbonate.

Your method is fine, and one of my favorite TV wines is made like Apfelwein, using the white grape peach juice from Welches. Some people call it a "Table Wine" but I drink it watching the Simpsons and Seinfeld after the news on week nights, so I call it TV wine.
 
You can use whatever juice you want- they'll all work just fine as long as there is no sorbate listed on the ingredients.

As BK said, pitch the whole package of yeast. The acid blend is a mix of tartaric, citric and malic acid. You may not even need it. It gives some acid to wines that may be lacking it. The pectic enzyme helps to break up the pectins in the juice, so that your wine will clear.

I don't know what you mean about using co2 to not mix top off wines. What are you planning in that step? (Just for my own clarity- not because you're doing anything "wrong")
 
I don't know what you mean about using co2 to not mix top off wines. What are you planning in that step? (Just for my own clarity- not because you're doing anything "wrong")

I've read that instead of topping off after racking you can use an inert gas to purge the O2 from the airspace in the carboy and avoid topping off or the old glass marble thing.

Since I don't really know what the pom/cran or the white grape/peach taste like, I don't want to top off with water and water it down or top off with a commercial wine and be totally off with flavors.

The commercial product for purging the airspace in bottles to re-cork them is called "Private Preserve." It is just a mixture of Nitrogen, Argon and CO2. I'm just going to use the CO2 from my keg system to blanket the wine in CO2.

At least, that's the plan anyway. :eek:
 
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