Grapes or concentrate?

[Kujo66]

Whats better? Grapes or concentrate? Where can I get them at or wheres a good place and time of year to get them? Ok to get them frozen or fresh??

 

[Rocky]

Kujo, When you say "concentrate" I assume you mean a wine kit. Fifteen years ago I would have said grapes are the best, but with the improvement in wine kits, I am not as adamant. Kits are a lot less work for the newbie in the hobby, the juices are chemically balanced and normally of high quality. I have made wine from grape in the past and I doubt that I would ever do so again given the price of grapes and the quality of kits.

I am pretty sure you have a wine store in or near to Toledo where you can buy the kits or you can order them off the internet, e.g. from the Wine Maker's Toy Store. If you are dead set on making wine from grapes, you will find them at large produce wholesalers in the Toledo area, I would assume. Frozen grapes are an option also if you know of a supplier. Again, they are grapes and you would need a press, if not a crusher.

I would recommned a good kit, e.g. Cellar Craft Showcase Collection or Premium Collection or R J Spagnols Winery Series.

 

[Wade E]

I concur with the above post entirely! Im not fond of juice buckets but the high end kits and grapes are both very good. I will say if your looking to makew a very very good Cabernet sauv the grapes if you get good ones will usually make a better product if you do everything right but you need lots of equipment to do that like a press, crusher/destemmer, and ph meter. Withe kits, all you need is the bucket and carboy and your good to go and like saod above a high end it will make excellent wine and is pretty much almost impossible to screw up.

 

[Kujo66]

I really didnt mean a kit I dont think. I have the wine makers handbook and it has recipes for either grapes or concentrate. (juice) I can ferment either in my primary bucket then rack to my carboy right??

 

[Wade E]

If you mean juice then it is juice. Concentrate is when you take juice and reduce the volume in some manor of speaking and it will need to be diluted to bring the sugar level back down so as to not shock th yeast. I myself dont think the juice buckets are all that good myself and you need to spend more money and tweak them to get the to be decent. You can ferment any type of wine in a bucket.

 

[Rock]

Whats better? Grapes or concentrate? Where can I get them at or wheres a good place and time of year to get them? Ok to get them frozen or fresh??

Kujo66,i think you might of meant like welches concentrate,if you have the equipment like Wade said then please by all means use grapes.When using very good quality grapes you can make a very good wine as long as you follow good wine making procedures.As far as kits are concerned i only made 1, lets just say i dont make good kit wines