Concentrate question

Has anyone ever made a wine based on a concentrate form Home Winery Supplies? (http://www.homewinery.com/cgi-bin/concen.cgi)

I started 2 5 gallon batches, one of Merlot and one of Chianti. Both have started fermenting and look to be fairly "thick" at this stage. SG was 1.10 for the chianti and 1.21 for the merlot.

You control how much sugar to add and which other additives you see fit, so these may be nothing but pure, sterilized grape juice.

If this works out OK, I will be getting some Riesling and making a "Late Harvest" type by adding extra sugar. That would be for the neighborhood wives, they all grew up with muscadine and that sickley sweet taste (that I HATE!!!).

1.21 SG for merlot. What do you want the finished SG to be?

Near 1.00 or so, maybe just a bit sweet.

I don't see why making it from concentrate wouldn't be good. I mean you can make other wines from concentrate like apple.

The only thing that I would be worried about is the SG. Depending on what type of yeast you used the yeast may die before you can get it to 1.00 and you'll end up with a sweeter wine than you want.

A 1.21 SG to begin with is around 16.3%abv and if it fermented to 1.00 you would be looking at around 15% alchohol that you finished with. As long as you used a yeast that could handle that it sounds like you may have some great wine.

I did add 1 extra pound of sugar. I really don't like sour Merlot (like the Barefoot style).

What yeast did you use?

What I would of done is take the Merlot to around 1.090 in primary. Let it ferment then put sorbate and sulfite to it to kill the fermentation. Then backsweeten to taste. In your case around 1.000. You can download a winecal online that tell you how much sugar to add per vol...

Well, I had one of the most violent wine volcanos ever last night...

The carboy cap blew off the chianti and left a fine mist of purple dots throughout the bathroom and tub area (I mean my fermenting room). Blowoff tube still stuck in the bottle with cap attached, not doing a lot of good there!

Oh well, its a good excuse to clean everything!

Turnerdude1 said:

What I would of done is take the Merlot to around 1.090 in primary. Let it ferment then put sorbate and sulfite to it to kill the fermentation. Then backsweeten to taste. In your case around 1.000. You can download a winecal online that tell you how much sugar to add per vol...

Click to expand...

Next time, for sure!

I hope I'm not missing something here, but ...
that kit is a ***concentrate*** as you noted. You dilute *down* to the desired gravity with water.
An OG of 1.21 is wayyy high ... if fermented to dryness that would be an ABV of about 30% (i.e. 60 proof!). I don't even know a yeast that would come close to doing that.
Even if you did manage to get a yeast strain to run it's course in that syrup, unless you dilute back you would end up with the sweetest syrup'iest wine imaginable.

Cutting back the 1.210sg syrup with an equal amount of water should bring you to around 1.105 which if fermented dry would result in an abv of about 15.6%.

I have made quite a few batches of concentrate wine with Home Winery concentrates. I do not live far from there, so I can pick the stuff up whenever I want. I usually use about 5-1/2 lbs of sugar and EC-1118 yeast because I like to make sure it gets good and dry. I know they recommend 6-8 lbs of sugar.
How many lbs of sugar did you use to get such a high OG?
I think these concentrates makes pretty decent wine, especially for the price.
If you are a cheapskate like me, the Amazon kits are an amazing deal also.

guscampag said:

If you are a cheapskate like me, the Amazon kits are an amazing deal also.

Click to expand...

I never thought of looking at Amazon for a wine kit. I just did, and I am impressed. That's a great tip. Thank you!

(The things you can learn from just lurking ... )

Jacob_Marley said:

I hope I'm not missing something here, but ...
that kit is a ***concentrate*** as you noted. You dilute *down* to the desired gravity with water.
An OG of 1.21 is wayyy high ... if fermented to dryness that would be an ABV of about 30% (i.e. 60 proof!). I don't even know a yeast that would come close to doing that.
Even if you did manage to get a yeast strain to run it's course in that syrup, unless you dilute back you would end up with the sweetest syrup'iest wine imaginable.

Cutting back the 1.210sg syrup with an equal amount of water should bring you to around 1.105 which if fermented dry would result in an abv of about 15.6%.

Click to expand...

Yeah you are right. When I first read it I must have just read it as a 1.121 instead. The 1.21 would be crazy high.

guscampag said:

I have made quite a few batches of concentrate wine with Home Winery concentrates. I do not live far from there, so I can pick the stuff up whenever I want. I usually use about 5-1/2 lbs of sugar and EC-1118 yeast because I like to make sure it gets good and dry. I know they recommend 6-8 lbs of sugar.
How many lbs of sugar did you use to get such a high OG?
I think these concentrates makes pretty decent wine, especially for the price.
If you are a cheapskate like me, the Amazon kits are an amazing deal also.

Click to expand...

I added 7 pounds to the mix. Yes, 1.121, not 1.210.

How does the final product taste? At $25 for 5 gallons of wine, it is very cheap (I'm not cheap, but love a good bargain).

Figured for $50 or so, how could I go wrong unless it tastes like stale ass.