undrinkable rocketfuel, or cheap desert wine?

Time will tell. If it doesn't eat through my carboy I'll post results and recipe which isn't fancy.

But 4 cans grape juice concentrate, 2+lbs sugar and topped to 1 gallon along with some red star. Sugar is aballpark, it's what I had left after a 5g batch of apple. Both started last night and fermenting nicely this morning.

I plan on letting it go until the alc just chokes it out and see what happens. No idea what the starting abv was, I know until I diluted it I could stand a spoon up in it :laugh:

 

Well, if you could stand a spoon up in it before, you'll probably be able to after. Godspeed.

 

I don't know how much sugar is in the concentrate, but most yeasts will die off at 15.5-16% alc. If your sugar is above this potential level, you will have residual sweetness. This could be a good thing. Let us know how it turns out.

 

Well I guess the spoon will be the only thing standing up after this batch is done!!!

 

I make something similar using tonnes fruit cocktail and glucose - add sugar until it choked the yeast, sweeten it up nicely, then mix with lemonade or orange juice and grenadine when serving. Boom! Cocktails for almost no cash. There's a recipe on my profile if you want it.

 

Eh... you could probably mix up some Sangria out of it worst case.

 

Bottled and sampled tonight. Aged on the lees with no racking until tonight.

Results are... according to the wife... really good. Alcohol tastes fairly raw still, but bottle aging will likely mellow it a bit. But she drank my sample glass, which has never happened, asked for more, which has never happened, and then drank the leftover glass after I filled 5 small bottles. Very sweet and so dark you can't see more than 1/4" into it. Too sweet for me except in small doses, but I think as a dessert wine it will work well. I'll dig out the recipe which is increadibly simple. I'll be starting a couple more batches soon.

No airlock in the first week or so and sit in a large bowl. Fermentation is aggressive to say the least. A 5g batch would probably have blown the windows out of the house :laugh:

My modified appfelwein on the other hand was a failure. Still too weak in the flavor dept for my tastes even with extras added in. Racked and added tanin and acid blend tonight.