Update 8/13/2020: I bottled this recently and sampled it for the first time yesterday. It turned out great! Even my wife said it was good. This is a good way to get into making your own wine. It’s not foolproof but is not too hard to do.
I make 1 gallon batches and for that I use .25 of a gallon of the concentrate or 4 cups of the concentrate. Then I fill the rest up with water and mix in the yeast and ferment it and 1 gallon glass carboys work great for this.
Thanks, and good questions. Basically all wine will finish dry with a few exceptions. To sweeten as desired there are commercial sweeteners or you could use a simple syrup added to taste.
@@scottthornandhisbeesandtrees I am very new to this. I've only made wine out of Welch's grape juice. So I shouldn't add granulated sugar then right? Sorry for the dumb question. I just want to be extremely clear about what I am supposed to do before I start. Also. What syrup do you recommend?
It’s not a dumb question at all! For sweetening, a simple syrup is just 1:1 white sugar and water. I wouldn’t add just white sugar myself as I want to make sure I am not making it overly sweet. I feel like you have more control over the sweetness by adding sugar syrup a little at a time. For commercial sweetener I do not have a recommendation. Hope that helps!
Before you start to back sweetening, you need to stabilize your wine with potassium sorbate, because if you don’t, your wine will start to ferment again due to the sugar. Basically the potassium sorbate kills (or acts like birth control so the yeast won’t try to reproduce) any yeast still in suspension in the wine. If you bottle it without doing this, it will carbonate and possibly explode. FYI
I have not, but I’ve got some grape juice from Aldi fermenting now, along with cranberry juice. They’re just small batches but if they turn out I’ll scale up and use concentrate. Thanks for watching!
@@scottthornandhisbeesandtrees I was going to buy the merlot one they make and try to make a gallon … just don’t know how to make wine using the juice… can you tell me the steps , I usually make liqueurs and wanted to try to make wine using those juices
@@SommaDoggPS4 if it’s a kit, they should provide directions on how to use theirs. I use Vintner’s Best concentrate quite a bit and it’s ready to just add water and yeast. I don’t know if the one you mention is similar but that the basic idea of the concentrate. You can always add sugar as needed but it may not need it. Happy winemaking!
If you're going through the effort of making wine, why would you use a low quality pasteurised bottled juice and not real fruit? Seems kind of pointless or am I missing something
I make wine using several different methods, including whole fruit. I feel it’s narrow minded to say that one way is better than any other. Best wishes to you.
Just bought a gallon of the raspberry fruit wine base. Thanks for the video. I'm ready to get started!
Have fun! Raspberry is on my to-do list but I need to free up some carboys first. Thanks for watching.
Update 8/13/2020: I bottled this recently and sampled it for the first time yesterday. It turned out great! Even my wife said it was good. This is a good way to get into making your own wine. It’s not foolproof but is not too hard to do.
Thank you. I’ve been wanting to get into making wine and saw the kits but wanted to find out how it works first so this helps a lot.
@@briad1261 you’re welcome, thanks for watching!
I make 1 gallon batches and for that I use .25 of a gallon of the concentrate or 4 cups of the concentrate. Then I fill the rest up with water and mix in the yeast and ferment it and 1 gallon glass carboys work great for this.
That’s great! I like the one gallon batches. Thanks for watching and happy wine making
Thanks for sharing! Does this make a dry or sweet wine? If its dry, what can I do to make it sweet?
Thanks, and good questions. Basically all wine will finish dry with a few exceptions. To sweeten as desired there are commercial sweeteners or you could use a simple syrup added to taste.
@@scottthornandhisbeesandtrees I am very new to this. I've only made wine out of Welch's grape juice. So I shouldn't add granulated sugar then right? Sorry for the dumb question. I just want to be extremely clear about what I am supposed to do before I start. Also. What syrup do you recommend?
It’s not a dumb question at all! For sweetening, a simple syrup is just 1:1 white sugar and water. I wouldn’t add just white sugar myself as I want to make sure I am not making it overly sweet. I feel like you have more control over the sweetness by adding sugar syrup a little at a time. For commercial sweetener I do not have a recommendation. Hope that helps!
Before you start to back sweetening, you need to stabilize your wine with potassium sorbate, because if you don’t, your wine will start to ferment again due to the sugar. Basically the potassium sorbate kills (or acts like birth control so the yeast won’t try to reproduce) any yeast still in suspension in the wine. If you bottle it without doing this, it will carbonate and possibly explode. FYI
Great video! Has anyone ever told you that you favor Chevy Chase?
Thank you! I don’t think anyone ever has before but I’ll take it!
Are we talking more Clark Griswold or Caddy Shack? 😎
have you ever tried the nature best grape juice concentrate ?
I have not, but I’ve got some grape juice from Aldi fermenting now, along with cranberry juice. They’re just small batches but if they turn out I’ll scale up and use concentrate. Thanks for watching!
@@scottthornandhisbeesandtrees I was going to buy the merlot one they make and try to make a gallon … just don’t know how to make wine using the juice… can you tell me the steps , I usually make liqueurs and wanted to try to make wine using those juices
@@SommaDoggPS4 if it’s a kit, they should provide directions on how to use theirs. I use Vintner’s Best concentrate quite a bit and it’s ready to just add water and yeast. I don’t know if the one you mention is similar but that the basic idea of the concentrate. You can always add sugar as needed but it may not need it. Happy winemaking!
@@scottthornandhisbeesandtrees thank you !
Check back and let me know how it turns out! It’s a fun hobby with a pretty good reward at the end.
Are you sure you went by the instructions on the jug?
It’s been a little while so my memory is fuzzy, but I’m guessing I followed along pretty close. Thanks for watching!
If you're going through the effort of making wine, why would you use a low quality pasteurised bottled juice and not real fruit? Seems kind of pointless or am I missing something
I make wine using several different methods, including whole fruit. I feel it’s narrow minded to say that one way is better than any other. Best wishes to you.
What about sugar?
This concentrate already has the all of sugar needed.