This is... honestly hilarious for me, given that the direct reason that Welch made his grape juice was specifically to provide a stable, alcohol-free wine alternative for communions. Thomas Welch was a Methodist, and at the time, they were very much a denomination that worked with people struggling with alcoholism. So, he came up with a pasteurization method for grape juice, so that the natural yeast on the skins wouldn't inevitably turn it into wine with time. That way, Methodists could have a way of sharing communion without... undermining their efforts to help combat alcohol addiction.
My father use to make wine from grape juice. We called it balloon wine. You put a balloon over the jug while fermenting. When the balloon inflated and went back down, the wine was ready.
Did this with a bottle of white grape juice and made champagne, same way too, just added yeast/sugar and put a balloon on it, made a tiny pin prick in the balloon to release gas.
While a big company like welch's is fairly standardized, grapes and nature are gonna do what they want, so the pH could vary, and having strips or a cheap electronic pH tester are worth getting if you don't have one and are looking to get into the hobby, because whenever my brews stall, it's always pH related. *General PSA, not an @*
I'm no professional wine maker, but I make decent wine that's better than your average $10-15 bottle of wine you can find. I decided to run this experiment as well with Welch concord grape juice. I used a quality yeast (EC-212), toasted French oak chips, dried black currants that I rehydrated, basic cleaning & sanitizing stuff, nothing crazy. It came out pretty dang good, i was shocked 😂
Same here! I use concentrate mixed with some raisins or some crushed grapes, and I use cheap bread yeast, yes, bread yeast, to make wine at home. Very similar to what you do but I age it for at least 6 months in the closet
@@ronaldhu5124 well, I added enough sugar to go to 14% and after I added the sugar, I read the concentrate package and it had sugar in it as well. It was purely accidental. I thought that it would be ruined but I just kept fermentation going until the sugar was consumed. It took a while to get totally fermented. Super tart is where it ended after fermentation. Then I back sweetened it to cut the tartness back a little to taste before bottling. I took the whole batch to a company party a few months later and the younger women coworkers were all dancing and drinking my juice like crazy. Hahaha hahaha! They had a great time and all bottles were guzzled down within a few hours. It had almost a carbonated element to it due to the tartness and sweetness balance. Try it out and don't be afraid if you make mistakes along the way. Just stick with it and you might be pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I had another batch of a different grape that I thought was not good enough to bottle so I put and left the finished product in water jugs for many months. I never could figure out what to do with the batch. My brother was visiting and asked what was in the jugs in my garage floor and I said wine that wasn't very good. He asked if he could take them to his weekend party. He reported back that it was a big hit and everyone liked the taste and that the abv was kicking everyone's butt, which is what that group liked. You just never know. Cheers!
@@SwissMarksman I used the frozen concrete cans to make a 5 gallon batch. Plain ole gallon jug water. High quality yeast and Dixie crystals sugar. Did it in the summer time in the kitchen so I could make sure that room temperature was warm enough to keep it fermenting properly. Red wine fermentation likes it on the warm side of 75°. Nature will do the rest. If you can find a yeast for higher than 14%, go for it. I did back sweetened it to balance the flavor. Just a very slight sweetness. It'll be the hit of the party 🎉🥳
I've never tried making wine, but Welch's grape juice makes fantastic natural sparkling grape juice. I put about 1/8tsp of yeast into a 2 liter pop bottle and fill to the very top with Welch's and seal. After a few days there is a gas bubble at top and I check the pressure by feel. It feels like a regular unopened bottle of soda after a few days. I forgot about one for a few too many days and it exploded! But when it goes right, there is very little alcohol (like near-beer level, I think) and a METRIC TON of carbonation! It's sweet like regular grape juice and it's really makes a great head of purple foam. Boy, I need to do that again!
Tip: heat a nail on the stove or with a lighter till it's red hot and melt a tiny hole through the lid, then wrap a balloon around the lid and help keep it on with a rubber band, if needed. As it gasses off, it fills the balloon. Release the balloon when it gets too large. If you completely forget about it, and you hear a pop, there's still not much mess and saves your wine.
@@clairestanfield-ui1fg Yes, I just used regular bread yeast. Not recommended for full fermentation I understand, but for carbonation alone it seems to be fine and not affect the taste too much.
This is what helped me out of college. Brewed in the closet of my dorm room. Other kids just thought I really liked grape juice. One of many bad decisions.
I learned how to brew my first wines while at college as well, a girl told me it was simple to make. So out of boredom that's how I learned. Now I make 100+ gallons of wines each year just passively
I made about 3 gal of strawberry wine in 2016 . After 6 months i drank 2 glasses and my feet kept getting tangled up lol. I have 2 bottles left ill pull the corks out in 2029 when i retire and celebrate lol. Thanks for the vedio im gonna try the store bought stuf now.
I make gallons of cider from Walmart apple juice at about 2.40 for 3 quarts. Have cider for yourself and to share or to bottle and carbonate. Stuff is good
I've done this many times and just left it in the original bottle as well as added bread yeast and it's turned out perfect. Crack the lid to let it breath
I've been crushing fruit up in a bucket and fermenting it for a couple of years now, and i've really been enjoying my homemade fruit wines. I use them to cook with as well. I like to see this laid-back kind of stuff get some coverage.
Concord grapes were eradicated in big plantations by the government in Portugal due to poor quality for wine making 50 yrs ago …It can still be found in some areas and I loved it bc of low alcohol content and it’s aroma ….usually does not keep well for long term …
I've done this many times and have had GREAT results, freaked out hippie wine is the name of the most popular type back in the day. I've also used Welch's frozen 100% natural juice with just a regular whine yeast. Sweet as heck and makes you belly warm after about a glass. Strong stuff
Boy! This brings back memories. In the early 70's I made a 5 gallon batch, by Welch's grape juice, some bread yeast I got at the grocery store, in a 5 gallon plastic jerry can. It'd get you drunk if you drank enough of it, but MAN it tasted horrible! It was the 70's and I was 17, so my excuse is the times and youth lol
Last night i tried my new wine made out of unknown grapes grown here in my new zealand garden. Its a dark rose with a copper tinge. Its only been in the bottle a month but had a long fermentation and 11% alcohol. Its easily as good as $15 dollar wine and personally prefer it. Its very dry. Im getting more interested in this hobby, theres a ton of unused fruit around here
I just watched one of your old videos 5 years ago, about store bought grapes. But with the juice you use the dark black grapes help with honey to get the juice to 13.5 ACH. And feed the yeast🤠👍👍👍👍🙏
YES !!! Stopped using grapes years ago, too freaking messy. I go to Walmart and get grape juice, mango, and a couple others and make some good wine. And on my second start I add some cinnamon on the last 30 day of the 60 days of making wine. Turns out really GOOD !!!!
With a brewers airlock and cork + 1 Cup of sugar mixed in, you can ferment right in the Welch's jug. About 10 days and it tastes Awesome !! Great grape flavor!
I live in Austin, Texas and my friends and I have gotten into making wines from local fruits we forage. We’ve done Prickly Pears, Loquats, and Texas Persimmons. The Texas Persimmon wine was only ok but we distilled it into an outstanding brandy.
When I was 12 my family lived on 5 acres which had many black berry bushes. I picked a large coffee can full and made juice. Then poured it in a glass jar and sprinkled bakers yeast on top, lightly put the lid on, put it under my bed and forgot about it for about 3 weeks. I then took it and removed the scum off the top and drank it. It was delicious, and felt very warm going down.
Always love your videos! Believe or not, here in Europe, specifically in Denmark I found a German brand of grape juice, but made from Italian grapes...and not just any grapes but 100% unfiltered grape juice from a mix of Sangiovese and Montepulciano grapes. No added sugar, no preservatives. Not only that but it was in the eco/bio section of the store, those grapes weren't sprayed at all. Admittedly, it was a bit on a more expensive side with 4.27€ for a liter. That's about $5 per liter, or almost 20 bucks per US gallon. Regardless, I had to have it so I bought 10L and made an amazing dry wine. The specific gravity of juice alone was 1.069 so I barely had to add sugar. I did add wine tanin, oaked it...etc. It's like a fine wine and next month it'll be 1y old. Next weekend I'm buying another 10L and adding honey to it, making a kind of pyment!
This is entertaining as I've made hundreds of gallons of this stuff in five gallon hardware store buckets and grocery store yeast in the garage when I was in High School and College. I had no idea the process was so meticulous. 😛
We did this in high school. Just keep the lid off for a few days. Lightly Recap it. Wait a couple weeks. Good to go. No addition of anything. Not sure how strong it was but certainly stronger than the 3.2 beer
for my small batch juice wines I make them directly in the container they come in. then age them in a slightly undersized glass carboy and use whats leftover for flavor testing
I’ve done many times and it always makes good wine . I use Welch’s I think it’s the natural or organic version what ever it is and I add sugar to it . I do the same thing with locally sourced apple cider and it always turns out good .
I used to make wine from Ocean Spray juices using the Spike Your Juice kits you used to be able buy on Amazon. Was pretty good for Kuwait and Asscrackistan.
That's old school. My grandmother made Welches Grape juice concentrate wine back in the early 70s, using 1 gallon glass milk jugs capped with a balloon.
You got me thinking of making wine now, good job. I live near farmers who grow Concord grapes. If I'd pay closer attention to the harvest season I'd have a better chance of getting exactly what I want. I'd love to try to juicing them myself instead of buying Welch's. Have you ever tried growing your own yeast? I hear it's tricky to get the best flavors for wine making.
Lol, it is, but it works just fine on a small batch like this. You can't really be as efficient and will need to leave a little more wine behind. My goal with these juice wine videos is to make them in a way that anybody could give it a try, but also that you can easily scale up and use your equipment if you have things like carboys and racking canes.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannelI never heard of carboys until a few years ago when I was in the Military Sealift Command, civil service version of naval fleet auxiliary, and had to order a few cases of fuel test bottles for the cargomate and found out the actual nomenclature was carboy and had to lookup what that meant. They were small flint-based glass jars about 1 liter in size. They looked exactly like the glass bottles Listerene used to come in before they changed to plastic.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannelive made mead in gallon bottle of water, do you think you can just pour out a little juice, add nutrient, and just slap a balloon on it?
Bro is making what my friends and I use to make except fancier. Buying some bread yeast and a bottle of Welch's, putting it in their, shaking it up, slipping a glove over the tip and securing it with rubber bands, then waiting. About a month later it'd be ready. I'm sure yours tastes so much better though lol
I just drink some of the grape juice off and then add sugar and a little yeast and leave the cap really lose but secure and it's less Work and less mess and taste great in a couple of weeks
I added enough sugar to finish at 14.5%. And just used literally bread machine yeast... Hadn't decided about back sweetening, but stabilized anyway, to be safe. It has .990 gravity, so quite dry. It surprised me I liked it that way. I like sweet wines...
Can you do a video explaining the readings you want to look for at the beginning, during fermentation and at the end before bottling? I’m still not fully understanding Brix & Specific Gravity and exactly what I should be looking for and why. If you could do a detailed video explaining those things, that would be amazing!
My grandparents used to grow grapes for Welch's grape juice. Concord grapes aren't a particularly good wine grapes. My grandfather did use it to make wine though. He did make some nice wines over the years but most were pretty terrible by most people's standards. Most of what he made was like sweet and ridiculously strong cooking sherry. A few years ago I found a fortified Japanese plum wine that's almost identical.
If you use more yeast at the outset, you don't need to add a nutrient like DAP--the yeast is already made, so it doesn't have to go looking for nutrients. So the culture gets a better start. A related concept is adding killed bread yeast as a nutrient for wine yeast.
I was very pleased with making wine of Welch grape juice, which is really of high quality, couple of years back now, unfortunately it kind of disappeared from the Canadian grocery stores. One note, instead of back sweeten it with sugar syrup I actually used the juice itself. I had to hake out a bit anyways in order to make room for the sugar I added, I used dextrose, and also for the over head. Originally it has a OG around 1.050 so it needs a pound of sugar to a gallon to raise it about 40-45 points to around 1.090-1.095, which will result in about 10-11% ABV after the fermentation. I find this wine more pleasing than store bought wines, it tastes as grape like the house made wine my grandparents and my father used to make in Romania, my country of origin, with a light sweet note. Hopefully Welch juice will come back to Canada. Edit: it seems that the Welch has discontinued the concord grape juice.
I have a question: the weather has been very hot lately (around 30 degrees indoors), would it be a good time to start fermentation in a system which there is no temperature control? While i am on the subject, could you tell me about the influence of the temperature that during primary and secondary fermentation on the taste of the wine? Will fermenting the must at temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius result in a wine that tastes "clean" and "more fruity" in the mouth than at higher temperatures? Thank you very much. I would be happy to know if you have experienced this issue and can comment.
30 degrees is hot, for fermentation, but will still work, Sherry is purposely fermented at higher temps. At higher temps you risk losing aromas. if it goes beyond 35 degrees it may not ferment at all.
Are there start up wine making kits sold online? Great video. My fav wine is Mogan David Concord wine its harder to fibd nowadays its not sold in our grocery stores and not our liquor store i dont go-to bars.
If you measure the juice with a hydrometer, whatever that measurement is, you want to push the sugar content to around 22%, The reason for this is it will make the ABV as high as you can get without distilling. At about 23% ABV yeast will die off, so adding any more than that will remain as sweet flavoring. You can play with that % a little to taste but this video is right on. i used to just take out about 1.5 cups of juice out of the bottle, add 1 cup of sugar, and mix it well, add yeast and leave the cap loose enough to be able to squeeze air in and out without effort. Put the bottle on a plate with paper towel and let it go. About 5 to 7 days later, you will have wine. It tasted great! And yeah, it will kick you in the ass as well! Another tip is, if you go to amazon, you can buy a 1 gallon distiller with atemp programmer built into it, Then you can take a bad batch and turn into whisky. No wasted batches!
Ive actually wondered this myself. Figured with how high quality welch's is itd probably make good wine in hands other than my own. xD Im still trying to figure out how they did the Skyrim mead with the Juniper Berries in it. (Im close but Juniper is HARD to brew with, before or after.)
Awesome video. Great content! Just curious if you would ever reuse your removed yeast as a starter again like one might do with bread? Is that a thing? Probably a dumb question, but I know zip about this stuff.
My YEAST has the 118 champagne ,I bought a 1lbs. bag years ago. and still use it. so I don't remember the complete number!! Because I have it in a dark brown glass Jar with a black lid that was in a Soda Ash lab and thrown away when emptied, have a gallon one with bentonite! Keep it in the freezer for years and then in the refrigerator ! It still works when I start it up! You use a Soda ash products 40 times a day and don't realize it. Like looking out a window made of glass!
Lol I've got to try that! I literally have Concord grape vines as a roof trellis over out back deck. Question, how do you keep the Japanese beetles off them? I don't want to uses chemicals because we have have 5 beehives on the deck. Any suggestions? Thank you!
Wish I could find some 100% Welch's grape juice here on Vancouver Island......seems like the grocery stores only want to sell us juice that's bastardized with apple juice.
Ah man, that stinks! It is getting a lot harder to find 100% concord also. A lot of them now just say "grape". There is a big Welch's factory a couple hours north of us in Erie, which I'm sure helps with availability.
I'm in WA and it was very hard to find 100% grape juice all through the spring. I chalked it up to the US exporting too much but it could of just been lack of supply.
From Canada Ottawa ontario here and also can't find Welchs grape juice amywere . Nothing on amazon or Ebay either . Maybe it's no longer sold or some wine company bought all there stock rights
You are using very simple products and equipment but your vocabulary and knowledge comes through so heavy that in the beginning i was following pretty well but as we went on I kind of lost you. A bit more studying and research or watching the video another time or two would help me. A relative of mine left me a recipe to make wine like this. That is why I am watching. I have very little knowledge about this stuff so that is playing in. BUT, you're awesome at being humble and explaining all your methods while also using the terminology even if to just make me do a little more research. Awesome video, thanks for making it mostly understandable.
If we had a siphon and tubing would it be better to siphon the wine into the racking container instead of pouring, or does it really matter? I’ve heard that you always want to siphon wine instead of just pouring.
Yeah, I believe I mentioned that in the video. I tried to keep the equipment needs for this one to a minimum so just about anybody can give it a try, but if you already have the better equipment, you should use it. I will caution, it is very easy to tip over a container when siphoning very small volumes like this, so hold on to it with a hand.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannelahh ok, I missed where you said that lol, and yeah the small batches definitely tend to tip over, when I bottle in beer bottles, they like to tip as well, so a trick I’ve learned is to take like a cardboard 6 pack holder and use that to hold the bottles and keep them from tipping.
The key to a Welch's wine is really in the back sweetening (assuming you want it to taste like a concord from a winery). Once you back sweeten it, it will really come to life.
I did this with concord concentrate. It was so good. I added some spices to make it like a port and then oaked it. It did need a lot of wine tannin since there wasn’t any skins or seeds but, after 4 months I was amazed at how good it was.
This is... honestly hilarious for me, given that the direct reason that Welch made his grape juice was specifically to provide a stable, alcohol-free wine alternative for communions. Thomas Welch was a Methodist, and at the time, they were very much a denomination that worked with people struggling with alcoholism. So, he came up with a pasteurization method for grape juice, so that the natural yeast on the skins wouldn't inevitably turn it into wine with time. That way, Methodists could have a way of sharing communion without... undermining their efforts to help combat alcohol addiction.
That is interesting, thanks for sharing!
OMEGALUL
Is any of this information on the internet? I'd like to do more research.
@@Drake844221 The circle of life.
@@Darth_X0 History Channel
My father use to make wine from grape juice. We called it balloon wine. You put a balloon over the jug while fermenting. When the balloon inflated and went back down, the wine was ready.
Did this as a poor boy from 2008-2013
Did this with a bottle of white grape juice and made champagne, same way too, just added yeast/sugar and put a balloon on it, made a tiny pin prick in the balloon to release gas.
@@badatpseudoscience That's what my dad did with the balloons.
Welcome to jailhouse wine.
I used a punch-a-ball. It exploded while I was asleep. My wife ran into the room and laughed her ass off.
While a big company like welch's is fairly standardized, grapes and nature are gonna do what they want, so the pH could vary, and having strips or a cheap electronic pH tester are worth getting if you don't have one and are looking to get into the hobby, because whenever my brews stall, it's always pH related. *General PSA, not an @*
Welch’s probably tightly control the ph of their juice for consistency
That's almost certainly what the ascorbic acid is for.
I read that entire paragraph in Meatball's voice.
2 years ago I learned how to make wine, I used Welch's, other brands are not that good, Welch's makes great homemade wine.
Awesomely fascinating 😮
I'm no professional wine maker, but I make decent wine that's better than your average $10-15 bottle of wine you can find.
I decided to run this experiment as well with Welch concord grape juice. I used a quality yeast (EC-212), toasted French oak chips, dried black currants that I rehydrated, basic cleaning & sanitizing stuff, nothing crazy. It came out pretty dang good, i was shocked 😂
It being pretty hood sounds about right. Forgot the sock though.
@@Dad_Lyon and that right there is why you shouldn't write comments after having a few glasses of wine 🍷 😂 🤦🤷
@@rcbustanut2057 I'd say it was an excellent reason!
Black currant 🤤
Same here! I use concentrate mixed with some raisins or some crushed grapes, and I use cheap bread yeast, yes, bread yeast, to make wine at home. Very similar to what you do but I age it for at least 6 months in the closet
My dad used to make jugs and jugs of wine from welch's concentrate when I was a kid. He made it for the holidays.
I like the easy going delivery of information. No jarring cuts and cheap ways to keep my attention.
Think this is actually why I was able to watch the full video lol.
I made a 5 gallon batch of concentrated Welch's grape juice wine with almost 20% abv. That batch was truly loved by everyone who drank it.
How did you up the alcohol percentage that much
@@ronaldhu5124 well, I added enough sugar to go to 14% and after I added the sugar, I read the concentrate package and it had sugar in it as well. It was purely accidental. I thought that it would be ruined but I just kept fermentation going until the sugar was consumed. It took a while to get totally fermented. Super tart is where it ended after fermentation. Then I back sweetened it to cut the tartness back a little to taste before bottling. I took the whole batch to a company party a few months later and the younger women coworkers were all dancing and drinking my juice like crazy. Hahaha hahaha! They had a great time and all bottles were guzzled down within a few hours. It had almost a carbonated element to it due to the tartness and sweetness balance. Try it out and don't be afraid if you make mistakes along the way. Just stick with it and you might be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.
I had another batch of a different grape that I thought was not good enough to bottle so I put and left the finished product in water jugs for many months. I never could figure out what to do with the batch. My brother was visiting and asked what was in the jugs in my garage floor and I said wine that wasn't very good. He asked if he could take them to his weekend party. He reported back that it was a big hit and everyone liked the taste and that the abv was kicking everyone's butt, which is what that group liked. You just never know.
Cheers!
@@jeffreycollier1805 Haha nice story. Do you have a guideline or anything like that? Would like to try it out.
@@SwissMarksman I used the frozen concrete cans to make a 5 gallon batch. Plain ole gallon jug water. High quality yeast and Dixie crystals sugar. Did it in the summer time in the kitchen so I could make sure that room temperature was warm enough to keep it fermenting properly. Red wine fermentation likes it on the warm side of 75°. Nature will do the rest. If you can find a yeast for higher than 14%, go for it. I did back sweetened it to balance the flavor. Just a very slight sweetness. It'll be the hit of the party 🎉🥳
I've never tried making wine, but Welch's grape juice makes fantastic natural sparkling grape juice.
I put about 1/8tsp of yeast into a 2 liter pop bottle and fill to the very top with Welch's and seal. After a few days there is a gas bubble at top and I check the pressure by feel. It feels like a regular unopened bottle of soda after a few days. I forgot about one for a few too many days and it exploded!
But when it goes right, there is very little alcohol (like near-beer level, I think) and a METRIC TON of carbonation! It's sweet like regular grape juice and it's really makes a great head of purple foam.
Boy, I need to do that again!
Tip: heat a nail on the stove or with a lighter till it's red hot and melt a tiny hole through the lid, then wrap a balloon around the lid and help keep it on with a rubber band, if needed. As it gasses off, it fills the balloon. Release the balloon when it gets too large. If you completely forget about it, and you hear a pop, there's still not much mess and saves your wine.
Don't overfill the bottle, or it might clog the hole during fermenting.
was it regular yeast?
@@clairestanfield-ui1fg Yes, I just used regular bread yeast. Not recommended for full fermentation I understand, but for carbonation alone it seems to be fine and not affect the taste too much.
@@rharris22222 Thanks, and did you add sugar to it? or did you fill with just juice?
We did this in Saudi Arabia when were were stationed there. Always tasted good.
My grandfather used to make this and we always considered it like a ice wine or dessert wine. It's very sweet, but also has a surprising kick.
This is what helped me out of college. Brewed in the closet of my dorm room. Other kids just thought I really liked grape juice. One of many bad decisions.
I learned how to brew my first wines while at college as well, a girl told me it was simple to make. So out of boredom that's how I learned. Now I make 100+ gallons of wines each year just passively
😂🥳👍❤@@redneckregime6268
> Other kids just thought I really liked grape juice
Well… they weren’t wrong
My kids are going to love this project!
They’ll be laughing silly when it comes a time for testing. Join you kids and be happy.
I made about 3 gal of strawberry wine in 2016 . After 6 months i drank 2 glasses and my feet kept getting tangled up lol. I have 2 bottles left ill pull the corks out in 2029 when i retire and celebrate lol. Thanks for the vedio im gonna try the store bought stuf now.
I remember leaving a bottle of grape juice in my fridge for like 2 months and finally saw it. I drank it as a kid and got drunk lol😂
Lmao
I make gallons of cider from Walmart apple juice at about 2.40 for 3 quarts. Have cider for yourself and to share or to bottle and carbonate. Stuff is good
what is that profile picture
The guys in my cell block love this video!
I've done this many times and just left it in the original bottle as well as added bread yeast and it's turned out perfect. Crack the lid to let it breath
I've been crushing fruit up in a bucket and fermenting it for a couple of years now, and i've really been enjoying my homemade fruit wines. I use them to cook with as well.
I like to see this laid-back kind of stuff get some coverage.
The same bucket? You just keep adding more fruit?
This has been my go to recipe since grade 10. Cheap, easy to make and hard to beat
Concord grapes were eradicated in big plantations by the government in Portugal due to poor quality for wine making 50 yrs ago …It can still be found in some areas and I loved it bc of low alcohol content and it’s aroma ….usually does not keep well for long term …
Wow. I just made a batch and it's pretty awesome
I grow concord in a greenhouse in Finland
Sounds like a fault in Portugal's wine making process. Concords make amazing wine.
Fortify Concord wine might taste suspiciously similar to ruby port.😆
@@JohnZombi88it could be that modern concord grapes are just better than older grapes as well. Due to modern farming practices.
I've done this many times and have had GREAT results, freaked out hippie wine is the name of the most popular type back in the day.
I've also used Welch's frozen 100% natural juice with just a regular whine yeast.
Sweet as heck and makes you belly warm after about a glass. Strong stuff
Boy! This brings back memories. In the early 70's I made a 5 gallon batch, by Welch's grape juice, some bread yeast I got at the grocery store, in a 5 gallon plastic jerry can. It'd get you drunk if you drank enough of it, but MAN it tasted horrible! It was the 70's and I was 17, so my excuse is the times and youth lol
try using proper yeast
@@markwoods1530 I'm 70 now, this was when I was 17, before the internet. lol Ya know, back in the stone age lol
@@The_Original_Brad_Miller i know the feeling
Letting that age for several months or more and it would have probably been very good
Last night i tried my new wine made out of unknown grapes grown here in my new zealand garden. Its a dark rose with a copper tinge. Its only been in the bottle a month but had a long fermentation and 11% alcohol. Its easily as good as $15 dollar wine and personally prefer it. Its very dry. Im getting more interested in this hobby, theres a ton of unused fruit around here
i ade this same discovery years ago, its good. wanna know another discovery of mine? cheap canned peach jelly, add water and yeast and BAM! try it.
Ive actually grown pretty fond of concord wine. Make it a lot. It makes great brandy too!
That's pretty intense! Concord brandy.... Golly
How are you making brandy out of it?
I just watched one of your old videos 5 years ago, about store bought grapes. But with the juice you use the dark black grapes help with honey to get the juice to 13.5 ACH. And feed the yeast🤠👍👍👍👍🙏
You can actually buy the unfiltered juice directly from the plant near Erie PA
YES !!! Stopped using grapes years ago, too freaking messy. I go to Walmart and get grape juice, mango, and a couple others and make some good wine. And on my second start I add some cinnamon on the last 30 day of the 60 days of making wine. Turns out really GOOD !!!!
With a brewers airlock and cork + 1 Cup of sugar mixed in, you can ferment right in the Welch's jug. About 10 days and it tastes Awesome !! Great grape flavor!
I live in Austin, Texas and my friends and I have gotten into making wines from local fruits we forage. We’ve done Prickly Pears, Loquats, and Texas Persimmons. The Texas Persimmon wine was only ok but we distilled it into an outstanding brandy.
When I was 12 my family lived on 5 acres which had many black berry bushes. I picked a large coffee can full and made juice. Then poured it in a glass jar and sprinkled bakers yeast on top, lightly put the lid on, put it under my bed and forgot about it for about 3 weeks. I then took it and removed the scum off the top and drank it. It was delicious, and felt very warm going down.
Always love your videos!
Believe or not, here in Europe, specifically in Denmark I found a German brand of grape juice, but made from Italian grapes...and not just any grapes but 100% unfiltered grape juice from a mix of Sangiovese and Montepulciano grapes. No added sugar, no preservatives. Not only that but it was in the eco/bio section of the store, those grapes weren't sprayed at all.
Admittedly, it was a bit on a more expensive side with 4.27€ for a liter. That's about $5 per liter, or almost 20 bucks per US gallon.
Regardless, I had to have it so I bought 10L and made an amazing dry wine. The specific gravity of juice alone was 1.069 so I barely had to add sugar. I did add wine tanin, oaked it...etc. It's like a fine wine and next month it'll be 1y old. Next weekend I'm buying another 10L and adding honey to it, making a kind of pyment!
Add a drop of virgin olive oil to it in primary fermentation
This is entertaining as I've made hundreds of gallons of this stuff in five gallon hardware store buckets and grocery store yeast in the garage when I was in High School and College. I had no idea the process was so meticulous. 😛
That's how we made wine while working in Saudi Arabia. Of course you needed yeast which was sold in the stores also.
I appreciate your information. With proper techniques even the humble concord grape can yield a wonderful wine.
I have actually made a really good wine from welches grape juice. It turned out really good, everyone really liked it.
This has become my favorite winemaking channel! The delivery is outstanding and the content is always spot on. Thank you for sharing. Cheers!
Fabulous tutorial.
Thank you for your time and effort.
Truly appreciate it
We did this in high school. Just keep the lid off for a few days. Lightly Recap it. Wait a couple weeks. Good to go. No addition of anything. Not sure how strong it was but certainly stronger than the 3.2 beer
for my small batch juice wines I make them directly in the container they come in. then age them in a slightly undersized glass carboy and use whats leftover for flavor testing
I did this back in like 2006 when I was in highschool. I couldn't get brewing yeast so I used bakers yeast. It was good but tasted like a wine pretzel
Lol gotta use what you got.
😂
Bread yeast works, and with age the wine can be just as good as with "proper" yeast
I’ve done many times and it always makes good wine . I use Welch’s I think it’s the natural or organic version what ever it is and I add sugar to it . I do the same thing with locally sourced apple cider and it always turns out good .
I used to make wine from Ocean Spray juices using the Spike Your Juice kits you used to be able buy on Amazon. Was pretty good for Kuwait and Asscrackistan.
Bless you! I’ve been wanting a simple Welch’s recipe that wasn’t from Paw Paw’s wine making . Bless his heart and all 😋
Thanks for this video..im of the grid in the country and winter is coming. I'm looking forward to this recipe.
That's old school. My grandmother made Welches Grape juice concentrate wine back in the early 70s, using 1 gallon glass milk jugs capped with a balloon.
You got me thinking of making wine now, good job. I live near farmers who grow Concord grapes. If I'd pay closer attention to the harvest season I'd have a better chance of getting exactly what I want. I'd love to try to juicing them myself instead of buying Welch's.
Have you ever tried growing your own yeast? I hear it's tricky to get the best flavors for wine making.
Been making this since I was 12. Learned from a neighbor. Great unfortunately kids back then.
Racking the wine with a funnel seems so wild, but I love the loose vibe after all its Welch's.
Lol, it is, but it works just fine on a small batch like this. You can't really be as efficient and will need to leave a little more wine behind. My goal with these juice wine videos is to make them in a way that anybody could give it a try, but also that you can easily scale up and use your equipment if you have things like carboys and racking canes.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannelI never heard of carboys until a few years ago when I was in the Military Sealift Command, civil service version of naval fleet auxiliary, and had to order a few cases of fuel test bottles for the cargomate and found out the actual nomenclature was carboy and had to lookup what that meant. They were small flint-based glass jars about 1 liter in size. They looked exactly like the glass bottles Listerene used to come in before they changed to plastic.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannelive made mead in gallon bottle of water, do you think you can just pour out a little juice, add nutrient, and just slap a balloon on it?
This sure brings me back to my high school days back in 1970.
I am not a wine guy but I thoroughly enjoyed this video!!
I've always done it the country way. The welches, instant rose yeast a Ballon and sugar leave it for a couple weeks you got a good emergency supply
I'm going to follow this to blend a homebrew beer with. Thank you!
We the same thing in the Navy, back in the 80's.
Bro is making what my friends and I use to make except fancier. Buying some bread yeast and a bottle of Welch's, putting it in their, shaking it up, slipping a glove over the tip and securing it with rubber bands, then waiting. About a month later it'd be ready. I'm sure yours tastes so much better though lol
I just drink some of the grape juice off and then add sugar and a little yeast and leave the cap really lose but secure and it's less Work and less mess and taste great in a couple of weeks
Lol. Nice! Just got done with mine. Letting it clear now. So far delicious.
I added enough sugar to finish at 14.5%. And just used literally bread machine yeast... Hadn't decided about back sweetening, but stabilized anyway, to be safe. It has .990 gravity, so quite dry. It surprised me I liked it that way. I like sweet wines...
Can you do a video explaining the readings you want to look for at the beginning, during fermentation and at the end before bottling? I’m still not fully understanding Brix & Specific Gravity and exactly what I should be looking for and why. If you could do a detailed video explaining those things, that would be amazing!
I make apple wine from frozen concentrate... plus sugar... people love it
I have always found that 71b tastes like there is residual sugar after fermentation when there isnt any ,It is like it has more body in the wine .
My grandparents used to grow grapes for Welch's grape juice. Concord grapes aren't a particularly good wine grapes. My grandfather did use it to make wine though. He did make some nice wines over the years but most were pretty terrible by most people's standards. Most of what he made was like sweet and ridiculously strong cooking sherry. A few years ago I found a fortified Japanese plum wine that's almost identical.
If you use more yeast at the outset, you don't need to add a nutrient like DAP--the yeast is already made, so it doesn't have to go looking for nutrients. So the culture gets a better start. A related concept is adding killed bread yeast as a nutrient for wine yeast.
Interesting video i have to giv this ago i wish i can find a good juce to make a cherry wine from as this has gor to be one of my favourite wines on
I was very pleased with making wine of Welch grape juice, which is really of high quality, couple of years back now, unfortunately it kind of disappeared from the Canadian grocery stores. One note, instead of back sweeten it with sugar syrup I actually used the juice itself. I had to hake out a bit anyways in order to make room for the sugar I added, I used dextrose, and also for the over head. Originally it has a OG around 1.050 so it needs a pound of sugar to a gallon to raise it about 40-45 points to around 1.090-1.095, which will result in about 10-11% ABV after the fermentation. I find this wine more pleasing than store bought wines, it tastes as grape like the house made wine my grandparents and my father used to make in Romania, my country of origin, with a light sweet note. Hopefully Welch juice will come back to Canada. Edit: it seems that the Welch has discontinued the concord grape juice.
Hear adding air for the first few days isn't a issue but if you continue shacking you'll make vinegar instead of wine. For this type of cheap hooch.
Great informative show, looking forward to the next flavor.
Just a suggestion…. There is a product called fine granulated sugar which dissolves more easily… i get it at Safeway
This works well . I've never made it. I had a friend make it. I thought it was very good.
I have a question: the weather has been very hot lately (around 30 degrees indoors), would it be a good time to start fermentation in a system which there is no temperature control? While i am on the subject, could you tell me about the influence of the temperature that during primary and secondary fermentation on the taste of the wine? Will fermenting the must at temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius result in a wine that tastes "clean" and "more fruity" in the mouth than at higher temperatures? Thank you very much. I would be happy to know if you have experienced this issue and can comment.
30 degrees is hot, for fermentation, but will still work, Sherry is purposely fermented at higher temps. At higher temps you risk losing aromas. if it goes beyond 35 degrees it may not ferment at all.
Or you could just buy Manischewitz concord grape wine. Absolutely stunning flavor.
Are there start up wine making kits sold online? Great video. My fav wine is Mogan David Concord wine its harder to fibd nowadays its not sold in our grocery stores and not our liquor store i dont go-to bars.
Great video. Thanks for the less expensive method.
Did you blend them? Seems to me, you would have a superior concord if you did!
If you measure the juice with a hydrometer, whatever that measurement is, you want to push the sugar content to around 22%, The reason for this is it will make the ABV as high as you can get without distilling. At about 23% ABV yeast will die off, so adding any more than that will remain as sweet flavoring. You can play with that % a little to taste but this video is right on. i used to just take out about 1.5 cups of juice out of the bottle, add 1 cup of sugar, and mix it well, add yeast and leave the cap loose enough to be able to squeeze air in and out without effort. Put the bottle on a plate with paper towel and let it go. About 5 to 7 days later, you will have wine. It tasted great! And yeah, it will kick you in the ass as well! Another tip is, if you go to amazon, you can buy a 1 gallon distiller with atemp programmer built into it, Then you can take a bad batch and turn into whisky. No wasted batches!
Ive actually wondered this myself. Figured with how high quality welch's is itd probably make good wine in hands other than my own. xD
Im still trying to figure out how they did the Skyrim mead with the Juniper Berries in it. (Im close but Juniper is HARD to brew with, before or after.)
Soo my grape juice and vodka doesn't count?
Is there a form of removing that musk o Foxy favor of the Concord grape?
Awesome Quality juice
I did it a few years ago. It was STUPID sweet and SUPER strong. It was yummy but border line dessert wine.
My old world relatives in Italy didn’t know about chemistry or microbiology. Their wine I’m told was wonderful
Probably because they didn't taste anything else lol
When bottling, does this homemade wine age just like any other if left un-opened?
Awesome video. Great content! Just curious if you would ever reuse your removed yeast as a starter again like one might do with bread? Is that a thing? Probably a dumb question, but I know zip about this stuff.
My YEAST has the 118 champagne ,I bought a 1lbs. bag years ago. and still use it. so I don't remember the complete number!! Because I have it in a dark brown glass Jar with a black lid that was in a Soda Ash lab and thrown away when emptied, have a gallon one with bentonite! Keep it in the freezer for years and then in the refrigerator ! It still works when I start it up! You use a Soda ash products 40 times a day and don't realize it. Like looking out a window made of glass!
The grapes are named after Concord, MA, so the right way to say it is more like "Con-kerd" or with the accent "Conk-id".
Lol I've got to try that! I literally have Concord grape vines as a roof trellis over out back deck. Question, how do you keep the Japanese beetles off them? I don't want to uses chemicals because we have have 5 beehives on the deck. Any suggestions? Thank you!
there are beettle traps you can buy to trap the adults.
Wish I could find some 100% Welch's grape juice here on Vancouver Island......seems like the grocery stores only want to sell us juice that's bastardized with apple juice.
Ah man, that stinks! It is getting a lot harder to find 100% concord also. A lot of them now just say "grape". There is a big Welch's factory a couple hours north of us in Erie, which I'm sure helps with availability.
I'm in WA and it was very hard to find 100% grape juice all through the spring. I chalked it up to the US exporting too much but it could of just been lack of supply.
From Canada Ottawa ontario here and also can't find Welchs grape juice amywere . Nothing on amazon or Ebay either . Maybe it's no longer sold or some wine company bought all there stock rights
You might be able to buy it online
Just use 2 cups of sugar per gallon. Its guaranteed to come out strong and sweet.
You are using very simple products and equipment but your vocabulary and knowledge comes through so heavy that in the beginning i was following pretty well but as we went on I kind of lost you. A bit more studying and research or watching the video another time or two would help me.
A relative of mine left me a recipe to make wine like this. That is why I am watching. I have very little knowledge about this stuff so that is playing in. BUT, you're awesome at being humble and explaining all your methods while also using the terminology even if to just make me do a little more research. Awesome video, thanks for making it mostly understandable.
If we had a siphon and tubing would it be better to siphon the wine into the racking container instead of pouring, or does it really matter? I’ve heard that you always want to siphon wine instead of just pouring.
Yeah, I believe I mentioned that in the video. I tried to keep the equipment needs for this one to a minimum so just about anybody can give it a try, but if you already have the better equipment, you should use it. I will caution, it is very easy to tip over a container when siphoning very small volumes like this, so hold on to it with a hand.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannelahh ok, I missed where you said that lol, and yeah the small batches definitely tend to tip over, when I bottle in beer bottles, they like to tip as well, so a trick I’ve learned is to take like a cardboard 6 pack holder and use that to hold the bottles and keep them from tipping.
I'm just finishing my Welch's 👍👍ok for beginning 😊
The key to a Welch's wine is really in the back sweetening (assuming you want it to taste like a concord from a winery). Once you back sweeten it, it will really come to life.
Back in the day when I was underage my friends and I made this for drinking at parties.
I did this with concord concentrate. It was so good. I added some spices to make it like a port and then oaked it. It did need a lot of wine tannin since there wasn’t any skins or seeds but, after 4 months I was amazed at how good it was.
Port wine doesn’t contain spices
Block house pumpkin, legit the best pumpkin beer out there! If you disagree you're wrong 🤷♂️
Welchers bottle looks identical to fabuloso’s bottle. Can you distill d”Fabuloso?
If you rack it and let it settle out for a year before you bottle it it becomes a beautiful rose'. I used Andovin yeast.
Nicely chilled wine with a wedge of watermelon is insanely good on a hot day.
Welchs make great grape juice but it is funny seeing how things have changed knowing the history.
We did this in submarines in the 1970 added a little torpedo juice if needed.
love your content. what do you think about adjusting PH before fermenting? Extra work?
do you know why my wine stop fermentation in the past 2 week ready but still sweet in sugar ?
any recommendation please ?