What to do now?

[Donatelo]

Yesterday I bottled my first Chardonnay. Now I have 1 empty primary, 1 6 gal empty carboy, and an empty 3 gallon carboy. My 3 gallons of Cherry/ blackberry won't be done for a while. My one gallon of Welch's grape as well.
What am I supposed to do now? Twiddle my thumbs until March? I think not!

 

[dralarms]

You can make wine from concentrates. I use www.homewinery.com for my concentrates. They are great folks. If you go that route, toss their instructions and make it like you would from a juice bucket. Also it says makes 5 gallons but what I do is 1/2 gallon of concentrate, 4 gallons of water, sugar (I usually hit 1.095 to 1.100) acid blend, pectic enzyme and 71b-1122 yeast.

 

[Julie]

I do like dralarms does. The wine turns out very well.

 

[Rodnboro]

Dragon blood or maybe a kit.

 

[dralarms]

I do like dralarms does. The wine turns out very well.

I've only had one concentrate that didn't turn out like I wanted, the Niagara never would clear and then it oxidized

 

[Donatelo]

Dragon blood or maybe a kit.

I like the sound of that ! Please expand on a recipe.

 

[sour_grapes]

I like the sound of that ! Please expand on a recipe.

Here's a couple hundred pages of discussion for ya! https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/dangerdaves-dragon-blood-wine.41825/

 

[PandemoniumWines]

I just started 3 gallons of strawberry. It’s supposed to be quite forgiving!

 

[Donatelo]

I copied the Dragon's Blood recipe. going to try a 3 gallon run.

 

[Ajmassa]

I copied the Dragon's Blood recipe. going to try a 3 gallon run.

That’s a fun recipe with tons of variations. Even for a non-fruit wine drinker like myself, it was great summer giveaway. Demand is high enough for me to do another batch just to avoid catching flack.
I did the “triple berry dragonette” version (2x fruit). But DB can be modified any which way they say. The real art came when sweetening back and dialing it in to perfection.

 

[Stressbaby]

That’s a fun recipe with tons of variations. Even for a non-fruit wine drinker like myself, it was great summer giveaway. Demand is high enough for me to do another batch just to avoid catching flack.
I did the “triple berry dragonette” version (2x fruit). But DB can be modified any which way they say. The real art came when sweetening back and dialing it in to perfection.

AJMassa hit the nail on the head here. DB is a giveaway. DB is easy to make and consistent and reliable but to me, it is one-dimensional. It's winemaking fast food. It only works for me if I close my eyes and imagine myself as a kid drinking Hawaiian Punch. If I were you I'd start poking around for a frozen juice pail.

 

[Scooter68]

Vintners Harvest has a some Fruit Base concentrates that are 100% of the Labeled fruit. Black Currant is my favorite. Very Tart but make a great wine or a dessert wine if you raise the ABV to somewhere between 14-16% AND back-sweeten after fermentation completes. The large can safely makes a very solid body 3 gallon batch. Others have found both their tart cherry or sweet cherry wine bases excellent as well, or elderberry. I tend to use their fruit bases for my wintertime wine making of wine from fruit I don't grow or can't buy locally.
One more option is to get some Tart Cherry concentrate on line. There are some reasonable sources of concentrates that will make one gallon juice from a 16 oz bottle. I have used 3-4 bottles of tart cherry and one bottle of Black Cherry concentrate for a nice blend of 3 gallons

Just beware that many fruit juices and fruit wine bases are a combination of the labled fruit and 'other juices' with the 'other juices' being the predominant fruit i the container. I prefer to buy the fruit bases that are 100% of the fruit on the label.

 

[Donatelo]

Thanks to everyone . I have not made up my mind . So many great recipes out there. One thing about this hobby is I have plenty of time. Then again "So many wines, so little time."
My Welch's concord grape is just about ready to put in the cellar for a 3 month storage. Tastes pretty good right now , but I will try to age it a little.