Maximum Concentration?

Each can is 11.5 oz. This is reconstituted with 3 cans of water, for a total of 46 oz. There are approximately 2.8 cans (fully reconstituted) per gallon. However, as a rule, the must should start out a little sweeter and a little more acidic than something you would have for breakfast. So to get the starting gravity and acidity correct without adding sugar would require more concentrate and less water; the proportions of which I am not certain.

Regarding how it would taste... I suspect a Niagara made this way would be tolerable, but perhaps a little foxy. Concord, I think, would be unbearable.

Greg G.

Concord is unbearable. I did it, and it was not good. When my taste buds recover, and my memory finally gets over the Concord experiment, I would like to try Niagara white someday, I hear it is very good. Add a banana or two and it even gets better,(to the must)I'm told.

DAve

snipped-for-privacy@testeng>> I want to know how a strong Welch's wine would taste without syrup/sugar

I would agree with that, it's awful as a dry wine no matter what you do to it. I have a friend that used to make 50 or 60 gallons a year of it dry and it was kind of hard to get used to. He thinned it, added oak, all kinds of things. It still tasted like dry Concord and was just not very good tasting. It was well made, but it was Concord.

Niagara is a better choice but i can't see that concentrated either..

Joe

I made one with fresh welches juice available in the uk using a modified recipe from jack keller

I didn't sweeten, perhaps it would have been better that way. I love the grape juice, but I just couldn't get to grips with the flavour of the wine. Few I tried it on actually liked it.

I have kept a couple of bottles which I'm going to try in a year but I think it will still be odd. I have a friend in Arizona who enjoys it greatly with his wife.

Jim

Concord is a bit of an acquired taste. It really has to be thinned out with water and sugar, then finished as a sweet wine to be good. Even then, "good" is a matter of debate.

Niagara is a little different. Thinned out with sugar and water per Jack Keller's recipe, it's actually pretty good. My second batch of wine from concentrate was Niagara. I topped with commercial Riesling and sweetened slightly at the second racking. I ended up with an off-dry white wine with a bit of Riesling flavor. I really liked it, as did my guinea pigs.... I mean my friends :-) I liked it well enough that I just started a new three gallon batch. Greg G.

"Niagara is a little different. Thinned out with sugar and water per Jack Keller's recipe, it's actually pretty good."

A Niagara wine made from grapes won Best-Of-Show in the Greater Kansas City Cellarmaster wine contest in 2005. It beat about 200 other wines for the top prize...a ten gallon Gibbs Brothers oak barrel.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

I would echo that exactly. I won't be making a dry Concord ever, but I have made Niagara and it can be a nice wine if you tone it down a little. I have some extra Riesling from 2005 that I may back blend into a Niagara now that you mentioned that, it's a great idea.

Joe

I read Jack Kellers recipe wrong and am working on a 17.5 PA concord right now. I am going to attempt to ferment to dry just to see if it will. Ill keep you posted!

Sean

Add dried eldeberries to your concord concentrate. Athough fermented dry, the foxy taste will go away. If necessary use sugar syrup to sweeten slightly before bottling.

Sal Coco Kansas City Ks

That sounds like a good tip!

Jim

Sean, If it's going too slow you can still get a 'regular' heating pad without a timer at Eckerd Drug. Most of the heating pads sold now have a timer to shut them off in a few hours. I use a heating pad held on the carboy with a couple old belts and several towels to warm up a slow fermentation once in a while.

I do have to hide them after use though, they are never there when I need them...:)

Joe