Simple wine?

I'm mainly a beer brewer, but like wine, cider, mead, etc...

A few months into beer brewing, I tried the ol' plastic jug o' welches' "balloon" wine, which turn out terrible! I had way, way, way over carbonated (I wasn't going for carbonated!) crappy, acidic, tart wine. Now, I used the frozen juice concentrate (fruit punch, I think) and bread yeast in a plastic jug.

Now, I know somewhat better than that, but I'm still not very well versed in wine-making.

If I wanted to do a fun, simple fruity wine, what would I do?

I'm thinking of something along the lines of...

Recipe (3 gallon)
**********
Store bought spring water
6 cans of non-citrusy frozen fruit concentrate (grape and maybe strawberry or blackberry)
3 cups of table sugar
Yeast Nutrient
1 pack of champagne yeast


If I did all of that in a glass carboy, how do you think it would turn out?

How would I optimize this batch?

Also, how light-sensitive would this be? Doesn't beer skunk because of how the light affects the hops in the beer? If so, wouldn't wine/mead/cider be less vulnerable to light?

Thanks!

try this one:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/welchs-grape-juice-wine-21093/

I have made it a couple of times and it is pretty good for a table wine

I just did an apple wine for my first and its pretty good. Apple juice, 1 can apple juice concentrate "no water added". 1 teasp tannin. Some pectic enzyme and about 8-9 cups sugar. Cotes de blanc yeast. It fermented down to a .094 and is very good wine. I backsweetend some with 2 tablespoons concentrate per bottle and it sweetened it up just enough. Very easy wine to make.

Some of my recipe are "easy" wines. You can use apple juice or cider for the apple wine, and regular 100% grape juice for the grape wines. Welch's 100% grape juice (either the concord or the Niagara (white) juice) makes a nice easy wine.

The only keys are proper sanitation and to protect the wine from oxidation and light. It's really not difficult, especially if you start with a simple recipe and learn from there.

If you want to try Joe's Ancient Orange Mead, it's the easiest one I know. Cider is also easy- basically take fresh cider and use 1 campden tablet per gallon crushed in the must and then 24 hours later just add some yeast. That would give you about a 5% ABV hard cider.

Yooperbrew,

Have you ever added woodchips to the welches wine and if so when would be the best time to do so.

I have a 5 gal batch that I just started last night and am thinking of waiting 2weeks to add the American light oak chips and then let it sit for 2 more weeks.

Actually anyone can answer all opinions are welcome.

Thanks

KYUSHO00 said:

Yooperbrew,

Have you ever added woodchips to the welches wine and if so when would be the best time to do so.

I have a 5 gal batch that I just started last night and am thinking of waiting 2weeks to add the American light oak chips and then let it sit for 2 more weeks.

Actually anyone can answer all opinions are welcome.

Thanks

Click to expand...

I haven't added woodchips to the Welch's. You certainly can, though, if you want. I'd wait until secondary is completely done, and then add the wood chips. Taste about every 5 days, and when it's got enough oak flavor, rack off and bottle.

Thanks

I'll let it finish then taste and add the chips if I feel it would make a good contribution then test every 3 days or so.:rockin:

i did a recipe i found on www.winemakingtalk.com - its 3.5 cans of frozen grape juice concentrate per gallon of wine, NO added sugar.
a bit of acid blend for balance...no other additions beyond normal sorbate/sulfiting at bottling.