Welch's Request

[Mcamnl]

I have seen many different recipes for using Welch's juice to make a nice wine. I want to start with a 1 gallon batch and using three cans of concentrate has been mentioned more than a few times. When the recommendation to add another can is mentioned, it is always followed with "just adjust the rest of the ingredients accordingly."
I understand how to adjust the sugar and check that with the hydrometer, but how do you adjust everything else?
Sorry for the questions. I am just starting out and want to do things right.
Here is the recipe I am going to try.
I would like to use 3 cans of concentrate.


2 cans (11.5 oz) Welch's 100% frozen grape concentrate

1-1/4 lbs granulated sugar

2 tsp acid blend

1 tsp pectic enzyme

1 tsp yeast nutrient

water to make 1 gallon

wine yeast

Bring 1 quart water to boil and dissolve the sugar in the water. Remove
from heat and add frozen concentrate. Add additional water to make one
gallon and pour into secondary. Add remaining ingredients except yeast.
Cover with napkin fastened with rubber band and set aside 12 hours. Add
activated wine yeast and recover with napkin. When active fermentation
slows down (about 5 days), fit airlock. When clear, rack, top up and
refit airlock. After additional 30 days, stabilize, sweeten if desired
and rack into bottles.

 

[Wade E]

I would use the three cans per gallon as 2 to me came out weak. I would drop the acid blend down to around 1 1/4 tsp and add water to about 1 1/3rd gallon so that you will have more to start with therefore when racking to glass youll leave the sediment behind and now have 1 gallon. The pectic enzyme will stay the same as will the yeast and the sugar should also be dropped. When making any wine, always use your hydro and start much lower with sugar and adjust up as lots of recipes can have way too much sugar thus making a wine that hides all the flavor. Try to shoot for a starting sg of about 1.085 - 1.090 on almost all fruit wines and wines like you are making now. Keep the nutrient the same also.,

 

[Waldo]

I would highly recommend you get you a food grade 2-3 gallon plastic bucket to do your primary fermentation in. About any donut shop should be able to provide you one either free or at minimal expense.

 

[Mcamnl]

One of the items I have coming from FVW is a 2 gallon bucket with grommeted lid. I didn't even think of checking with the donut shop right here in town.

So I will handle this like any other batch of wine. Start out in the primary bucket then move it to the glass jug when the sg is about 1.01?

 

[Wade E]

Yep, the only thing I would suggest is that when you do rack it over is to either stir it up a bit or rack it just a little earlier like 1.020 so as not to leave too much viable yeast behind if you really want it to go dry. Sometimes racking it over when the fermentation has settled down most of the yeast will have dropped out of suspension and racking over may leave that yeast behind which is needed to let it finish fermenting.

 

[Mcamnl]

I am heading out to gather ingredients and am wondering about wine yeast.
With all of the different kinds how do you decide what to use?

 

[Waldo]

Here is a great resource for that informationMcamni..It is from jack Keller web site
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp

 

[Mcamnl]

That is a lot of different yeast.

I will take some time tonight and read through it and decide on one to try.
Thanks for the information.

 

[Julie]

I agree with Wade, you need to use 3 concentrates for a one gallon batch.. I strongly suggest that you do this. The wine will come out very weak tasting if you do not. I make a lot of different welch's concentrate wines. I like to experiment with different flavors and you really need the three cans to have a decent wine.

 

[Mcamnl]

At my wife's request I have 3 cans of frozen White grape juice in the freezer. I am going to run and grab the rest of the ingredients this weekend to get this started.
I may get 3 more cans of a different mix too so I can start another one right after the first gets out of my 2 gallon bucket.

 

[Julie]

LOL. always listen to the wife. You can do a lot of different wines with welch's. I have taken 2 cans of concord and 1 can of cranbery that came out great. I have also taken 2 cxns of concord and 64 oz jug of juicy juice cherry and this is great as well. And their niagara is not too bad of a niagara wine.


Have fun.

 

[Mcamnl]

Finally got everything I need to get this rolling and I started thinking how I was going to measure the sg. My hydrometer hits the bottom in my 2 gallon bucket with only 1 1/3 gallons in it. I tested it with water first.
I don't have a wine thief or small cylinder to put some of the wine in yet. I am almost thinking of just doing what the recipe says and seeing how it turns out. Any tips on how to measure my sg?

 

[grapeman]

Get a smaller taller container, sanitize it, put the must in it and measure there. Then return to your bucket. You must have something that will work like a quart jar or even a nice tall glass. It will float quite a bit when you start so it wont need to be too tall. Get yourself a test cylinder when you get a chance.

 

[Mcamnl]

Got it. Mixed things up today after church. Starting sg of 1.086
Waiting to add the yeast.
What is the significance of waiting 12 hours before adding the yeast? Is it so the temp can stabilize? Not sure how long I want to stay up tonight.

 

[Mcamnl]

Got home from work yesterday and it was working pretty good. Just a gurgling away. Checked it at lunch today and it was already starting to slow down. We'll see what it is doing after dinner tonight and I'll pop the top and check the sg.

 

[Mcamnl]

Racked to a 1 gallon glass jug and some extra to a 375ml bottle a few
days ago when sg reached 1.01 and it has been bubbling well.
Things are
finally starting to slow today. There is a lot of sediment on the bottom of
both containers. How clear can I expect this to get? About how long should I expect it to take to clear up? I used white grape juice.
I have no problems letting it sit. Just wondering what to expect.

 

[rascalrider]

I find 3 cans per gallon a bit too much, I use 14 cans for 6 gallons. I make a lot of wine from Welch's. it's very versitile, some marchino cherry juce makes a good touch, experiment with other flavors. use some Sparkoloid fining if you'regoing to keep it very long or youll get some sediment in the bottle

 

[Waldo]

Racked to a 1 gallon glass jug and some extra to a 375ml bottle a few days ago when sg reached 1.01 and it has been bubbling well.
Things are finally starting to slow today. There is a lot of sediment on the bottom of both containers. How clear can I expect this to get? About how long should I expect it to take to clear up? I used white grape juice.
I have no problems letting it sit. Just wondering what to expect.

Just follow wine making procedures with it as you would any wine. Once fermentation has ended I would rack to a clean jug, stabilize with a campden tablet and sorbate if you are going to backsweeten it later then degass it and either let it clear on its own or use a fining agent. It should get as clear as any other wine would

 

[Mcamnl]

Well.....I have a problem. The good news is I am pretty sure I know what I did wrong. When it was done fermenting, I racked to my 2 gallon bucket and added some pot sorbate and k-meta. I cleaned and sanitized my glass jug and transferred back to this topping it off. I had some left over so I put some in a glass to try. Holy Cow!!

Lots of alcohol. I am pretty sure I did my sugar adjusting at the beginning wrong. I am going to let it clear for now and decide what to do in a few weeks.

 

[fivebk]

A really young wine will almost always taste ( hot ) of alcohol first. If you give it time to age you will really see a change in it.

BOB