Wine Tasting

southlake333 · Aug 5, 2012

So, I attended a going away party for a coworker last night and took several bottles of my homemade goodness. Unfortunately we didn't get around to opening my Hard Apple Cider as I was really curious about getting opinions on that. But anyway, here's what I took over that was actually tasted:

Welch's Hard Grape
Tinkleberry Tea (Dragon's Blood)
Tinkle Tea (Skeeter Pee)
Cran Grape Wine (Welch's cranberry and Welch's grape combo)
White Grape Raspberry Wine (from White Grape Raspberry concentrate)

The clear winner? Welch's Hard Grape!! :try

The clear loser? White Grape Raspberry Wine.

Tinkleberry and Tinkle Tea tied at second place and were a matter of personal taste. Everyone liked both but everyone preferred one over the other. Cran Grape was good but nothing really special (no wow factor like the others). White Grape Raspberry was just plain nasty. But honestly I kind of expected that because the juice itself before fermentation was nasty. Its just not a combination of flavors that work well together.

The biggest surprise to me was just how popular that Welch's Hard Grape was. That bottle was gone almost immediately! Then again, half the bottle probably went into my wife's glass...lol. She just couldn't get enough! Mental note...keep wife stocked on Welch's to ensure approval of my obsession....

southlake333 · Aug 5, 2012

For anyone interested in the exact recipe I used for the Welch's Hard Grape, here it it:

Welch's Hard Grape

4 Gallons Welch's Grape Juice
5 Cans frozen Welch's Grape Juice Concentrate
15 Cans water (3 per can of concentrate)
(you could just use all concentrate reconstituted or just all juice but this is what I had...makes a little over 6 gallons of juice)
6 1/4 cups sugar
3 tsp Pectic Enzyme
3 tsp Yeast Energizer
5 tablets Campden - crushed up.
1 packet Red Star Pasteur Red Yeast

1.082 - Starting Specific Gravty
Should result in 11% alcohol

Mixed all ingredients and pitched yeast on 6/1/12. Set lid on top.

Fermentation Started on 6/2/12

Stirred on 6/5/12 then set lid back on top

Overflowed the bucket on 6/5/12 even though I had 3" of space between the liquid and top of bucket. I had to clean the overlow foam 4 times.

1.01 - SG on 6/6/12

Racked to secondary fermenter (6 gallon Better Bottle) on 6/6/12. Fermentation continued with bubbles coming through the airlock. This was 5 days after adding yeast.

6/18 - SG of .998. Tastes great, just dry. Tastes way better than the 1 gallon I tried to bottle early (#5). The "young wine" taste appears to have something to do with the yeast. They produce an off flavor while working that fades shortly after they finish. So the 1 gallon had a young flavor, this one does not.

6/18 - Transferred wine from better bottle to plastic bucket. While that transferred I mixed 2.5 tsp of bentonite with 2.5 cups of hot water. Once transfer was done, I mixed in bentonite slurry along with 3 tsp Potassium Sorbate and 5 crushed campden tablets. Mixed hard to mix these in and degass as the same time. Once done, I used the bottling spigot on the bucket along with a short hose to transfer everything back to a clean carboy (better bottle). Added airlock and let sit.

7/1 - As clear as its going to get. I can't see through it but it looks clear in a bottle. Sweetened with 1 cup of sugar and 3 cans of grape juice concentrate for an SG of 1.012. Tastes perfect.

7/1 - Bottled this almost dry (1 cup sugar) into 4 blue bottles and sweetened into 16 wine bottles, 13 beer bottles and 2 flip top bottles.