I've only tried to make country wines so far. (Started 2 weeks ago as a newbie) Concord grape season is coming up soon. Was thinking of trying some of it for my first grape wine. I'd like to make it on the sweet side. Is 4 pounds of grapes and 3 pounds of sugar a good recipe to try? Am using natural yeast on the grapes.
Sweet concord grape wine
- Thread starter keepitlow
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I made a great Concord grape wine in 2006... I started with 20 lbs of grapes and 4.4 lbs of sugar, 2 gallons of water and made 3 gallons of wine (it takes 18-20 lb of grapes to make a gallon of pure grape juice).
I made this when I was going by recipes for sugar amounts instead of going by specific gravity. In retrospect I could have used more sugar, the starting SG was 1.070 and it finished at 0.990 but it doesn't taste as dry as it should for some reason. It was one of the first wines I made that I felt confident giving away as a gift and if I had a source of inexpensive concord grapes I'd do it again in a second.
I would recommend stabilizing and backsweetening if you want it to finish sweet, my earlier attempts at finishing sweet by using more sugar up front mostly resulted in rocket fuel that took years to be drinkable, some of it still isn't!
And some wines taste less dry than others so it might be best if you have more control over it, something that's taken me a long time to figure out myself. Sulphites are cheap, and quite safe for most of us...
Also, I'll be the first to warn you about using the natural yeasts present on the grapes - you never know what you'll get, which is another reason you might not want to start it with a very high SG in case your wild yeast isn't very tolerant, I'd either use a wine yeast or not start out with SG much over 1.080 or so.
I made this when I was going by recipes for sugar amounts instead of going by specific gravity. In retrospect I could have used more sugar, the starting SG was 1.070 and it finished at 0.990 but it doesn't taste as dry as it should for some reason. It was one of the first wines I made that I felt confident giving away as a gift and if I had a source of inexpensive concord grapes I'd do it again in a second.
I would recommend stabilizing and backsweetening if you want it to finish sweet, my earlier attempts at finishing sweet by using more sugar up front mostly resulted in rocket fuel that took years to be drinkable, some of it still isn't!
And some wines taste less dry than others so it might be best if you have more control over it, something that's taken me a long time to figure out myself. Sulphites are cheap, and quite safe for most of us...Also, I'll be the first to warn you about using the natural yeasts present on the grapes - you never know what you'll get, which is another reason you might not want to start it with a very high SG in case your wild yeast isn't very tolerant, I'd either use a wine yeast or not start out with SG much over 1.080 or so.
Search for "foxy" and you'll find some posts about Labrusca (Concord, Niagara, etc) wines. Try to keep skin contact to a minimum to avoid the foxiness.
If this is your first grape wine, I'd suggest using commercial yeast. Grape musts are messy enough to deal with, at least if you use packaged yeast you know what to expect as far as fermentation. Don't get me wrong, I love the natural yeast idea, but I'd save it for after you've got a few batches under your belt.
If this is your first grape wine, I'd suggest using commercial yeast. Grape musts are messy enough to deal with, at least if you use packaged yeast you know what to expect as far as fermentation. Don't get me wrong, I love the natural yeast idea, but I'd save it for after you've got a few batches under your belt.
