Life after welch's

[Phador]

It seems like a popular first batch for us newbies has been welch's concord. Anyone have any suggestions for a step up in quality of grape juice?

I have a batch of ed wort's apfelwein going, Dave's dragon blood, and a couple single gallon experiments...cranberry/white grape, lemon/lime juice from concentrate, and I even brewed a gallon of celestial seasonings bengal spice tea and added a white grape/peach mixture.

All that is fun and for learning, but what would a nice step up in the grape world be?

 

[Arne]

Well, you can go to your local home brew store and buy a kit. Gonna cost more, though. Or if they have it you can get a juice bucket or order one on line. Or last but not least, start looking now for some grape vines that you can pick from this fall. Just had a fellow tell me this morning he would give me a call this fall, has a bunch growing in his yard. That is coming from giving away one bottle of wine. Arne.

 

[saramc]

Check out Walkers Fruit Basket or even www.homewinery.com

 

[jswordy]

I was thinking on it the other day, since I often say I have made a lot of Welch's, and trying to tote up in my head how many gallons I reckon I have made. It's got to be a little north of 1,000 now, by my estimation. Maybe 1,100 or 1,200 or so...

All that wine and I still have not mastered Welch's grape wine. I am still learning things from it, still improving the taste of each batch, and still doing all that for a cheap price. Now, I may just be in the slow class, but I'm still seeing strides in what I do with it.

Arne's right, a kit with a nice set of instructions telling you exactly what to do would step up the grapes some and there's technique you can learn from following a kit, and you are pretty much guaranteed it will work if you follow the rules.

Even better would be to go to your local vineyards and pick muscadines, mustang or whatever your local grape is, and be on the lookout for Nortons, too. Then use that as your grape juice.

But as far as "better grapes," they only take you so far without the techniques to make better wines. Reminds me of a story I heard once.

One time a teenage boy got talked into playing baseball by his pals, and he had never played the game before in all his life. He got up to the plate and the pitcher let go, and the ball shot toward him and he took a big swing. WHIFF! Strike one.

Well, he hunkered down and rared back with that bat and the ball came flying again. WHIFF! Big swing. Strike two!

Now he was a little flustered, and he hunched up over the plate and the pitcher released the ball and WHIFF! STRIKE THREE!!!!

The disgusted boy threw the bat down on the ground and stomped off, muttering, "Well, I swung it! Stupid bat - must be defective!"

 

[Winofarmer]

Check out Walkers Fruit Basket or even www.homewinery.com

I have used homewinerys concentrates a few times and they turn out great...

 

[JimC]

Jim

What are a few of your favorite Welch's recipes as I was thinking of going to DeFalco's here in Houston tomorrow and get 5 1 gallon jugs to experiment with.. I just need some choices