A Few Beginner Questions Regarding Using Juice Concentrate

[Rich4756]

Hey guys this is my first post on this forum. Me and my friend have thoroughly read a lot of threads on this website. We have all the indredients and our process down, I just have a fast question.

In order to make Welch's Grape Juice Wine, me and my friend bought Welch's Grape Juice concentrate. It has no preservatives, just 100% grape juice and vitamin C. My question is what type of water do I mix with this to make this concentrate into juice? Will regular tap water contain yeast or other things than can inhibit crazy yeast growth or even stuff that can kill the yeast and not make my mixture ferment when that time comes (similar to preservatives)? Can I use distilled water?

Or also could I get regular tap water and add a campden tablet to it to kill the yeast, and then add my own yeast that I bought (D47)?

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[Quadrupled]

I have used RO water with various yeast nutrients and had no problem. Your tap water will work fine.

You should check out the wine link on the lower part of the HBT site as well as Jack Keller's site.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/

 

[Rich4756]

Thanks for your response. I'm assuming RO is reverse osmosis water? When I said using my tap water, I mean just straight, unfiltered tap water. Will water straight out of my spigot be fine? Or could I use campden tablets somehow to nutralize/steralize the water to make it ok for brewing?

Also I cannot find the wine link you are referring to, lol.

 

[jrobidoux]

I use the campden tablets plus run it through a brita, o yea and boil it. Do all that and you should have no problems.

 

[Rich4756]

Ok thanks a lot. Do we necessarily need to do all 3 of those things? And also, if I use campden tablets won't that kill my yeast that I'm gonna put in there to ferment? Like do the campden tablets "deactivate" and render
Useless after a certain period of time?

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Quadrupled]

I made a Welch's Peach/White Grape wine following Yooper's and Jack Keller's directions. The directions are near identical.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/welchs-grape-juice-wine-21093/
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques65.asp

 

[Rich4756]

Ok thanks a lot I'm gonig to follow the recipie. Also one more question, instead of boiling the water could I use campden tablets? Can someone give me the "story" on these tablets (what they're used for, how long they activley kill the yeast, can I add yeast after using campden tablets, etc)?

Thanks a lot everyone!

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

i have two batches of this in different stages right now. Yooper's recipe, right? what we did was boil the sugar in 1 qt of the water, then add this sugar water, enzyme, nutrient, and two cans of juice concentrate to the carboy, top up to 1 gal, let sit for ~12 hours and pitch. my wife's the winemaker, but i think the campden tabs will go in after racking to secondary.
hope that helps, this seems like an easy way to make wine, but being a brewer, the winemaking process baffles me sometimes.

 

[Quadrupled]

In general, Campden/KMeta is used 1. for killing undesired microorganisms in the must (from fruit) when making wine 2. for stabilizing wine (with sorbate) when back sweetening wine 3. for removing chlorine/chloramine from water prior to brewing beer and although I haven't read to use it for wine, I dont see why you wouldn't use it there as well (this is only necessary if either chemical is in your tap water).

 

[Rich4756]

Ok thanks a lot guys. Now since the Campde/Kmeta kills yeast and other microorganisms, if I use the Campden tablets prior to pitching my yeast, how woundn't the campden tablets kill my yeast as well and stop all fermentation? Do they "deactivate" after a certain time period?