I might be getting over my head by making this being a NEWBE, but me and my wife have too learn some how.. ok... This is the recipe that I made so far.. I got about 10 hrs. left till I add yeast.. I'm taking it that you don't use a primary carboy in this recipe..Right.? Just go straight to the secondary 1 Gal. carboy..Right.? How would I Stablilize or Sweeten this wine.. I hope I didn't mess it up

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
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"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. [Author's adaptation of a friend's recipe]"

Can somebody explane this paragraph below to me..? I don't understand what there asking me to do.. I understand that they "Differ" but is it saying to add the water and other ingredients to the juice, stir, then check SG after it has reached room temp..

"A word of warning is in order. Welch's is a very fine company and delivers, in my opinion, a very good product. But 100% grape concentrate means you concentrate the grapes you get. Thus, the natural sugar content of one batch of juice may differ from that of another batch just as grapes vary from year to year and vineyard to vineyard. [bRe]constitute[/b] the juice and measure the specific gravity of your juice with a hydrometer. Then use the table at http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/hydrom.asp to determine if the amount of sugar called for in this recipe is too much, too little, or just right for your juice. You should, in fact, do this with every recipe, as the natural sugar in all fresh fruit varies to some extent."

Do I also take the SG reading before I add the yeast then after the additional 30 days to get the alcohol %..

I don't think you are over your head in this. I do think starting out with one gallon is a good idea. Don't expect the first off the shelf juice wine you make taste like a $20 bottle of wine you can buy. There is a learning curve. We all had to start somewhere.

Does that Welche's concentrate has metabisulphates or sorbate in it? I have made wine with Walmart's generic Sam's 100% concord grape juice. No preservatives. I used the straight bottled juice, no water, then added some concentrate to build the body a bit. I prefer to hold off on the acid blend until a little later in the process. Sometimes, even if I measure the acid in the primary, I have found that I normally get too much acid. The wine will be quite tart. We then have to add potassium carbonate to bring the acid back to normal. They have several products on the market to lower acid but the commercial wine makers use potassium carbonate. Making wine in a carboy makes it more difficult for oxygen to get to the yeast. If the yeast does get lots of oxygen if the carboy is quite full it could overflow. I purchased an inexpensive white plastic, basically food grade, trash container from Walmart. Very small. I think it holds a couple of gallons. Works very well for the 1 gallon recipes. I pour in water and mark off the quanity measurements with a felt tip pen. I think I used 1 quart increments. When I make a 1 gallon batch I actually add about 1 1/4 gallons of juice. You will lose some going to a secondary. I realize you are not planning on a primary container. That was just for future planning.

NEXT: I would purchase some half or 1 pint canning jars with the canning lids. I prefer the wide mouth type. I would purchase the following chemicals and store them in the labeled canning jars. Chemicals, like campden go bad quickly if not stored in a tight container. The below list is just basic stuff. When using things like tannin or bentonite always mix in a slurry first before adding. Otherwise you will just have a mudball. A real mess.

Campden tablets. (Potassium metabisulphate)
Wine tannin, sometimes labeled as grape tannin
Acid blend
Yeast nutrient
Yeast energizer
Pectic enzyme
Bentonite
Potassium carbonate (You'll have a chore finding this one. I get mine from a commercial wine maker. Any substitute and your will will taste chalky.)
Distilled water. Keep a gallon or so on hand.

I would buy a titration acid test kit. Costs about 6 bucks. I think I posted something in the chemical area of the forum about measuring acid. If not, I'll post some info on measuring acid in that area.

I put everything in the last post except I didn't answer the question about back sweetening.

You can back sweeten to taste by adding sugar, or adding more off the shelf juice like the one that was fermented. If you add sugar you need to heat some water to mix it to the result will be sweetening and reducing the alcohol. Therefore I find it much more practical to add more of the same kind of juice to sweeten. After you add the sugar or juice add 1 crushed campden tablet per gallon and 1/2 teaspoon of potassium sorbate and stir. (I forgot to add that to the chemical list in the previous post.)

You can either degas your wine at this point by stirring vigorously. Or the method I prefer is to install an airlock and let it degas itself. Bottle in about 6 weeks.

Potassium metabisulphate (campden) basically slows down the fermentation of the yeast and it will stop. As it outgases fermentation can restart. Usually an MLF unless a yeast is added.

Potassium sorbate permanently prevents yeast from starting it's fermentation again. Potassium sorbate will not stop yeast that is already fermenting. Never add potassium sorbate without adding potassium metabisulphate. They needed to be added together to prevent all further fermentation.

When making a new wine Add potassium metabisulphate (campden) and add your yeast 24 to 30 hours later.

It doesn't say that it contains metabisulphates or sorbate on the container.. I forgot to mention that it is the 100% concord grape juice.. My supplier carries that Pottassium Carbonate but I forgot to grab it along with the Tannins What did you meen by mixing into a slurry.. Just premix it in a food grade container or glass jar..

I didn't use a primary because the recipe say go straight to the 2ndary.. It said nothing about a primary.. I have a 3 gal. carboy that I can use as a primary for 1 gal. usages in the future, if needed..

Here is the kit from Wine Experts I have made so far and the 1 gal. Welch's Grape juice wine in the makings..



Here's some of my chemicals I have and others that will be used in the near future.. I have a 6 1/2 gal. carboy an lots of others thats not shown..



We're going to start the White Grape Concentrate wine today but should we use a Primary and hold off on the acids..? Remember I have Acid Blend and Tartaric Acid but No Potassium Carbonate..

I just recieved your update on sweeting and thank you Wyo Wino for this info..

I prefer a primary. Also an open primary. The generic red grape juices usually have absorbic acid for preserving. Some pasturize. That is OK. Causes a pectic haze. The haze will go away with pectic enzyme. I have seen juice with metabisulphate ferment if stirred vigorously but usually ends up a little sweeter. Juice with sorbates will not ferment.

Nice pictures. Stick with the directions making the kits. However, in the secondary I like to have my wine topped off to the neck of the carboy. When stiking off on your own with juices etc. you could run into problems with too much head space.

wyo wino wrote:Nice pictures. Stick with the directions making the kits. However, in the secondary I like to have my wine topped off to the neck of the carboy. When stiking off on your own with juices etc. you could run into problems with too much head space.

This Sunday I have to add the Finings from the Red Wine kit for the 5 gal. carboy.. It will be topped off then..I'm just not that far into the directions yet.. THX..

When you click on one of the (Thumb Nails) Photos, what happens..? Does it Enlarge it..? or take you to my Photo Bucket web site..? Just wondering Thx agian..

It just enlarges the picture. I am just lazy and just upload the pictures.

Keep in mind, anything you add to your wine could contaminate it. I start out by measuring the SG. Add sugar and stir until you get to approx 1.092 SG. I then add any other chemicals I need. After everything is added I add 1 crushed campden tablet per gallon, stir it in and wait 24 to 30 hours before you add yeast. I don't like to add anything else to my wine until it totally stops fermenting. Then I can add stuff, but I also add campden.

Tannin and bentonite. If you take a teaspoon of tannin or bentonite and just add it to your wine it will be a floating mud ball. I put either one of those in a small cup and add a little wine at a time and keep stiring until it makes a real good mixture, then add it to the wine. Tannin will help your wine keep longer in the bottle. Bentonite helps clear wine. Bentonite is just dirt. A form of clay dirt. It helps clear wine. Pectin enzyme is also a clearing agent. It removes pectic haze that is in juice. They claim if you add pectic enzyme to apple sauce it will eventually turn to apple juice. I never tried it.

Thx for the tips Wyo.. When I put all the stuff together and let sit for 12 hrs the temp showed 70 degrees. I mixed it up and pulled an SG reading of 1.1.06.. I added yeast then covered with paper towel.. I'll add airlocker when fermenting slows down.. I'm on the 3rd day in primary and yeast is very happy.. I hope I'm not being a pest but

Is there a standered SG number I need to be at before I transfer to secondary..?

Is there a formula I need to know before racking into secondary, or is that the fun part..?

Newer methods wait until SG is 1.010 SG before racking to the secondary. Older methods they racked to the secondary at 1.030 SG. I actually rack to the secondary closer to 1.020 SG. If you rack too soon you can overflow the airlock. Too late and there will be no bubbles in the airlock. I try to watch the wine closely and when it calms down, about 1.020 SG I rack. Having an open primary makes it easier to check 2 to 3 times a day. When I am in the primary I leave the stirring spoon and hydrometer in the must. I have a Fermtech thief. The hydrometer fits down inside it. I can stir, take samples and then re-cover it with a towel.

Thx again.. My starting sg was 1.106, I racked at (oops) 1.008 and that's adding the .002 cause temps was @ 72 F.. That so far tells me I have (wow) about 12.8 % alc. Right..?

I didn't top off yet cause the recipe say: wait for it to clear then rack, top off, and wait 30 days..

I was also wondering if I should add about 1/8 tsp spoon of campden to each bottle during bottling..

The next batch I make I'm going to try your way Wyo Wino and add 1 crushed tablet per gallon then wait 24 hrs before adding yeast..

Thx

Never add campden to your bottles. If you are looking for fizzy wine make a sugar solution and add it to your wine and bottle. That is if you haven't stabilized the wine.

For approximate alcohol content use the formula below.

starting SG minus ending SG divide by .00736 equals approximate alcohol.

wyo wino wrote:Never add campden to your bottles. If you are looking for fizzy wine make a sugar solution and add it to your wine and bottle. That is if you haven't stabilized the wine.

For approximate alcohol content use the formula below.

starting SG minus ending SG divide by .00736 equals approximate alcohol.

Thank.. I've read multipling 131 will give appox... I come up with 13.31 % with dividing .00736..

Where does the numbers .00736 come from..?

I have absolutely no idea where .00736 comes from. I found the formula in a book along the way and have also seen it on a few web sites.

Below is a web site that describes the above method. As you read through it they are in error describing specific gravity as a 4 digit number. We know that isn't correct. If we take their 7.36 number and divide by 1000 it comes out correct.

http://www.bindaree.com.au/hints/hint9_ ... levels.htm