General Concentrate Wine

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Just tasted my cranberry batch and racked to secondary today. It's good but it's quite tart. I'm thinking it may need to be blended 50/50 with something else but I'm going to give it a while to clear up more first. Definitely encouraging but that 50/50 grape/cranberry is sounding like it might be my next attempt here.

Just bottled this one today. Definitely tart but tasted very good so I bottled it as-is. SWMBO was very happy with the taste and I have been directed to get another batch going.
 
Recipe called for 10# sugar and I only added 2#. Figured I would back sweeten.
 
Well if you started with only 2# of sugar it might just be that the yeast ate all that sugar real quick and it's done fermenting. Does it taste sweet?
 
If I put more sugar in it can begin fermenting again? Or do I need more yeast for that? It is not sweet.
 
Added 3 more pounds sugar and fermentation started back up. Thanks for opinions and info. This was every helpful for a newbie.
 
I have 1 more question, can I use some more of the store bought concentrate to top up with? This the old orchard frozen concentrate. Primary Fermentation is done. SG is 1.00
 
Sure that shouldn't be a problem. If you're keeping track of your gravity to calculate the ABV you'll want to make sure the juice you top up with is the same SG as your wine started with before fermentation.
 
Racked cranberry blend to carboy tonight. Hope it turns out OK. Anxious to try it now.
 
So I happened apon some 100% juice pomegranate jugs today on sale...with no preservatives frome food lion..anyone tried this?
 
pom juice at food lion?? What state are you in? I've never seen this in NC.

And I'm sure someone around has done a pom wine if you look around. It'll work the same as these directions (substituting juice for concentrate).
 
I have a question about my cranberry wine from orchard farm frozen juice. Its been about 2 months cleared nicely. Thought I would back sweeten today. Siphoned into a glass to try some. Took a sip and there is not a taste of the juice at all to it. Any thing I can do about that? Does it need to sit longer? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
If its just a simple wine from fruit concentrate, my advice is to let it age atleast a few months, if still nothing then backsweeten and add a small amount of salt with you sugar[ im talking a couple pinches] salt helps bring flavors out in cooking and wine.
 
When you back sweeten, don't use sugar, use some cran-concentrate. That'll reinforce the flavor and ad the sweetness.
 
Sure. I mean let it sit out and come to room temperature first, but yeah. Or splash another flavor. I sometimes splash cran-concentrate into my cider when I back sweeten.
 
Now this sounds interesting...first wine I'll be trying; been doing mead up to now so not a newbie to the process but it's still fun to try something new. White grape/raspberry, anyone? I might even try to do this sparkling...we'll see how she goes. Thanks for the recipe, brazedowl!
 
So I've looked thorough all post and can't seem to find starting sg and finishing sg I'm prettynew to this wine making and have only used kits so this is my first time using concentrate's :)
 
I wrote this way back before I started measuring gravity and just was whipping together sweet tasting, strong, cheap, wines :) I'll check the gravity the next time I run this recipe for sure and post it.
 
Thanks I started today and got a start sg of 1.130 don't know what that means as the box I started yesterday started at 1.030 so guess ill c in a couple days if things r working out :)
 
1.130 will make a nice strong brew, but it will also stress out the yeast. If it doesn't take off or doesn't start at all, consider cutting it with some water. I normally fill a gallon jug 3/4 full of the wine and add water to fill it. I set that side and add the 3/4 gallon of empty carboy with water. It'll take right off after that. Then when I bottle I recombine the two.
 
Thanks will keep an eye on that :) btw do u stir the yeast in or just shake on top ?
 
I normally start the yeast in some warm water with a bit of sugar while I'm putting everything else together in the carboy. By the time I'm ready to pitch, it's good and foamy.
 
Added sugar to back sweeten more and it started fermenting again. What should have I done to prevent this? It doesn't hurt if it ferments again? Do I need to let it sit again& clear?
 
a) it won't hurt if it ferments more, just makes more alcohol

b) you need to stabilize it with some sorbate and campden. I normally add a table spoon of potassium sorbate and 5 campden tablets (1 per gallon) and dissolve it in 1 cup of warm water and rack my wine onto it. A day or two later I'll backsweeten and bottle.
 
Is there a way to get it to stop fermenting? Tried it on Thanksgiving and boy it was a little sweet but good. Getting anxious to bottle and start drinking?
 
Don't know where you are, but if it's cold enough you could stick it outside and the cold will cause the yeast to go dormant and settle to the bottom. It's called cold crashing. I've never tried it, but you can search around the forum there's threads that explain it.
 
You can stop the ferment by cold crashing it in the fridge for a couple of days; then rack onto sorbate and campden tablets to keep fermentation from restarting (stabilization).
 
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