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deboard

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Greetings all:

I am both new to this forum and to winemaking, but it's fun so far and this forum looks like it will be very helpful. So far I have thoroughly messed up a batch of white concord from frozen concentrate (so much so that I am thinking of chucking it to reclaim the carboy). I tried a small batch of carrot from juice (juiced many pounds of carrots for that one). It's not bad but in the end it's carrot wine. I just recently racked a 5 gallon batch from a suncal beaujolais kit into the secondary, and in my primary I just started a 3 gallon batch of blueberry.

I hope to plant some cynthiana(norton) grapes in my backyard next year, so we'll see if that goes well, though I won't expect enough grapes for a batch of wine for a while.

So I just want to say hi to everyone on the forum! You may know my brother who goes by koda_ky. I have him to thank for this winemaking hobby.

Bruce
 
Welcome, what have you done to make you tyhink you need to dump that wine?
 
I think I made a few big newbie mistakes, I did not have my hydrometer yet, so I don't know the starting SG, but in hindsight I think I did not have enough sugar. Plus I think it got an infection along the way, it has a very off taste, slightly flowery but not in a good way. When I racked it, I had a bit left over that I put in a wine bottle. I tried sweetening it with a simple syrup, but I think that actually made it worse. I still have a one gallon carboy sealed up with a water stopper in the basement that I am going to give a month or so before I check it again.

If it doesn't turn out, at least I learned a lot from it, and it wasn't an expensive mistake. I haven't quite given up on it yet, but if I need that carboy.....
 
Could you post the recipe you used? I dont make these anymore but when i did I would use less then 3 frozen concentrates per gallon. Did you add sulfites and sorbate to the wine you sweetened? Sorbate alone can give off a geranium smell due to malo lactic fermentetion from not being sulfited.
 
I followed this recipe:

* 2 cans frozen grape concentrate (white concord)
* 1-1/4 lbs granulated sugar
* 2 tsp acid blend
* 1 tsp pectic enzyme
* 1 tsp yeast nutrient
* 1 gallon water
* wine yeast

I used cote de blanc yeast.

This ended up with slightly over 1 gallon of liquid, and I foolishly listened to someone at work that told me to go ahead and fill it to 2 gallons with water. So that was mistake #1 I think.
 
Oh, sorry, at this point I have not added any sorbate or any other preservatives other than initially adding a campden tablet to the must.
 
It tastes like crap cause there is no flavor in there, its basically whats called a sugar wash there. Thats what distillers use to make neutral alc to throw in their still. 2 cans of concentrate is thin per gallon of must and just so you know, you dont add 1 gallon of water, you add the cans of concentrate, sugar(dissolved in a small amount of boiling water) and then add water to 1 gallon. The fact that you filled it to 2 gallons made it really thin. and flavorless.
 
If thats the size you made then (and I usually dont say this) its proably not worth saving cause there is very little alc and very little flavor.
 
welcome deboard

hello and welcome to the forum. you will love it.Greg from ky
 

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