Finishing Concord

[cwebb]

I have a batch of Concord that has finished a bit dryer than I want. Can I go to the store and buy some 100% Welch's Grape Juice in the bottle and add to it? Will it sweeten it up or should I just use some simple syrup?

 

[jensmith]

Welches grape juice concentrate. If your concord came out anything like mine you will like the mellowing of the acid bite that you get with the concentrate. You can always add suger after if needed.

 

[cwebb]

So just go buy the Welch's Grape juice in the bottle that says 100% grape juice from concentrate?

 

[jensmith]

If it needs sweetening and body get the frozed 100% concentrate. More flavor per cup with less loweeing of the abv. You can add up to two cans water per can of consentrate if needed or wanted.

 

[Yooper]

First, you have to stabilize before adding any sweetener or anything else. Otherwise, whatever you add will ferment out and and the corks will pop out (if you're lucky). If you're unlucky, the bottles will blow up and turn into glass grenades and can cause severe injury.

So stabilize first with campden and sorbate appropriately once the wine is clear and you have no new lees after at least 60 days.

A few days after stabilization, you can sweeten to taste. My preference would be for a simple syrup made with water and sugar, boiled, and then added to taste to the wine. A few days after that, if no further fermentation starts up, the wine can be bottled.

 

[cwebb]

Thanks Yooper.
The wine is clear, no lees, and stabilized 3 days ago.
It is ready to sweeten.

 

[Yooper]

Thanks Yooper.
The wine is clear, no lees, and stabilized 3 days ago.
It is ready to sweeten.

Great! One thing that I tried a while back was a bit of honey in my concord wine and that was really good. If you want to see what you think, you could take a very small sample of wine and add a tiny bit of honey to it and see if you like that.

You could take several samples out, and sweeten one with some grape concentrate like you discussed, one with honey, one with a simple syrup, etc, and see which you prefer.

One thing that I noticed is that wine always seems to get a bit sweeter in the bottle. So, I'd take an SG of the sample you decide on (so you can sweeten the whole batch to that amount), but go just a wee bit under the target. For example, if you love it with grape concentrate sweetened to 1.010, make your entire batch 1.008 as it will seem to get sweeter in the bottle.

 

[cwebb]

OK Yooper I added the simple syrup and brought it up to 1.010
Taste ok but I find that I am tasting the sugar instead of the fruity wine.
Should I add some 100% Welch's grape juice now?

 

[Yooper]

OK Yooper I added the simple syrup and brought it up to 1.010
Taste ok but I find that I am tasting the sugar instead of the fruity wine.
Should I add some 100% Welch's grape juice now?

If you want- but the fruity flavor should come back with a bit of time in the bottle.