Welches Grape Juice Wine

[ForsbergFotos]

Which Concord grape are you using. I use whatever is available and have had great luck with even cocktails. I do add raisins to my primaries though which helps my juice and concentrate wines imo

I used the regular Welch's Concord juice and frozen concentrate

 

[broken-arrow]

Wine is made from pure grape juice- not sugar. The more you put the less it will taste like wine. Double eccccch.

Cider with a pound per gallon will give you a good buzz, but won't taste much like cider any more. Triple ecccccch.

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I have made several gallons of fairly good tasting wine with the grape juice. I have sweetened it with honey and although I am not a big wine drinker it tasted pretty good to me. It certainly isn't a fine wine but I would consider it a good party or table wine.

The only problem I have is clearing after a fermentation of about a month. I have syphoned it through cheese cloth and other things into another gallon container and can't get it really clear. It doesn't seem to settle well. Is there some additive that can be used to clear it or am I doing something drastically wrong.

 

[z-bob]

I made some pretty good wine using Welch's purple grape juice and sugar last year, but I didn't use a huge amount of sugar. I also added a little potassium bicarb to reduce the acidity. IIRC, the finished wine was about 9.5% ABV. I have a few bottles left; it was good fresh but it's still improving (probably about peaking.)

Table grapes aren't as sweet as wine grapes so you pretty much have to add some sugar.

The only problem I have is clearing after a fermentation of about a month. I have syphoned it through cheese cloth and other things into another gallon container and can't get it really clear. It doesn't seem to settle well. Is there some additive that can be used to clear it or am I doing something drastically wrong.

Gravity and time do most of the work. Instead of filtering it, when it has started to clear rack it to another container to get it off the sediment. When it clears a little more, stir the dickens out of it to get as much CO2 as possible out of solution, and it should clear pretty fast after that. With my last batch, I added gelatin to clarify it at this point and within a week it was really clear. (this was made with Niagara white grape juice) I racked it one more time and it hasn't thrown any more sediment in over a month so I think it's ready to bottle.

 

[Ron0126]

Holy Guacamole. Jack's here ... cool! [emoji524] [emoji485]

 

[z-bob]

Last weekend I bottled the wine I made with white Niagara grape juice and lots of sugar (and yeast nutrient, etc.) It's definitely wine but doesn't taste very good; no particular faults that I can identify. Does not taste like rocket fuel. It will get better in a few months, right?

I put a few bottles in swing-tops and primed with sugar like I would beer. Even if it doesn't carb, the sugar will do it some good.

Edit: I opened one last night. It tastes *much* better already after just a couple of weeks in the bottle. Next bottle I open will be one of the swingtops, but I going to try to wait another month.

 

[user 125772]

Yep, I've made it. It's actually pretty good. Just make sure you use the 100% juice. (It's on the label). And no added corn syrup, etc. Here's the recipe:

Welch's Frozen Grape Juice Wine
2 cans (11.5 oz) Welch's 100% frozen grape concentrate
1-1/4 lbs granulated sugar
2 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
water to make 1 gallon
wine yeast (any, but I like Montrachet)

Bring 1 quart water to boil and dissolve the sugar in the water. Remove from heat and add frozen concentrate. Add additional water to make one gallon and pour into secondary. Add remaining ingredients except yeast. Cover with napkin fastened with rubber band and set aside 12 hours. Add activated wine yeast and recover with napkin. When active fermentation slows down (about 5 days), fit airlock. When clear, rack, top up and refit airlock. After additional 30 days, stabilize, sweeten if desired and rack into bottles.

This is not "fine wine", more along the lines of Mogen David. We drink it with dinner and/or when friends come over and we all like it. You can use white (niagara) or purple (concord) grape juice for a white or red wine. I've heard that other people use white grape/peach or white grape/raspberry the same way but I've never tried that.

Lorena

I read this , chuckled, and had to give it a try. I scaled to 2 gallons, and pitched D71. Yoop, I'm curious what you mean "stabilize" after 30 days, are you talking about a Camden tablet?

 

[Barolofan247]

Hi . I am new to the group. I never made wine with supermarket juice before.my daughter showed up with 6 bottles of grape juice made from concentrate . Every bottle is 1.36 liters. The juice is pasteurized. Every bottle ingredients : water , concentrated grape juice, concord grape juice and ascorbic acid. Are these bottles usable to make wine . I measured the sugar reading says 1.6 Do i still add sugar?




and if so do I have to add water since the juice already has water

The purple grape juice makes wine that is purple. The white grape juice makes wine that is white. There isn't any magical color change that happens except for maybe getting clearer when the particulate drops out. My dandelion wine is a pale golden yellow, my rhubarb wine a blush color. My Welch's grape (purple) is purple. You are fermenting juice, so you get fermented juice (wine) when it's done.

Lorena

 

[z-bob]

Hi . I am new to the group. I never made wine with supermarket juice before.my daughter showed up with 6 bottles of grape juice made from concentrate . Every bottle is 1.36 liters. The juice is pasteurized. Every bottle ingredients : water , concentrated grape juice, concord grape juice and ascorbic acid. Are these bottles usable to make wine . I measured the sugar reading says 1.6 Do i still add sugar?

and if so do I have to add water since the juice already has water

@Barolofan247 I know this answer is late; I just found this thread again. That juice will work just fine for making wine. You don't add any water, but you probably will want to add sugar. Or you can ferment it without any added sugar and then bottle it like beer for a light carbonated drink that's about 7% alcohol and ready to drink a lot quicker than most wines.

I just started 4 gallons of wine Saturday, using a mixture of store-bought bottled grape juices. Two gallons of white and 2 gallons of purple. Most of the purple was Kirkland's "not from concentrate", but some was from concentrate and all the white was. (Aldi's brand) I measured the sugar with a refractometer and it was 15.5 Brix, so I added 2 pounds of sugar to get it just north of 20, and a tablespoon of yeast nutrient. I sprinkled a packet of BV7 wine yeast on top, and I did not stir in the sugar until I saw yeast activity. This morning there was a huge head of foam on top, so I gently stirred it to get the sugar off the bottom and I carried the bucket downstairs where it's about 60 degrees.

In about a week I will rack it to a 4 gallon carboy, and probably top it up with a little apple juice or grape juice to fill the headspace. When do I add sulfites, is that when I rack it a second time to get it off the fine lees? I've just ignored sulfites before and the wine turned out good but hasn't aged well (not a problem if you drink it very young), but I'd like to step up my game.