Help with my concord

[Ceemeemonday]

I just started to make wine at home. I got all the equipment from my kids for Christmas no juice available in the winter here so I got some concentrated concord 1 gal added 4 gal water starting sg 1.077 I pitched a red star primer yeast and treated it like a wine kit - primary fermentation ended at day 6 sg of 1.004 racked and 2nd fermentation ended way sooner than I expected 6 days later with ending sg of .992. Tasted the wine and I thought it was terrible. Like weak grape juice and grain alcohol. I decided to finish it with potassium Sorbate and Camden and let it clear in a clean and sanitized carboy. My question.... what the heck did I do wrong???? And will back sweetening and some time help?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Concord simply doesn't make a good dry wine because it's low in tannins.

Did you add the sorbate after racking off all of the lees (yeast sediment)?
If you did, then you can probably proceed with sweetening it. You should probably add a proportional amount of sorbate and sulfite when sweetening... And leave it in the carboy a while to make sure your stabilization was successful before you think about bottling it.

FYI, there are "wine kits" you can buy that offer a variety of wine grape juice concentrate like Pinot Noir, Riesling, etc. year round.

Welcome to HBT!

 

[Seamonkey84]

When you did your first racking, did you leave the lees and yeast behind? If you rack the wine off of the yeast colony before the jobs done, you’re stressing the remaining yeast (causing off flavors). If your using a bucket for primary, it is good to transfer to a carboy before it’s finished, but move the yeast and lees in too. Just pull any solid fruits or additives at that time. Even if they finished quickly, it’s not considered wise to rack off the yeast until it’s finished fermenting and at least starting to clear, plus you waste product every time you rack. Most yeast can be left in until it’s completely clear. Then you rack just two or three times total before bottling.
Also, If you didn’t use any nutrients, that can also cause the yeast to become stressed and produce off flavors and aromas. Time will help mellow it out, sweetening can help cover up some of the bad taste too. Since you stabilized it, you can sweeten to taste, but give it time either way.
Also, check a few posts down for the Welch’s post here, and also in the recipe section. Lots of good info to make cheap wine year round lol.

 

[bmd2k1]

Check out this thread...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/index.php?threads/597577/


Cheers [emoji111]

 

[Ceemeemonday]

Concord simply doesn't make a good dry wine because it's low in tannins.

Did you add the sorbate after racking off all of the lees (yeast sediment)?
If you did, then you can probably proceed with sweetening it. You should probably add a proportional amount of sorbate and sulfite when sweetening... And leave it in the carboy a while to make sure your stabilization was successful before you think about bottling it.

FYI, there are "wine kits" you can buy that offer a variety of wine grape juice concentrate like Pinot Noir, Riesling, etc. year round.

Welcome to HBT!

Ya I kinda felt like it wouldn’t turn out as a wine I would like. My starting SG was too low and I didn’t add sugar. I did rack it off the lees to secondary and wait till it was down to .992. I added the potassium Sorbate and clarifiers and am letting it sit. I will go back to it in a week to check/ taste and then try sweetening.
I have a kit Zinfandel in primary right now am very excited. Let you know how that turns out!

 

[Blacksmith1]

1.077 is kinda low. Basically a Concord cider. I've been doing an "Iced Concord" using FGJC and 100% concord grape juice. Add a bit of sugar, use a yeast that can go 16-18 ABV and you get flavor and enough alcohol that your wife/girlfriend is more likely to do that thing you like.