My wine tastes like water with no alcohol

[Kinighteth]

Hey all I have recently made a half gallon of wine, I frequently make wine using store bought juices which usually turn out good. This particular time we made wine in a half gallon clear growler using a half gallon of Welches concord grape juice one packet of bread yeast and about 2 cups of sugar. We let it ferment fermentation went about a week we then capped the growler off and let the sediments settle then poured it off into another growler that was a black colored growler and saved about a pint from the bottom in a Mason jar, which we let settle then topped off into the growler. After all was said and done the wine tastes very very watery and absolutely no alcohol taste. But we tasted it prior to dumping into the second growler and during the transfer and it had a nice sweet taste and strong alcohol taste. The settling process only took about 3 or 4 days. What would cause this? Could the alcohol in my wine have disappeared? Lol any way any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JohnT]

Wow,

It is hard to say what happened. I think that you oversimplified the process. You do not monitor acid/ph, add any kind of tannic structure, use bread yeast, and you do nothing about sanitation. A whole enormous list of things could have gone wrong.

Chances are that you tasted it while it was still sweet and not yet fully fermented.

I would suggest that you look further on this website for some of the Welch's recipes currently being used. Some think that they have good results.

 

[photoactivist]

I would tend to agree with johnT about the comparison of tasting prior to fermentation completion.
It's probably fermented completely to dry, leaving no sweetness left to taste. Did you use a concentrate and water it down or did you use ready to drink concord juice? The problem with some of these juices from concentrate is the amount of water added really will change the ultimate flavor and watered-downness of it.

I would think it may still recover after some aging, however I find it very helpful to continue to monitor progress during the entire fermentation process, to see where it's going and see what pratfalls happen along the way. Given what you've described, this specific vintage will likely be very light in body, and be more reminiscent of slightly flavored water.

I would also highly suggest using specifically made for wine yeasts. Bread yeasts typically bring out less aromatic and fruity flavors than wine yeasts.

And if you really want my personal suggestion, I say bump up to one full gallon (avoiding half size bottles in the half gallon size, thus allowing five full bottles), measure the SG using a hydrometer both at the beginning and end (allowing you to shape the alcoholic content by how much sugar you add), use some tannin, acid, and oak, and finally I might suggest you try to use fresh juice or juice not made from concentrate. I have used concentrate in my endeavors, but you'll get an amazingly superior wine if you use pure juice.


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[Kinighteth]

Sorry I did forget to mention we do sanitize I do use star San sanitizer, and usually as far as yeast goes we use red star champagne yeast but we're out at this time I do have some turbo yeast but my wife while setting it up forgot about that and just used bread yeast lol. And as far as all the other additives I haven't quite gotten enough learning done to really understand how and when and where to use them so as of yet we basically make early drinking wine to get the experience in. We also use a vapor lock and we didn't stop it to settle until the vapor lock no longer bubbled at all. But from what I'm hearing it was kinda bound to be watery? And as for the alcohol content is there a possibility it went down from the early tasting or is it just hidden now?

 

[Kinighteth]

And yeah it was the juice in a bottle not the frozen grape juice

 

[sour_grapes]

No, it is not really possible that much of your alcohol disappeared/evaporated between tastings. Your perception likely vary, instead.

 

[photoactivist]

...usually as far as yeast goes we use red star champagne yeast but we're out at this time…
…as far as all the other additives I haven't quite gotten enough learning done to really understand how and when and where to use them so as of yet we basically make early drinking wine to get the experience in.

Well, it sounds like you're more advanced than we may have thought by your post. And I might give you a bit of an ego boost and suggest you may be further along in your winemaking than you may think.

This forum is a great source, but I suggest you get a second hand winemaking book. (Backyard Vintner is an amazing book, and can give you everything you need to know) If you're intending to continue to make other than grape wines, you can even just head to the wine shop and pick up some wine tannin, acid blend, and a hydrometer. All of which will have instructions on how much and how to use them. Err on the side of underwhelming any additions, and with experience will come intuition.


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[photoactivist]

PS- so you don't think that maybe you did something wrong, one of my first vintages (and one i was very excited about) was a wine I made from ocean spray 100% cranberry juice. Well, it turned out so horridly both times I made it, (the first time when I didn't measure enough liquid to make the one gallon and ended up over sugaring the must due to the additional liquid added, and the second time when I thought I'd learned from the first mistake and actually made this cough syrup tasting wine) that I didn't even bother to take the case of half size bottles I had of them with me when I moved out of state recently. I bottled it back in 2012, and I think I listed it in my notes not to open it till 2016, hoping time would save it. These things happen with all of us when you're trying something new. Never be afraid to try, and try again if it doesn't work.

I gave that case to a friend back where I was living. I always suggest to everyone to always keep at least one bottle of everything you bottle just in case time proves any early opinions wrong. Kind of wish I had heeded my own advice, but I had 280 bottles I did take, and just couldn't justify the extra space when everything else was much more believed to turn out better.


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