How to make wine from no wine kits?

Hello, a few years ago my wife and I started to make wine from wine kits. I'm not a huge wine person, but I had no success of making moonshine so I stuck with what worked. (I am currently attempting to make 20% liquor from scratch, but that is another story)

Anyways, here is my question. What is needed to make wine that isn't from wine kits? The only unknown that I have is the liquid that comes in the wine kits. Other then that you get yeast, corks, labels, and clarifying agents in the kit. What is in the liquid that comes in the wine kit? Is this just simple grape juice made from that chosen type of grape? Can wine be made from grape juice from concentrate and not taste like ass? I wouldnt mind making a higher alcohol wine with a more personal touch.

Any help would be great

Darth Menace wrote:

Is this just simple grape juice made from that chosen type of grape? Can wine be made from grape juice from concentrate and not taste like ass? I wouldnt mind making a higher alcohol wine with a more personal touch. :)

From the sounds of things you just want to make wine with really high alcohol... with quality not being a consideration. In that case you should just buy regular grape juice concentrate and use that in place of the concentrate in the kits (which from what i understand is just concentrate from better quality grapes). Whether you make it from fresh grapes or just concentrate I am sure it won't taste like arse

thank you for the response. I read of people saying they racked their wine alot and it made it higher alcohol content. is this true, because from what I gather isn't the purpose of racking just to get the sludge off the bottom of the carboy?

Just Bottled 4 gallons of Apple and pear wine.Used over 3 pounds of sugar per gallon and sg went down to 950.

I used the Turbo yeast and nitrient just for the hell of it .My SG calcs put the wine at 18% ish but my Vino meter is displaying 22%.

It tastes like a week spirit.I froze a bottle and kept the first 1/2 to come of and bingo rocket fuel!!!

Gary wrote:

It tastes like a week spirit.I froze a bottle and kept the first 1/2 to come of and bingo rocket fuel!!!

mmmm... sounds tasty

I too am making an alcohol with 3 lbs per gallon. All that the "recipe" called for was 18lb of sugar, water, yeast. Is this the same type of thing that you are talking about? Mine is still in the works, but sure doesnt appear to me to end up that high of alcohol.
Down the road for my next batch is there some sort of fruit or anything that would slightly increase the alcohol content?

me again, I just did the reading and my slurry is at 1.130. I started it this past Sunday. Appears that I'm making sugar water!

well if u want it drinkable, use a good yeast. no bakers yeast. the premere cuvee, is good for 18% and i have gotten 16% from red pastur which taste better). so ya take the cheapest grape concentrate with no perservative and set your sg with your hydrometer(that only cost 3 dollars). and if u keep it all clean. u can drink it in a month or so.

refrig. it for 10 days or more after one month of fermentation.

cheers!

Actually decent enough applejack can be made by freezing cider after making it into a wine with more sugar and some acids. As far as rocket fuel goes not sure what in the world you would want to taste something like that for but hey, knock yourself out!!

hey sorry if this isn't the right protocol as far as threads, but i thought I wouldn't start a new thread for every question I have.

Where on the net can i get an alcohol % reader? I believe they are called alcometers, but everytime I search for that I get a breathalizer

Well if you are trying to measure the alcohol in dry wine you could get a vinometer, but Oz has a post on the site with a more exact and scientific method of determining the actual percentage. Vinometers are a little inaccurate, better to take about 5 or 6 readings and average them after throwing out any that are totally off track IE all read 13.5 - 14 percent and you have a 3 all the sudden. OR.... you could drink a lot and weigh yourself first and then take a breathalizer.. not sure what that would tell you tho

I used it in the same way i would use normal yeats and added it to th e fruit and sugar right at the begginning.

Just bottled it this weekend after filtering.It need to stand a while I think . I have got some spare 2l so frozen it and going to thaw it out today .taking the first 1l that comes off.

What your looking for is a VINOMETER not that accurate though.

"This method measures the alcohol content by volume of any wine,spirit,or beer,using a hydrometer, giving readings as accurate as an ebulliometer used by commercial wineries. The method is based on the research of Dr. William Honneyman,Ph.D."

1.Measure the SG of the wine you wish to test.We will call this figure SG-1.

2.Measure exactly one pint of the wine (500ml).We will call this the sample.

3.In a enamelled or glass pan,boil the sample down to about half it's original volume.This drives off some of the water,but all of the alcohol,because alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water.The sample now consists of water,residual sugar,colouring matter,acids and proteins-that is,all the non-alcoholic constituents of the wine.

4.With distilled water or rain water,make the boiled-down sample up to exactly a pint again.Tap water is not recommended because,in some areas,it has a considerable dissolved mineral content which could affect your results.

5.Cool the sample down to 60o-F, or what ever temperature your hydrometer is calibrated for.

6.Read the SG of the sample,we will call this reading SG-2.You will find it higher than SG-1 because you have removed the alcohol and replaced it with water.

7.Subtract SG-1 from SG-2. The difference is called the Spirit Indication.

8.Read the alcohol strength from the following table.

Spirit Indication---- Alcohol Strength,% by volume
1.5 ----------------------- 1,0
2-------------------------- 1.3
3 ------------------------- 2.0
4 ------------------------- 2.7
5-------------------------- 3.4
6-------------------------- 4.1
7-------------------------- 4.9
8-------------------------- 5.6
9-------------------------- 6.4
10------------------------- 7.2
11------------------------- 8.0
12------------------------- 8.8
13------------------------- 9.7
14------------------------- 10.5
15------------------------- 11.4
16------------------------- 12.3
17------------------------- 13.2
18------------------------- 14.1
19------------------------- 15.1
20------------------------- 16.0
21------------------------- 17.0
22------------------------- 18.0
23------------------------- 19.0
24------------------------- 20.0
25------------------------- 21.0
26------------------------- 22.0

As an example:
SG-1 (SG of oraginal wine) = 0.995
SG-2 (SG of sample at stage 6) =1.011
Spirit Indication= 1.011 - 0.995 = 16
Alcohol strength= 12.3 % by volume.

Buy a short range hydrometer, reading from 0.990 to 1.020. This should let you read SG to half a degree.You can then work out a spirit indication to half a unit and by interpolation on the table reach a closer value for alcohol strength.