Welch's Concord Grape Juice Wine

[Apple_Jacker]

I just started a 1 gallon test batch in a 4 liter wine jug

Ingredients:
- Simple syrup made of 1 cup water and 2 cups sugar
- 2 full bottles of Welch's Farmer's Pick Concord Grape Juice (not 100% Concord grapes, but a grape blend) plus a portion of a third bottle emptied to the top edge of the juice bottle's label

I poured out about a cup of the must to measure:

Gravity: 1.094
Temperature: 74 degrees Fahrenheit

And then added 1 cup of juice from the third bottle back into the must to replace what I poured out for the gravity reading. This step will probably reduce the initial gravity but it'll be close enough.

Added a part of a Red Star Montrachet yeast packet into the wine jug and shook it all up for about 30 seconds.

I took a piece of paper towel and rubner-banded it over the opening of the jug, and will replace with an airlock after 3-5 days.

I'll wait shake it up once or twice a day for the first few days and let it settle out for a week after that.

Next, rack/pour into a secondary jug and top up if needed with the remaining juice. It'll sit for about 3-4 weeks until it is mostly clear, rack again and stabilize.

After a week or 2, I'll backsweeten to my liking and serve. With any luck, I can have this ready to drink for Thanksgiving.

I'll update as things progress, and especially when I do taste tests.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Here's a picture after the yeast addition.

 

[IrishinPA]

I made something similar to this and just racked and back sweetened. It got the approval of SWAMBO!

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Edit: I wrote out a long update just to be told "you do not have permissions to access this page." Now I have to type it all over again (on a phone, not on a PC). Anyway, here goes:

Gravity: .992
Temp: 64 degrees F
ABV: 13.49%

After transferring to a secondary jug, I added 2 cups of 100% concord grape juice to reduce airspace. After that, the gravity was 1.002.

I also added 1/8 tsp. Potassium metabisulfite and 1/4 tsp potassium sorbate, shook the shat out of it, then added 1/4 of a campden tablet before putting the airlock back on.

The taste was very dry. No alcohol burn surprisingly but I'm definitely feeling the glass I drank. I'll be sweetening this up and putting in the fridge a few days from now to get it ready for thanksgiving/Lions stomping the Bears day feast.

 

[Yooper]

It may work out ok, but generally you want to stabilize with sorbate and campden when there are no lees present (due to the yeast in the lees) and before sweetening. Shaking is a very bad idea, due to oxidation concerns as well as resuspension of yeast sediment (lees) and not sure why that would be done. By the way, potassium metabisulfite and campden are different words for the same exact product- so you may have doubled up on the sulfite. That's ok, if you can't taste it (but I could), and if it helps the sorbate work.

The reason is that sorbate inhibits yeast reproduction so that a clear wine can be stabilized due to the little bit of yeast in suspension. But by sweetening first, the yeast would be active and the sorbate may not "work" the way anticipated. You should be near most yeast strain's ABV tolerance, so it may work out anyway, but I wouldn't bottle for a while just in case!

 

[Apple_Jacker]

I poured it off the lees (although it was still cloudy so I'm sure there will be more) and I shook it to mix in the sorbate and metabisulfite. I actually had no idea campden and metabisulfite are the same thing. Thanks for that one!
I'll check the gravity again this weekend to see if I inadvertently restarted fermentation, but I wasn't planning on bottling this anyway. I was going to sweeten it with more juice and serve it out of the jug or a pitcher. I have some other 1 gallon tester wines that I will follow protocol so to speak and will end up bottling those ones. This one I rushed to try to have something by Thanksgiving.

I may cold crash it Monday, pour it off into another jug and sweeten with more juice to my liking on Tuesday, and keep it in the fridge until it's going to be consumed Thursday.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Well my impatience got the best of me on this one. Fermentation restarted, but fortunately this isn't one I planned on aging or bottling anyway. I don't want to add anymore metabisulfite or sorbate either. I'll just cold crash tonight, pour into an empty jug Wednesday and sweeten as planned, keep refrigerated, then serve as-is on Thursday.

 

[calmingapple]

Sounds great! Please provide an update after tasting. I am thinking of making something similar soon.

Well my impatience got the best of me on this one. Fermentation restarted, but fortunately this isn't one I planned on aging or bottling anyway. I don't want to add anymore metabisulfite or sorbate either. I'll just cold crash tonight, pour into an empty jug Wednesday and sweeten as planned, keep refrigerated, then serve as-is on Thursday.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

It turned out pretty damn good actually. I kept a mason jar's worth of the wine dry and sweetened the rest with 1-1/2 cups of apple juice. Both versions are very drinkable. It's not the best wine I've ever had by any means, but I won't be ashamed to have friends and family enjoy it with me today.

I also have a gallon of quick hard cider (per the 5 day sweet country cider recipe over in the cider forum) and threw in a cinnamon stick yesterday. It is pretty tasty too, even if it does have a sulfur smell haha! Happy Thanksgiving, peoples!

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Another update: everyone that tried my wine loved it. The ones that braved the sulfur smell of the cider thought it "tasted amazing." I'll definitely be making both again.

 

[indy]

I make a dessert wine from frozen, every female that has tried it has loved it, about 1/2 the males have liked it and is way to sweet for me. I like dry reds, my wife hates reds, but loves the dessert.

I haven't made a batch in a couple years,no time. but i have 2 batches on day 4 right now with plans fir several more. Life has finally slowed a bit.

 

[biodiesel]

My second year making wine from the Concord grapes in my backyard. Very distinctive wine, but not deserving of the bad rap.
Last year (2013) I chaptalized a fair bit, and heavily oaked it. The plan is to age it for over 2 years, but there are only 6 bottles of the original 28 remaining, and we're only at 16 months!
This past summer I made half the amount, barely chaptalized it and added no oak. After 4 months, it is clear, bright and very flavourful. Easy drinking, like a Beaujolais Nouveau. Next year I will make it suitable for aging again, and I am going to experiment with blending it with kits. I am planning on a Cabernet Sauvignon. Recommendations?

 

[Apple_Jacker]

So shortly after I finished off drinking my 1 gallon sample batch, I started a 6 gallon batch of Concord Grape/Blackberry wine (somewhere in the middle of December; I'm not at home to check my notes). I last tried it a few months ago and it was a delicious tasting dry red wine. I'm not sure that I'll sweeten this one as I already have a sweet wine going (blueberry mint), but if it's tasting too dry (I believe it bottomed out at .990 or .992) then I may bump it up to around 1.000.

I'll update again once I begin to bottle it.

 

[djonesax]

My experience was the opposite. I made 5 gallons of Welches Concord Grape wine once and it was not very good. I cant remember why I did 5 gallons. I decided to give it to a friend who put it in igloo coolers and made sangria for a party.

David

 

[Apple_Jacker]

I've made a few 1-gallon test batches with nothing but good results. It was when I used cheaper juices (like Juicy Juice or generic, store-grand juices) is where it tasted 'thin', bland, or just plain bad. The Welch's Farmer's Pick Concord Grape Juice and their Farmer's Pick Blackberry Juice seem to make a decent wine.

 

[djonesax]

I think the issue with mine was that it was too hot. If I remember it came out close to 18% and didn't have the body to support the alcohol. I would be willing to try it again as many people have said its good but only on a 1 gallon scale.

David

 

[Apple_Jacker]

I guess I was a few months off on when I started this wine. I started it in February.
OG - 1.074
Temp - 68 F

In April, these were the numbers:
FG - .992
Temp - 68 F
ABV - 10.74%

So it's been sitting around for 6 months now. Today looks like it might be a stormy day so I'll at least take some time to pull some samples and do some taste tests.

By the way, here's the recipe:

- 4 lbs sugar dissolved into 1 - 46 oz. Bottle of both the Concord grape and blackberry juices (92 oz. juice total) in my notes, I wrote that for this step to do half the amount of juice.
- 15 additional 46 oz. bottles of juice as outlined below:
8 bottles of the Concord grape juice
7 bottles of the blackberry juice

Montrachet yeast

In April, I racked into a secondary into potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite and it's been there since.

The last tasting/appearance notes I took say that it os a deep bergundy/maroon color, grape aroma more pronounced than the blackberry. Dry, smooth, great flavor, can taste both the grape and blackberry.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Here it is. It's a nice plum color. It's sweeter than my final ABV would suggest. I may have topped up at some point with more juice and forgot to write it down. I suppose I could've taken a gravity reading but I didn't feel like it 😃

I am digging the taste. My fiancee likes it too, but she says there's a tartness to it at the end. Not sure how to rectify that yet, or if I even want to. Perhaps more aging after I bottle it would do the trick.

I pulled a mason jar's worth of the wine out of the carboy so her girlfriends can provide me with some (hopefully) honest feedback.

View attachment 1438899348403.jpg

 

[mgonbrewlab]

I made a wine with frozen blackberries, frozen blueberries, and concord grape juice (both bottled and frozen concentrate) and mine was also surprisingly tart and sweet. But yummy - I doubt my first 5 gallon batch will make it to Christmas.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

I checked the gravity and it is at .992 so I didn't add any juice to it. I pulled out more and had some more people do a taste test. I was offered money for a few bottles already 👍

 

[mgonbrewlab]

If you like blush wines try half and half with red and white grape juice and add 1 lb of raisins per gallon or two. It will take longer to age out but the raisins add some needed body. It probably works with reds too, but I havent tried it.

 

[actonup]

Could I use the Welch's 100% white grape juice and get the same results in stead of using the farmer's blend? What was your final ABV when you checked and did you have to back sweeten it?

 

[Apple_Jacker]

My final ABV on the large batch was 10.7%. It tasted great as-is so I didn't sweeten it. My tester ( the one I mention in the first post if this thread) ended around 13% but I sweetened that one.
Not sure about the white grape juice, but it never hurts to try! Worst thing to happen is it doesn't taste that great. Just do a 1 gallon test batch and experiment.