Welch's

[chevs15]

Hi everyone! I found this recipe on another forum. It's for 1 gallon and I would be making 6 gallons. Thoughts on his recipe and how would alter it for 6 gallons?

Welch's Frozen Grape Juice Wine
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

Edit- note! You may want to skip the acid blend, at least at first, as some results say this wine is too "tart".

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.

Thanks!

 

[Redtrk]

I have 6 gallons of this going right now. In my beginning of the clearing stage I added oak then vanilla. The taste is great and I haven't even added an F-pack yet.

 

[chevs15]

Can you share your recipe? Is it super sweet?

Thanks!

 

[Redtrk]

Can you share your recipe? Is it super sweet?

Thanks!

It's not super sweet but it is semi sweet. I am going to add an F-pack which will bring out more of the concord grape flavor.
I added about a 1/3 cup of oak chips for about 6 weeks then added about 3 ounces of vanilla.

 

[chevs15]

Did you use the recipe I posted? Can you share the whole recipe?

How do you make an F-pack? When and how long do you add the oak?

Sorry for all the questions.... You're a big help!

Thanks!!

 

[Redtrk]

This is the one I used and basically the same although I used jugs of juice I found on sale at COSTCO.
There are many folks on here that know far more about wine making than I do since I've only been at this for about a year and a half.
I added the oak when I started my clearing and left it in the carboy for about 6 weeks.
As for the F-pack you just use more juice after fermenting and stabilizing.
There is a thread on making F-packs in here somewhere.

WELCH'S GRAPE JUICE

The name most associated with grape juice in America is Welch's. Welch's grape juice is either Concord (red) or Niagara (white). This juice is sulfited to prevent fermentation in the bottle and may be difficult to start fermenting, but it can be done. It is much easier to use Welch's 100% Grape Juice Frozen Concentrate, as it does not contain sulfites. However, the recipe below contains instructions for building up a fermentation that should overcome the sulfite problem.

WELCH'S GRAPE JUICE WINE
• 1 gallon Welch's grape juice (red or white)
• sugar to raise s.g. to 1.095
• 2 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp pectic enzyme
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 pkt Montrachet wine yeast

In a quart jar, activate yeast in ¼ cup of grape juice and ¼ cup of warm water with ¼ teaspoon of sugar and 2 pinches of yeast nutrient dissolved in it. Cover and set aside to develop a vigorous fermentation. Pour grape juice in primary and float a hydrometer in it to determine sugar content. Add sufficient sugar to raise specific gravity to 1.095 (see hydrometer table at http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/hydrom.asp) and stir well to dissolve sugar and assist sulfites (sulfur dioxide) in dissipating. Add remaining ingredients except yeast. Cover primary and set aside 12 hours. Every 2 hours add ¼ cup of grape juice to the jar of yeast starter. After 12 hours, add activated wine yeast and recover primary. When active fermentation slows down (about 5-7 days), transfer to secondary and fit airlock. When clear, rack, top up and refit airlock. After additional 30 days, stabilize, sweeten if desired and set aside 10-14 days to ensure refermentation does not ensue. Carefully rack into bottles and age at least 3 months.

 

[arcticsid]

Chev, use 3 cans and add water to make 1 gallon, 4 is even better.

Alot of people think they can not make a decent wine using these frozen concentrates.

This is simply not true.

You want to look for 100% juice and look at the ingredients on the side. Alot of these frozen juices have already had sulfites added. Watch out also for Benzoate.

Both of these can delay or even prevent fermentation, but you CAN get them to go.

Myself, and many others have successfully made great wine from these concentrated juices.

If you look around the forum you will see many testomonies to this.

I like to use the DOLE brand of frozen concentrates myself, I have also had great success with Old Orchard brand also.

Be careful with the sulfites, we need them to sterilize everything, but it isn't always necessary to add n the begining.

 

[comeauch]

I've just bottled and tasted my first Welch's Niagara wine... I used 3 cans/gallon and it tastes really fruity. A bit too much, even for me. It was aged for 4½ months, so maybe not all that long, but still! I would (and will) definitely try using 2 cans only.

Also, I'm not sure about how useful it is to use pectic enzyme on juice, especially frozen concentrate... ?

 

[Duster]

My two cents worth
Definitely use with 3 cans per gallon.
Oak is a must for this in my opinion, I like med toast american oak at 2oz /gallon
Also add about 1/2 pound of chopped raisins per gallon to improve body.
backsweeten using an additional can of concentrate per gallon.

I have made quite a bit of this and contrary to what one may believe it's not a bad wine.

 

[K5MOW]

My two cents worth
Definitely use with 3 cans per gallon.
Oak is a must for this in my opinion, I like med toast american oak at 2oz /gallon
Also add about 1/2 pound of chopped raisins per gallon to improve body.
backsweeten using an additional can of concentrate per gallon.

I have made quite a bit of this and contrary to what one may believe it's not a bad wine.

Would you put the raisins and oak in primary.
I just started a batch yesterday and could add them now.

Roger

Roger

 

[Duster]

Have you pitched the yeast? Add the chopped raisins to the primary however they will increase your sugars a bit thus for raising your starting SG.
I like to add the oak after the second racking. this is the stage where I also stabilize the wine. The oak will take up some of the head space that is lost in the racking and once the oak, K-meta and sorbate is added I put the carboy away for hibernation for about a month or two to clear.

 

[K5MOW]

Yes I have added the yeast. It is going great. I will add the raisins tomorrow. Will wait for the oak.

 

[Duster]

make sure you get all natural raisins. I believe wally world carries them. a lot of raisins out there are loaded with potassium metaphosphate to stop them from fermenting while they are drying.
Make sure they are chopped so that the yeast can get to the sugars, This is a pain and if anybody has some ideas on how to do this please share, the best way I found is to pile a handful of them at a time on a cutting board and run a pizza cutter through them about a million times.
lastly with the addition of them after the yeast has been pitched, you will never truly know your starting SG so ABV% calculation will be difficult. on the other hand if you're making it to drink then who cares as long as you like it!

 

[K5MOW]

Thanks for this great info. I will be using this pizza cuter idea.

Roger

 

[dralarms]

How about one of those onion choppers? The ones that all you do is push on a plunger.

 

[K5MOW]

How about one of those onion choppers? The ones that all you do is push on a plunger.

Yes that sounds good. I wish I had one. I will use the pizza cutter idea this time.

Roger

 

[dralarms]

Walmart has them for about 9 bucks.

 

[saramc]

Just be prepared for raisins to stick to hand chopper blades. It really is easier if you rehydrate the raisins in 3x the amount of juice/must overnight, or warm some juice/must in microwave/stovetop and allow raisins to hydrate in warm liquid, and then plop them in a blender to 'pulse chop'. Just remember to add any leftover liquid to your primary, and put chopped raisins in nylon hose. (A large mouth funnel from canning section works well, if you need assistance)

Comeauch...Niagara is a super fruity juice. I would encourage you to add a bit of thawed limeade concentrate to a glass of your wine, see what you think. Normally I add two large sized cans of limeade frozen/thawed concentrate syrup per 5-6 gallon batch. Added after wine is clear, stabilized with k-meta + sorbate and ready to bottle. It would need residual sugar to balance the lime and it makes for a 'dirty wine' due to lime pulp, but so dang good. The lime version is one you want to consume within six months since it starts to lose that limey goodness beyond that. But, Niagara is a great blending wine if you are of the 'cannot drink it as-is' population.

 

[JohnT]

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[jswordy]

I've written so much on this, I now do shorthand:

4 cans/gallon for real flavor
Oak in primary - 4 oz. good.
Oak in secondary - just few days, Check often. Use spiroll.
AGE IT - 6 months, good stuff; 1 year really good.
Raisins - store brand usually not preserved. Kroger I use.
I just bag raisins, let expand in must, squeeze bag with hand. Easy.
Bananas good for body in this, too.