Welch's wine

Hi Luc, I did a Welch once, I don't know what I did because that's back when I didn't keep records but I do know I used the sweetened Welch instead of the pure 100% welches juice. (couldn't find the 100%). It turned out sweet and very pale, sort of fuchsia. Almost a wine cooler more than anything. Louise:o)

Hi,

I got the real juice one but they added a little bit of sugar in it. Basiclly the ingredients are grape juice, water, concentrated grape juice then some sugar and some ascorbic acid. It's not said sweet on the bottle, it tastes sweet. I'll see how it's coming out.

Thank you, Luc

Welch's 100% Juice and Juice concentrates make excellent wines.. Adjust Acidity and SG as needed. I suggest the recipes on Jack Keller's website as a starting point. My White Grape/Raspberry picked up a second place finish last year.

Later, A.J. Rawls Anchorage, Alaska, USA

I made some welch recently. Red came out very sweet. I added way too much sugar to the basic recipe. BTW, I used 100%, second time I used white which is in 2nd stage of racking. I sampled prior to 2nd racking and it taste pretty good so far, very dry.

1 gallon fermenting container. 1 cup sugar (simplified). 2 cans 100% welchs white grape juice. 1 pack bakers yeast. ferment till stop, rack, rack, rack drink. scott

Hello,

Well, after 3 days the bubbles are going down, so I guess we're going to secondary fermentation soon. The liquid is much more lighter than it was at the beginning. I used red grape juice. The liquid was a purple really dark red. and right now it's a light red. I still cannot see throught which is normal, I think. Like all the alcool I'll let it ferment totally for a month (about) and wait a few months before taste one. I'll let you know what happened.

The receipe so far, I'm having a 1.5 gallon secondary fermenter, I putted in it, real 100% red welch's grape juice (not frozen) and I put the baker's yeast and that's it. It's smelling good so far.

Have a good day, Luc

AJ,

That is fantastic news. Others have said the same thing, that they make fine wines. I guess it doesn't really surprise me, because I know how picky Welch's is about their grapes and the fruit content. My girlfriend works at Welch's, so I have an opportunity to pick up the concentrates or straight juice at very discounted case prices every Wednesday.

Right now, I have 1 gal batches going as samples, and I am waiting for results to see which ones to do in bulk. I like red's mostly, but haven't picked up the concord 100% juice to try yet. I use ec-1118, not bakers yeast and sugar amounts vary depending on the product. (notes not here)

Strawberry/raspberry white grape/rasp white grape white grape peach Orange Pineapple (Not Welch's) Strawberry Kiwi (Not Welch's)

I have just started these batches, well, they are in secondary stage. In your experience,

1) how long before they ferment out? 2) approx how long to clear? 3) how do you stabilize if at all 4) how long do you age, if at all?

I will probably do 3 or 5 gal batches if/when I am pleased with the results.

Thanks for all your help,

Greg

Hi,

Follow-up for the batch. I remove the stuff in the bottom yesterday. I can see through the welch again. All the sugar and yeast went down by itself (no bentonite used). Now it's super nice. The welch came back to is original color, dark red. Still doing bubbles. I'll wait a good 2 weeks before thinking about bottling. So far, smells like a fruitty wine. I haven't tasted it yesterday. So far, everything's going well. Hope it taste good. I'll post again later.

Ray, I think this is just the way Niagara grape wines taste. I've made this wine many times and it always finishes with just a hint of sugar that isn't really there. Has to be the grapes....

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

I am sure you are right, Jack. To me, that would indicate that it would make an excellent base for any fruit wine that calls for grape juice or raisins to add vinuosity as most fruit wines are beter with a hint of sugar. I will be playing with this. I know you already have.

Ray

Hello,

Well, everything went into bottle today. The color is light red. I had a glass with the left-over wine from the 1.5 gal. I got. Doesn't taste bad. It tastes like Welch's with a little bit of alchool. I havn't added sugar so it did a 6% batch. I just restarted one, I did mesurements to get something like 14% alchool. I putted pepper too into it to try a pepper wine. Fermentation is going on since this morning. Next week-end it's secondary time. I'll keep you posted.

Have a nice day, Luc

Transfert has been made. I almost passed out when I had the pepper draft. Well, Maybe I putted too much for the quantity of wine... Experiment... I noted everything anyways and I'll reajust later if needed. Right now, it's making big bubbles in the secondary. Liquid is still unclear.