making wine from concentrate

[Greenthumb18]

I started two batches of grape juice concentrate tonight, which will hopefully turn into wine soon. I'm trying something a little different with wine making, this would be my first time making it from concentrates. I'll keep you guys updated on the progress of it, in case anyone is interested in trying.

 

[HiDelight]

this is the first year I have not made some type of wine so I know how excited you must be!

I have never used a concentrate!!!! I would love to know how this turns out because part of the reason I could not do it this year was there was no time that matched he fruits ripe matching the free time I had to make wine!

..but I could have done a concentrate
so please would you mind talking about the whole process ..from making the concentrate to how you do your wine

I will follow ..I would have made some rhubarb wine this year if I had of thought of making a concentrate I had tons and love rhubarb wine!

I would love to try a pear wine from concentrated pear juice!

do you steam juice or fresh juice?

 

[injunjoe]

I did the same thing the first time I made wine.
It took a long time for the wine to taste good.

What are you using for Yeast? I take it you have Carboys to rack the wine and all. I need to find my wine log book.

The weather is starting to cool down so I think I will make some wine soon.

You would be surprised how many dinner parties 6 gallons of wine can get you invited to!

Good luck; Joe

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

I have never made wine - something I would like to do one day!

 

[Greenthumb18]

Hi HiDelight ,

Yep its very exciting, this morning when i went to check up on it, it was already fizzing and smelling like fermentation. I must say it is very fun and rewarding to make wine.
Yes i could relate to that, just when the grapes are ready to harvest theirs no time you have to make wine, and considering how fast they'll spoil if you dont use them soon. With concentrates you can make wine year round, with the fresh grapes only certain times of the year.
I dont mind telling you how i did mine, i bought my concentrates from a homebrewing store. One is a Barbera concentrate which will be the red wine and the other is white Chenin Blanc concentrate. You basically mix a certain amount of cold water with the concentrate then you add the yeast nutrient, a little sugar (you keep adding a little sugar every day or so) and finally the yeast. If you want i could explain the entire wine making process?, i dont mind. I will let you know how mine turns out.

Hi Joe ,

For the yeast i chose Red Star Premier Cuvee ( the blue envelope) Yes i have a carboy on hand and i'll looking to get more hopefully before the primary fermention is complete. I fermented mine in the basement because i thought the garage would be too cool, but once it ferments you could move it to a garage even if its a little cooler, it will still ferment just take a little longer. Would love to hear how your wine making goes, are you going to try a concentrate maybe?

Thanks!!

Hi Broke Down Ranch ,

Yeah you should try it sometime, it isnt all that hard just takes a lot of time and patience.

 

[wifezilla]

I never did figure out wine making. My attention span is too short

I have no trouble making mead though. So when my grape wines went nuts this year, I made Pyment.

 

[digitS']

Hmmmm, grape juice and honey, eh?

Always a temptation with this subject . . .

My wines weren't close enuf to the better stuff I can buy at the soopermarket to keep me interested.

An easy wine I've made that has been, at least, acceptable is Rice & Raisin. Fairly fool-proof, and I provide the proof for that.

Brewing beer, I'm better at but there has still been a few real flops. I put raisins in beer, too. They help keep me from screwing up. But, honey and grapes . . . hmmmm

Steve's digits

 

[injunjoe]

Hi HiDelight ,

Yep its very exciting, this morning when i went to check up on it, it was already fizzing and smelling like fermentation. I must say it is very fun and rewarding to make wine.
Yes i could relate to that, just when the grapes are ready to harvest theirs no time you have to make wine, and considering how fast they'll spoil if you dont use them soon. With concentrates you can make wine year round, with the fresh grapes only certain times of the year.
I dont mind telling you how i did mine, i bought my concentrates from a homebrewing store. One is a Barbera concentrate which will be the red wine and the other is white Chenin Blanc concentrate. You basically mix a certain amount of cold water with the concentrate then you add the yeast nutrient, a little sugar (you keep adding a little sugar every day or so) and finally the yeast. If you want i could explain the entire wine making process?, i dont mind. I will let you know how mine turns out.

Hi Joe ,

For the yeast i chose Red Star Premier Cuvee ( the blue envelope) Yes i have a carboy on hand and i'll looking to get more hopefully before the primary fermention is complete. I fermented mine in the basement because i thought the garage would be too cool, but once it ferments you could move it to a garage even if its a little cooler, it will still ferment just take a little longer. Would love to hear how your wine making goes, are you going to try a concentrate maybe?

Thanks!!

Hi Broke Down Ranch ,

Yeah you should try it sometime, it isnt all that hard just takes a lot of time and patience.

My first attempt at wine was with frozen grape juice concentrate.
That took a long time to taste good.

The next attempt was with red raspberry's that was good after I let it rest for like 6 months.

Then I went to the wine making store. There I bought a kit, it has the grape juice,yeast,some have oak chips, Benoite, ect. Everything needed to make 6 gallons of wine, just not the equipment. The kit is a good way to go. It cost like about $75.00
But it is ready to bottle in 4 weeks. That wine is to die for and at $2.50 a bottle.

I also made Jalapeno wine, I could not get anyone to drink it with me! It was good but hot. I thought it would be good for cooking!
Eby did not want anything to do with it so I dumped it.

I will make a batch of Loquat this year again also. It taste like Amaretto.

If I remember correct Red Star Premier Cuvee is 15 or 16%, as high as they get!

Good luck with you wine!

Joe

I would like to give Mead a try.

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

We don't do watermelons but I would grow some just to try to make wine with it. I have never had watermelon wine tho it certainly sounds delish....

 

[digitS']

Yeasts are kind of funny plants. Maybe it's our relationship with them that's funny, eh?

Yeast will survive, apparently on nothing but water, sugar and oxygen. The results of their activities is what's in question in beer and wine making. Some possible ingredients are changed so much by the yeast that the results aren't what we expect or desire.

I belong to a Wild Wines forum (Yahoo) and have for years. However, when my daughter was in her late teens, I decided it was best for me to limit my interest in the subject for a few years. Wine making attempts go way back and what I always seemed to want was something different than what I could buy. Fortunately for me, what I can buy is usually pretty good stuff. What I made, wasn't always.

I never tried tomato wine or peapod wine altho' just mentioning them brings my attention levels up. Should I try . . . ? But, there were all these other things I tried - pear, peach, plum, apple, elderberry.

I made apple cider that was a good deal better than my apple wine. The elderberry certainly came out well but the fruit ripens at the busiest time of my year. Still, a person could go with blossoms in the spring and fruit in the summer with those big plants - there for the taking!

As I said, beer came out the best. Dad was my beer-making partner. I bought a kit for his 70th birthday and we made beer together for probably about 12 years. I joke that we'd still be doing it but he got tired of washing the bottles . Truth be known, we always made better beer together than I have on my own.

Making assumptions about what the yeast can do was always my serious failing. It is a living plant. It "wants" certain conditions and foods. If you give it exactly what it wants - you get a reward. Crude products have very little value, to my way of thinking.

Grapes seem to provide the very best avenue for quality wine just as barley malt is the best ingredient for beer. With a multitude of grape varieties and, not just varieties, but methods of kiln-drying barley malt - - you are never going to run out of ingredients and combinations.

What I have done, in my simplistic way, is put the 2 primary ingredients of wine and beer together - grapes and barley. This isn't alchemy - there are all sorts of recipes out there that call for the use of raisins in beer. It doesn't take much, a pound or less of dark or golden raisins in the brewkettle are just another ingredient that the yeast particularly appreciates and make good use of.

The prospect for me seems to be where I might want to go with these simple ingredients. I've made barley wine, that works bu it's mostly just a strong ale. Malt extract and honey may not be such different ingredients. I've not liked mead flavor in the past but there are so many, many variations that I've not tried. And, then there are the grapes . . .

Steve