WELCHS GRAPE RECIPE

[Fly*guy]

I use 1/8 tsp/ gal K-meta & 1/4 tsp K-Sorbate/ gal - adjust by multiplying x # of gal.

I have made many of the welch's concentrates now and have found that the Jack Keller recipe that was listed at the beginning of this thread is good but I actually like it even better when I use 3 cans of concentrate/gal instead of 2, and keep the abv in line at about 10%, much over 12% and it takes a long time to mellow out and IMO stuns the flavor of the finished wine.
I clear most of my Welch's with sparkoloid, but keep the temps at above 70F if you use it so it will settle at its best, it usually clears in about a week and 1/2 then I filter and bottle and enjoy it young at about 1 month old. I have some that are more then a year old at this point and taste better then the younger ones but it is an early drinking wine.

My favorite so far is the peach/Niagara, followed closely by the raspberry/Niagara. but just Niagara is very good as well. Haven't tried to oak any of them yet so I have no opinion on that end.
Will be starting a Concord grape concentrate very soon to try and make a wine that resembles a wine I found in NY - Lakewood Winery's "Borealis"
this is an ice wine but I'm hoping to copy the flavor of it anyway.

 

[JohnnyK68]

Thanks for the reply.

 

[scotty]

3 cans per gallon is one od the secrets fow welches--yes keep abv below 10---hey you peeked

 

[JohnnyK68]

To keep the abv at 10 or below how soon are you stopping fermentaion? I would think 3 cans of concentrate and and abv of 10 or below would be a little to on the sweet side for my likings. I was thinking of stopping it at about 1.01 which would give me and abv of about 11.5. Is that too hot for this wine?

 

[scotty]

I use 1118 and ferment to completely dry. back sweeten to get the off dry taste. I use a 10 or even 8 percent PA to start with

 

[burningalive]

Ok now I'm confused! I thought I could just leave it alone in the carboy for 2 months then bottle! VC, didn't you tell me that? So I should be stopping the fermentation? I'm probably at 11% now.....I thought it would just stop fermenting by itself and I could just leave it alone, am I wrong about that? Should I kmeta it now?

 

[fivebk]

It's really hard to stop an active fermentation. Just let it finish to dry and then you will be able to backsweeten to your taste after you stabilize with sorbate of course.

I think what scotty is saying is he watches his starting SG so that the must only has enough sugar in it to equal 8-10 % by volume.

Hope this helps without cofusing you

BOB

 

[burningalive]

I have never backsweetened a wine before. What will I need to do a 5 gallon batch of Niagra?

 

[fivebk]

You could use Welchs White grape concentrate or if there is enough flavor already just use a simple syrup. ( 2 parts sugar to 1 part water heated to dissolve the sugar) add slowly and sample till you get it where you want. As the wine ages it will seem to get sweeter so don't over do.
The amount is up to you and how sweet a wine you like

BOB

 

[burningalive]

But when you say stabilize with sorbate, what exactly does that mean?

 

[vcasey]

Ok first take a really deep breath!
I don't think I indicated you could let it sit in the carboy and then just bottle it in a couple of months. You need to let it finish fermenting and you'll be to see that its finished by taking the SG and the reading remaining the same for 3 days. Once that happens the you'll need to add sorbate & kmeta to prevent re-fermentation, especially if you decide to back sweeten. If you don't add the sorbate and kmeta the yeast could wake up and start working again, especially if you backsweeten. While this is not that bad while in a carboy, it is not much fun when the bottles you have carefully corked suddenly start shooting corks across the room followed by a stream of your precious wine!
Once your wine is stablized and you have sweetened it (and I think Bob told you how to do that) then you'll need to clear the wine. When you clear the wine you can just let it sit until it clears on its own or add a clairfier. After about 10 days or so the wine should be clear and you can rack to a new carboy and let age or bottle.
I'm sure I missed a step so ask away if you have more questions and someone will chime in.

 

[fivebk]

K-Meta/ Campden tablets Kill bacteria and other nasties that could get in your wine so in terms they stabilize the wine.It also stuns any yeast left in suspention. Pottasium Sorbate keeps any live yeast left in your wine from multiplying thus it will allow you to add sugar or concentrate without having any refermentation occur so this too helps stabilize the wine

BOB

 

[burningalive]

OK, Sorry for the seeming panic, lol. VC your right you didn't say that, it's just how I took it! So once the fermentation stops I can add kmeta (1/4 tsp for 5 gallons) and then sorbate. Or do I wait on that until the end? Also I sweeten then clairify? I'm sorry I feel like an idiot all the sudden! I've done like 5 kits I figure i'd have an easier time with this! Thanks for all your responses.

 

[fivebk]

It does'nt matter when you add the sorbate as long as you do it before you backsweeten anything.

BOB

 

[Fly*guy]

Burning.... at the beginning of this process (next time), when you start to mix your ingredients together, you want to be sure, as scotty and I were saying, you keep your starting SG around 1.060 - 1.075 - about 8 to 10% ABV. You do this by 1st - adding some of the water to the concentrate - and check the SG then more and check SG again adding water to your concentrate till you get a SG reading in this range. Then add your other ingredients to the must in the Fermentation bucket. You may very well end up ...in the bucket.... having a bit more volume then you would like, maybe as much as 1/4 to 1/2 gal, but that won't matter - it is the starting SG that you want to concern yourself with. Move your wine to a carboy when the SG falls under 1.020 - at this point you will be racking it off the heavy lees and at the same time you will lose a small part of your liquid - this is where a series of carboy sizes comes in handy - so you can protect your "extra" wine in them for topping up. After the fermentation process ends, (SG = .998 or less), you will then rack the "wine" into other clean carboy(s), and again lose a small portion of your liquid and more lees - top up with your "extra wine. By the time you get to bottling your wine you will be close to the volume of wine that you wanted at the beginning.

As far as having your wine already at a possible 11% ABV, you will probably be OK at that if the flavor is heavy enough and you give it plenty of time to age in the bottle - my peach took more then 6 months to get its flavor to even come back a little, but is it ever good now

. The ABV on that was a bit over 12% but I learned not to allow that to happen any more as that is just to hot for a peach wine IMO.

 

[JohnnyK68]

Thanks flyguy for the last post. I just bought 18 more cans of concentrate to start another 6 gal batch of this wine. What I have decided to do, being that the first 3 gals is going to take a while to mellow out, I have decided to rack it onto some American house toast oak and let it age a little and see how good it is after bulk aging for 6-9 months. The 6 gals I put together tomorrow I will start ata SG 1.075 and will look to make it an earlier drinker.

 

[burningalive]

Thanks for all the info!

 

[JohnnyK68]

WOW this stuff is pretty good. I ended up backsweetening both the 3 gals and the 6 gals. I racked the 3 gals yesterday and I was pretty suprised how good it is. I am not a sweet wine drinker at all, but I can see where this wine would definately have its place. Another 45 days or so and I will botlle the 3 gals. The 6 will follow shortly after. Then my wife and her friends will have plenty of sweet wine. I have to admit though, I can see myself drinking a few glasses of this on more then one occasion.

 

[Fly*guy]

One of the nice things about this wine, Welch's white grape, and this hobby is that you can make any of these wine what YOU want it to be!

The Niagara grape seems to me to have a very nice, sharp flavor to it and therefore, IMO, you can afford to have it a little on the sweet side and keep it nice enough for a lot of your friends to enjoy, even those that prefer something semi-sweet or even on the dry side.
I have one that I 1st made that is very high in ABV, about 12% and even that one is OK but after about 9 months it still has that alcohol kick to it and I'm not sure if it will total fade away as time goes on..... but still drinkable....On a friday evening by the pool or after a hard week

.

Most of these wine types just seem to have better flavor and taste at between 8% to 10% ABV.
So be carefull when making them that you watch your starting SG and have some fun experimenting with different combinations of other welch's juices or flavors and always, always, always keep good notes or you may never get to make the ones you like again, but you can easily duplicate the ones that you never want to make again

Now, I'm going back to enjoying my first glass of MY Gewurtztraminer.
Smells and tastes like another keeper!

.... RJS Cru Select Gewurztraminer..... Darn tasty even after only a month ( I know, I know... Patients, Patients, Patients, more time better wine)

 

[K5MOW]

Well I made the Weches today. I got a SG of 11.05. Is this to high of a SG or will it be ok.

Roger