What is frozen concentrate wine like?

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JohnF

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Can somebody tell me what Welches frozen concentrate wines turn out like?







Are they like "wine wine" or more like wine coolers or Boons Farm type wine?







No disrespect to Strawberry Fields or anything but I just don't know
what to expect out of a frozen concentrate and I am hoping that my
first wine is more "wine like" that a cooler type....I hope I'm
explaining this well enough.







John F
 
When you reconstitute frozen concentrated grape juice (add it to 3 cans water), you are supposed to have the same juice it started out as. This should be just like as if you crushed and pressed the grapes into juice yourself, without as much solids. There is no reason to think it won't make a very good wine, given the proper nutrients and conditions and treatment.


Welcome to the forum!


Glenvall
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Country Wine said:
There is no reason to think it won't make a very good wine, given the proper nutrients and conditions and treatment.




Good deal!




I'm torturing myself trying to decide on my first batch being a kit
or a frozen concentrate. The concentrate way is less expensive to learn
how to use these new tools with so I might like to do that but I want
to also have a good shot at "success" for my first batch as well.






I like the sound of the white grape / peach but I prefer reds so I
also like the idea of doing the concord concentrate...would it be a
purple and not a red when it's done or would you call it a red?




I was 90% ready to do the kit but that 10% of me not wanting to try
my first attempt on a $100 kit before I know what I'm doing slowed me
down.
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John F
 
Welcome John, you can find my recipe under wine, recipes, fast drinking wine, I have been making wine since February and my first wine was made with Welches, but I use juice instead of concentrate but I'm sure it would be the same. My first batch was ready to drink when I bottled it 4 weeks after I started it and it was a great rose' with 13.5% alcohol, you can make the alcohol whatever you want by adding more sugar in the beginning (up to a point). I also have one in bottles aging that was 100% juice (not concentrate but bottled juice) that was a little strong when bottled but hopefully will turn out to be a fine red wine after aging. I was looking at Boones farm at the store after I started making my own wine and noticed it says on the bottle contains no juice.
 
AAASTINKIE said:
Welcome John, you can find my recipe under wine, recipes, fast drinking wine...../QUOTE]



Looks good...I may have to scale it back to 5 gal. and give it a try.
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I see now the 5 gal. carboy was a mistake as most recipes are for 1 gal. or 6.







John F
 
The 5 gallon carboy is perfect.





Most recipes are for a gallon because it's the easiest to try out new recipes that way.





The 6 gallons are for "primaries" before you rack. Often, you have to rack off quite a bit until the end-product.





Stick with the 5 gallon carboy... It's the best choice.
 
Martina, I doubt you will like the concord, do the niagara. You do not like sweet wine and concord is never any good dry. If you don't want to make a white, I say do a kit.
 
Aloha John F,


Here's my 2 cents on the issue. When I first started making wine, I bought a kit and followed the directions to the tee! You really can't go wrong doing that, and if you pay attention to the sanitary issues involved, the wine will come out more than you had expected.


Now after you had accomplished that goal, you will favor experiementing around like with "frozen Welches concentrate." That's okay, I still do. Then you'll want to go further into other better kits and get more proficient in making wine and understanding the process, etc. While your kits are taking it's course, you should be reading and researching all you can about the pro & cons of winemaking (which I assume that you are) and the more you get into it, the more drive you will have in making larger and better wines.


The key here is learning with success! Starting out with 1 gallon experiments is okay. If you fail, then the cost is miminal, but if you fail making large batches, then the defeat is a turnoff. Go easy, take your time, and more so, have patience and take notes along the way.


My 2 cents...hope this helps some
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I forgot the comment regarding how "Welches taste," like CW said, it does taste better when finished more like a semi-sweet wine, remember the "Mogen David?" Well you can work from there or whatever you palate can handle. Have fun along the way...and take time to "smell the flowers."Edited by: Maui Joe
 
Just to be clear John...you will need a 6 gallon carboy when making wine from kits. The exception is an ice wine style or port which use a 3 gallon.
 
Well looking over the advice it seems the thing to do might be to make two batches back to back.





A Welches white grape and a kit red.







I understand the more expensive kits turn out better reds but do any of
the Vintners reserve kits turn out the equivalent of $7-$10 store
bought bottles?







This is all I'm drinking right now anyway and at this point I honestly may not fully appreciate a $10-$20 bottle..or higher.







Anybody got a favorite VR red kit???







John F
 
masta said:
Just to be clear John...you will need a 6 gallon carboy when making wine from kits.



My thought was to get a 1 gal. and use it for the extra, then use that to (1) to top off the 5 with.







What I don't know yet is if there are "things" I'll need to add late in
the process that are measured by the kit for 6 gal. and adding them to 5
might mess something up.





Another reason I'm hedging towards a mid level kit rather that the $100
kits for my first batch (I don't know what I'm doing)
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.







John F
 
As a rule of the thumb the Vintners Reserve kits are at least equal to most $10 bottles of commercial wine. The selection kits will produce $15-20 bottles.
 
You really need to get a 6 gallon carboy to make wine from kits. You will not be able to separate the addition of the chemicals/fining agents properly using both the 5 and 1 gallon containers.


Save the 5 gallon to make country wines or beer!
 
The kits are made with the forethought of topping up with water at the first racking to glass. After that, just use a similar wine. It will be great. You really will need both a 5 and a 6 gallon carboy though, and lots of other stuff you don't realize yet!


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Favorite red kit would be the Bergamais. Ready to drink after 1-3 months in the bottle. Not a big bold red, more like take it easy.Edited by: Country Wine
 
masta said:
You really need to get a 6 gallon carboy to make wine from kits.



I was able to exchange the 5 gal. for a 6 yesterday.







I also picked up my first kit...actually my wife picked it because I
was hopelessly overwhelmed by the choices. She likes Pinot Noir and the
VR kit had won a silver award so that was that, now I have a kit to
start with for my first batch.







I also picked up a 1 gal. set up to try a batch of white grape/peach from frozen concentrate as soon as the primary in empty.







I hope to start things up in Saturday so about 1,000 more questions are headed your way group..
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John F
 
Country Wine said:
The kits are made with the forethought of
topping up with water at the first racking to glass. After that, just
use a similar wine.



How similar does it have to be?







My kit is a Pinot Noir do I have to use a Pinot to top up or could I use a Cab Sav to try and "beef it up" a bit?







I don't want to mess anything up but I see now some people think these
kits turn out a little thin. I was thinking about topping up with a
similar wine each time and perhaps a little bolder wine would help the
body.







What do you think??







John
 
John, You ask a lot of good questions for someone so new! We try to top up with the same type of wine we're making but you won't hurt it any if you use something similar. I can't see that you would hurt anything by toppingyour Pinot with a Cab Sav. I think it's a great idea, but then again I love a heavy wine that you need to chew. (Wine, coffee, chocolate and men. Things that should all be rich!)
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You will also want to have a second 6 gallon carboy for your 2nd racking. Once you rack out of your primary into your carboy, when you rack again you have nothing to rack into if you don't get a 2nd carboy. Good luck to you on all of this. Remember, follow those kit instructions exactly, be patient, and then be patient again! And keep us posted!
 
PolishWineP said:
John, You ask a lot of good questions for someone so new!



I tend to attack my hobbies full force!







10 years of the coffee hobby and I have just about every brewing device but an Ibrik,
several roasters, and a normal stash of over 100#'s of green coffee at
any given moment.







This time next year I'll probably have to build a wine cellar in the back yard.
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JohnF,


Until you get a second carboy, you can use the bucket for racking. Rack from the carboy to the bucket. Clean the carboy and rack back into it. Since your wine is exposed to oxygen, be sure to place the lid on the bucket and be quick. Not a good time to dawdle.


When "topping off with a similar wine", I try to get as close a possible, but when all else fails I match color, i.e., red to red. It is not that critical as you should be adding less than 3% when topping off.


BTW, the VR Pinot Noir is a very good kit to start with. It has really nice flavor and does not require a great deal of aging.
 
geocorn said:
BTW, the VR Pinot Noir is a very good kit to start
with. It has really nice flavor and does not require a great deal
of aging.



Very good news!







Looking over the shipping and such I plan on ordering more kits and
stuff from you in the future but I sort of "had" to get something to
start on this weekend right away.







You kow.... it's hard to find reviews for these different kits. I
understand personal taste comes into play but I was looking at about 20
different red kits and that was just one product line.
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Looking at every internet source I could find I still didn't come across
something like a forum where people post comments on particular kits
they have made and what kind of results they got.







There are specific threads in forums that pertain to making kits but
not a listing of a lot of kits and then people posting their
comments.....Don't know if I'm explaining this properly but bottom line
is I'm very glad to hear from somebody that has made this kit that it
turned out well.







John F
 
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