1985 Welches Grape Juice
October 2018 – I recall that I wanted to make grape wine – “real” wine – but had no access to grapes. Welch’s grape juice struck me as the next best thing. Oddly enough, it worked!
Like everything I did from some type of commercial juice drink, the fermentation went in spurts and it never fermented out dry. I suspect that some of the sugars are not fermentable. I’ve noted this in numerous places.
Ingredients
| Fruit | seven 12 oz cans Welch’s grape juice |
| Water | 4-1/2 gallons |
| Sugar | 18-1/2 cups |
| Acid | 2 tsp citric acid |
| Nutrient | 2 tsp yeast nutrient + 2 tsp energizer |
| Yeast | Red Star Flor Sherry |
Method
| Started | 02/01/1985 SG 1.100 |
| Racked | 04/02/1985 SG 1.030 |
| Energized | 04/24/1985 SG 1.030 |
| Energized | 05/19/1985 SG 1.030 |
| Racked | 05/24/1985 SG 1.024 |
| 1 cup chopped raisins added | 05/30/1985 SG 1.024 |
| Racked | 06/23/1985 SG 1.020 |
| Racked | 07/09/1985 SG 1.018 |
| Bottled | 08/06/1985 SG 1.014 |
Notes
| Yield | 25 bottles |
| Alcohol | 11.7% |
| Afterthoughts | I later noticed that ANYTHING made from any type of processed concentrate (e.g., containing preservatives) didn’t want to ferment out dry. Chances are this is probably just as well … a bit of sugar (or in this case a LOT of sugar) hides a lot of flaws.
BTW — this recipe is my own invention. While I’ve seen a LOT of Welches recipes on the net in recent years, this one predated the WWW by 10 years. I came up with the idea at a time of year when there was nothing to make wine from, and did it. 🙂 This wine was surprisingly drinkable. Given the source material, I’m still surprised, although given that my drinking buddies of the time would probably have drank urine if I had fermented it, I shouldn’t be … |