new wine batch with Welch's frozen grape juice

[Zurd]

Hi all!

I'm doing a new test, a 5 gallon bucket of red wine with the main ingredient being Welch's frozen grape juice. This should be interesting! But the problem is that my OG is 1.047, this will probably give me a 7% wine. But there should be enough sugar in it, I don't understand the problem. Do I have enough sugar? Should I add more right now? It's been only fermenting for 24h.

Here's my repice:
8184ml (24 x 341ml) Welch's frozen grape juice
4kg of white sugar
30g oak
50g yeast nutriments
Top up for a total of 5 gallons of water (I added about 10741ml)

On a Welch's can, it says it contains 39g of sugar for 63ml of a can. This means that there's 211g of sugar in a can. I used 24 cans, so it's a total of 5066g of sugar from the Welch's juice. So I have about 9kg of sugar but my OG is 1.047. How come?!

I make plain neutral alcohol, 6kg of white sugar, wine yeast and just water and I can go to 1.080 for my OG.

 

[vistabrewer]

That seems odd that you only have a OG so low. That's a crap load of sugar!

 

[Zurd]

My thoughts exactly! It's quite impossible to be so low with so much sugar.

It's been fermenting quite well, lots of bubble. I just checked the gravity, it gave me 1.100! That's quite better. I wonder if I checked wrong and it said 1.147 and I read it as 1.047. I should have taken a reading everyday! It's probably my fault because I don't see how it's possible that the OG would be 1.047 and then jump to 1.100.

I just took a sip, it's not fermented yet but I already see another problem, it tate way too sugary. Maybe I could remove like 5 liters and add 5 liters of water to cut the sugar?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Let it ferment. The yeast will cut through most, if not all, of that sugar.

 

[vistabrewer]

My thoughts exactly! It's quite impossible to be so low with so much sugar.

It's been fermenting quite well, lots of bubble. I just checked the gravity, it gave me 1.100! That's quite better. I wonder if I checked wrong and it said 1.147 and I read it as 1.047. I should have taken a reading everyday! It's probably my fault because I don't see how it's possible that the OG would be 1.047 and then jump to 1.100.

I just took a sip, it's not fermented yet but I already see another problem, it tate way too sugary. Maybe I could remove like 5 liters and add 5 liters of water to cut the sugar?

I don't think i'd do that. I would let it ferment out. sample it for sweetness and then cut it with some water if its still to sweet(which it likely will be). 5 liters maybe too much, maybe do half that...all depends on how sweet it is. or maybe do half water, half grape juice.

Either way, if you cut it with water you will likely cause the yeast to start fermenting again since there's less alcohol by adding water. So that will reduce your sugar even more. You'll just have to play with it.

 

[Zurd]

Here's some more information on that batch!

So I was most certainly at an OG 1.147 and not 1.047. Here's the date and the gravity it gave me:

2017-01-13 - 1.100
2017-01-15 - 1.094
2017-01-21 - 1.072
2017-01-29 - 1.056


So it's at 12.4% alcohol. Even though there was too much sugar, the yeast didn't mind! However, it really taste too sugary, can't drink it. So it all went down the drain. Didn't really care to try to dilute it or whatever.

So I started a second test! 18 cans of Welch's so it's a total of 3800g of sugar with 50g of yeast nutrients and a pouch of EC-1118. The OG is at 1.070. By default it taste really great, just like grape juice. I'm looking forward to taste it when it has finishes fermenting

 

[Zurd]

To conclude that story, it all went down the drain again!

The amount of sugar, the OG, the fermentation, it was all perfect.

It just didn't taste wine at all. Of course I knew it would be different but not that much different. It had a slight taste of grape with a lot of water and a strong alcohol taste. Color was clear pink. Was an interesting test to do, just not an interesting taste.

I'll stick with the real premade wine kit!

 

[Grog79]

I love my welches wine, although I add chopped raisins, and I top up 5 gal carboys with concentrate once it ferments dry. Works beautifully

 

[stella_tigre]

I've used Aronia Juice added to the Grape - adds a bit of "something" to make it more complex. Like a quart of Aronia to a gallon of grape. Made quite a bit of difference in the drinkability.

 

[ForsbergFotos]

Curious as to which Welch's you are using? My Welch's Concord is so dark its almost black in the demijohn

 

[Zurd]

Interesting suggestions all! Adding chopped raisins, Aronia juice or going wth Welch's Concord should definitely helps the drinkability.

Maybe I should do more testing. But I would hate to do another 5 gallons, I need to find a way to make a small batch instead.

I'm using Welch's 100% grape juice frozen can. Maybe it will help with Welch's Concord not frozen juice? Do you have a recipe with it? How much juice are you adding?

 

[eigua]

Interesting suggestions all! Adding chopped raisins, Aronia juice or going wth Welch's Concord should definitely helps the drinkability.

Maybe I should do more testing. But I would hate to do another 5 gallons, I need to find a way to make a small batch instead.

I'm using Welch's 100% grape juice frozen can. Maybe it will help with Welch's Concord not frozen juice? Do you have a recipe with it? How much juice are you adding?

Yooper's recipe seems pretty popular.

 

[Zurd]

Thanks for the link! I will try it for sure, it's a small batch, won't cost too much.

And he use napkins as a cover, just what I was wondering about, how to do small batch without using a 5 gallons with an airlock.

 

[ForsbergFotos]

My recipe I am curently trying
1 gallon Welch's Concord Juice
1 can frozen Welch's concord concentrate
Sugar to SG 1.100

Will add another half to full can of frozen to back sweeten if necessary, might try to do that Friday. Started Feburary 5th

 

[Zurd]

Let me know how it turns out and the exact amount of sugar. Looks very simple as a recipe and it just happens I like simple recipe