Mastering Welch's

Phador · May 28, 2013

Hello all,
I'm writing to thank everyone for their advice. I'm coming up on the 3 month mark since my first attempt at wine, A simple concord grape. As many of you have said, 3 months has made a HUGE difference. I was worried when I tasted the wine at about a month, and now it's like something completely different (in a good way).

I'm curious, what variations and twists have you tried with Welch's? oak chips? different fruit juice blends? Or do you like it as is? My first time around I used 1118, next I think I'll try rc212, what have you used?

CBell · May 28, 2013

I am oaking my Welch's, medium toast french oak chips for about a month in bulk aging. Just racked it off the oak today and it will take some time to mellow, but so far tastes better than I thought it would at 8 weeks

Phador · May 28, 2013

I've been thinking about ordering some cubes. Do you just drop them in there, or do you boil them first? What is the difference in effect on taste between all the different roasts, and American/French/etc...

Julie · May 28, 2013

I am a huge fan of Hungarian oak cubes, and I have blended concord and niagara AND a concord cranberry is just out of this world.

Duster · May 28, 2013

6 gallon batch made from 14 cans of Welch's 100% Concord concentrate with about 20lbs of fresh blueberries on hungarian oak is awesome.

Phador · May 28, 2013

Would you guys mind sharing your recipes? are the cubes simply dropped into the carboy?

Julie · May 29, 2013

Yes just drop the cubes in for about 6 to 8 weeks.

The concord/cranberry is 2 cans of concord to 1 can of cranberry, starting sg is 1.080, backsweeten with 2 cans concord/1can cranberry. Backsweeten to 1.010.

Sammyk · May 29, 2013

I back flavored my concord from grapes with simmered down by half cranberry bottled juice. It is really nice. Our one neighbor said of all the wines I have made the concord/cranberry is her very favorite because she loves cranberry juice.

JohnT · May 29, 2013

DS-WRBMHSAMD

<deep sigh - while repeatedly banging my head softly against my desk>

reefman · May 29, 2013

Julie said:
Yes just drop the cubes in for about 6 to 8 weeks.

The concord/cranberry is 2 cans of concord to 1 can of cranberry, starting sg is 1.080, backsweeten with 2 cans concord/1can cranberry. Backsweeten to 1.010.

Julie,
Is that 3 cans per gallon? 2 concord, 1 cranberry?

jswordy · May 29, 2013

Welch's Concord with:

Oak
Blueberries (Bell Bottom Blues)
Blueberry wine lees and blueberry extract in secondary
Blueberries and oak
71B1122 yeast
RC212 yeast (preferred)
Super-sweet method (check my sig)
Black Cherry (ho-hum)

I prefer the straight Welch's Concord super-sweet method with medium French oak using RC212.

People always say this must be consumed young. My experience: If you age this for 6 months, it will be wildly different in a good way. One year, it continues to improve. I have one bottle that is on its second year of aging. It probably will be even better.

This is my go-to wine, my howl at the moon and the heck with food pairings wine. I make a lot of it. There are 80 bottles in my cellar right now.

Phador · Jun 5, 2013

jswordy said:
Welch's Concord with:

Oak
Blueberries (Bell Bottom Blues)
Blueberry wine lees and blueberry extract in secondary
Blueberries and oak
71B1122 yeast
RC212 yeast (preferred)
Super-sweet method (check my sig)
Black Cherry (ho-hum)

I prefer the straight Welch's Concord super-sweet method with medium French oak using RC212.

People always say this must be consumed young. My experience: If you age this for 6 months, it will be wildly different in a good way. One year, it continues to improve. I have one bottle that is on its second year of aging. It probably will be even better.

This is my go-to wine, my howl at the moon and the heck with food pairings wine. I make a lot of it. There are 80 bottles in my cellar right now.

I checked out the thread on the super sugar method...interesting stuff! I'm curious about the oak...I ordered some American and French medium spirals and I'm wondering on what characteristics they bring to the wine. I see you used half a spiral for 5 days...have you tweaked it since then?

Phador · Jun 5, 2013

Is Welch's a particularly tough wine to clear? I have had other stuff clear much faster by doing a whole lot less. I am on the third month of a 6 gallon basic Welch's. At each racking there is of course some sediment, but the wine remains cloudy. I used PE, and I'm considering some superkleer. I'm thinking degassing may be the cause. I've whipped the bejesus out of it with a wine whip and passed it through the AOI wine-pump with the degassing cane about 10x and I still get fairly large amount of bubbles. I have stored it in my cellar where the temp is around 63 consistently....kind of stumped.

saramc · Jun 5, 2013

Phador said:
Is Welch's a particularly tough wine to clear? .... I'm thinking degassing may be the cause. I've whipped the bejesus out of it with a wine whip and passed it through the AOI wine-pump with the degassing cane about 10x and I still get fairly large amount of bubbles. I have stored it in my cellar where the temp is around 63 consistently....kind of stumped.

Bingo...you need to warm this to about 75F and then degas. The wine is too cold and the CO2 remains dissolved in solution. You will be able to easily degas once warmed up, then return to your 63F cellar and I bet it starts to clear within 7-10days.

Phador · Jun 5, 2013

Will the change in temperature damage the wine?

jswordy · Jun 5, 2013

Phador said:
I checked out the thread on the super sugar method...interesting stuff! I'm curious about the oak...I ordered some American and French medium spirals and I'm wondering on what characteristics they bring to the wine. I see you used half a spiral for 5 days...have you tweaked it since then?

Nope, straight into the bottle without further ado. It was drinkable then but is aging now.

jswordy · Jun 5, 2013

Phador said:
Will the change in temperature damage the wine?

No.

Since Welch's is from concentrate juice, as long as you used pectic enzyme it should clear in no time with no problem. Never had any worries about it clearing.

If you are having trouble, go ahead with superkeeler. It will do it.

jimpeterson · Jun 7, 2013

Welche's Stuff...

Good morning, Jim

I've been following your words of wisdom on making wine from Welche's, and now have the ingredients to make about three gal of white/raspberry wine, following your advice.
I'd just like to know your thoughts on storing an opened bottle in the refer. I noticed that folks talk about wine in beer bottles, so they only have about two glasses of wine to finish:
When you open a bottle and store it in the refer, how long will it keep before it goes bad? What happens to it?
I can buy a jug of cheap wine, and I can sample it for a long time, and I've drank box wine, that was good after three years.
Thanks

wineforfun · Jun 7, 2013

When you all speak of backsweetening with concord, cranberry, etc. concentrate, are you just using straight concentrate, right from the tube, or mixing it with water?

jswordy · Jun 7, 2013

jimpeterson said:
Good morning, Jim

I've been following your words of wisdom on making wine from Welche's, and now have the ingredients to make about three gal of white/raspberry wine, following your advice.
I'd just like to know your thoughts on storing an opened bottle in the refer. I noticed that folks talk about wine in beer bottles, so they only have about two glasses of wine to finish:
When you open a bottle and store it in the refer, how long will it keep before it goes bad? What happens to it?
I can buy a jug of cheap wine, and I can sample it for a long time, and I've drank box wine, that was good after three years.
Thanks

I just use a tasting cork in mine and it'll keep a week in the fridge. Bad is subjective. I've kept some even longer, but most 750 ml bottles I open are gone in 1-5 days. The air that is trapped in the bottle actually ages the wine slowly in the cold, so sometimes something like a kind of rough red turns out smoother after time there.

This is what I do. I have no idea what is "correct," just what works.

Mastering Welch's

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