Wine Only From Concentrate

[Bissrok]

Has anyone ever made wine using only frozen juice concentrate, and no added sugars?

The recipe I've always seen is 3 cans of frozen juice and 0.5lb of sugar. When I've tried this with Welch's concord grape juice, it's come out very pale and thin.

It looks like there's 216g of sugar, total, in a can of concentrate and about 226g in a pound. Can I swap in an extra can to take out the sugar, or is that crazy?

I'm sure I'd have to adjust with a little sugar to get a SG of 1090, but would this throw off the acidity level, too?

 

[dralarms]

Well you need 4 cans per gallon, then add your sugar and ferment from there 3 cans a gallon is weak but you already know that.

 

[salcoco]

adding sugar will not change acidity. adding water will reduce acidity. use a hydrometer and the guessing will go away as far as sugar addition. a simple acid kit will also assist.

 

[rawatts]

You definately need to hydrometer it. did my first without onr. never again to many
varibles for me

 

[Bissrok]

I used 4 cans of juice concentrate, 80 oz. water, and no sugar to get a SG of 1100.

I was worried adding more grape juice would increase the acidity, and haven't purchased an acid test kit yet.

I suppose we'll see how it turns out. It looks almost black, so I'm happy so far.

 

[Julie]

how did you get a reading of 1.100 with 4 cans of concentrate and water added? That should have been a much lower reading.

 

[dralarms]

I agree with Julie.

 

[Bissrok]

how did you get a reading of 1.100 with 4 cans of concentrate and water added? That should have been a much lower reading.

I checked again, now that a few hours have passed, and it's definitely at 1.100

There was 1/2 tsp of bentonite in there, as well.

 

[Julie]

the bentonite does nothing for the sg. I am sorry, I really do not want to question you but this has to be almost impossible to use 4 cans of concentrate, 80 oz of water and get that high of an sg. I use 4 cans, roughly 40 to 45 oz of water and about a cup of sugar to get an sg of 1.090.

 

[Bissrok]

Welch's has at least a few different types of frozen Concord grape juice, and the sugar content can vary widely from batch to batch, since there are no additives.

I was expecting somewhere near 1.080. Unless the Pyrex measuring cup I used was especially far off, I have no explanation other than than a high sugar content in the fruit concentrate.

 

[gross144]

I think the 1.100 SG is possible with 4 cans of concentrate and 80 oz water. As Bissrok points out the sugar content of Welch's concentrate varies from batch to batch. I've made wine from Welch's several times, and my measurements of the sugar content range from 55 to 60 Brix. You can use the FermCalc sugar calculator to estimate the SG resulting from adding 4 cans (46 oz) of Welch's concentrate to 80 oz of water, and it only takes a concentrate brix of 57 to get you to an SG of 1.100.