welch's 100% juice wine ...help!

[meadiac]

hi,

i've made raspberry wine from two cans of the frozen concentrate and was happy with the way it turned out. i just picked up 64 oz of the 100% grape juice (non-frozen!) and i would like to start a one gallon batch of wine this weekend.

problem is:
i have no idea how much juice to use for one gallon! here's what i want:

one gallon semi-dry to dry. (if it goes too dry, i'll back sweeten.)
medium to full body.
i have two packs of yeast, which would be best?
lalvin EC-1118 and V1116.
i would like 12-13% abv.

i'm thinking 64 oz juice isn't enough as that would be half juice, half water to make up a gallon! So how much more juice do i need? again, medium to full body is what i'm shooting for.

i'm also hoping that i will not have to add any sugar. I may add some raisins however.

can anyone help?

thanks

dave

 

[Chevette Girl]

If you don't want to add sugar, you'd probably have to use pure grape juice, adding no water except to make up the volume if it's been concentrated (dilute it till it's the right reading on your hydrometer, 1.100 or therebouts should do fine). That's why grapes are so good for wine, their juice has just the right amount of sugar (and acidity, and nutrients, etc, etc).

As an example of what can work well, I had 18 lbs of Concord grapes (the ones they make the grape juice out of), and that's about as much as you'd use for one gallon of wine. I made 3 gallons of wine out of that batch of grapes by adding water and sugar and it was still awesome. From what I've read, Concord grape juice is too strong to ferment straight anyway (although if I had another 20 lbs I'd try it, because I'm like that).

I suppose you could add apple juice to make up the volume, it's got some sugar of its own, but you'd have to check how much before you started.

Hope this helps!

Good luck!

 

[meadiac]

thanks for the reply. so if an entire gallon of the juice is too much, how much extra juice (not frozen) would you add before topping with water? i can add sugar but i hate to add much. imo, it sort of takes away from the fruitiness of the grape. as example: i prefer penfolds wine from australia...even their cabs are fruity...yet still strong!

even if the ABV is lowered to 10%, i'm ok with that. as long as i have a medium to full bodied wine. i have also heard that the concord's end up very tart, but then i like cabs so...! ;-)>>

funny, their are 100's of recipes like this using frozen concentrate, yet i find none using the all liquid juice from welch's!

 

[sattlerjm]

According to the Welches site there is 40g of sugar in an 8oz of juice. This is about 9% sugars. This also matches the calculators %8.89. So in short even in you used a full gallon of juice you will need to add about 3/4lb of sugar.

Calculator good..http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=745&Itemid=16

 

[Chevette Girl]

funny, their are 100's of recipes like this using frozen concentrate, yet i find none using the all liquid juice from welch's!

Well, at a buck or two for a can of frozen concentrate compared to 5 bucks for a bottle of maybe two litres of 100% grape juice... I know which one I'd end up using!

 

[meadiac]

i pay $1.98 for one frozen can, $3.00 for 64 oz liquid. two cans = 96 oz. reconstituted. also all the cans i find have sulfates in them...the liquid does not.

thanks for the help folks.