Turning Welch?s Grape Juice Into Wine In 48 Hours
 

I'm taking the last sip of home-brewed purple liquid. It's sweet yet balanced, fizzy yet quenching, smooth yet these words look a bit blurry. It tastes like a dangerously well-mixed drink. And just 48 short hours ago, it was Welch's.

Yes, good old Welch's Concord Grape Juice. And something about enjoying the beverage in such an adult manner makes my inner child weep.

I haven't touched the stuff since I was 10. Welch's, along with pretty much any processed fruit juice, is just too sugary for me to enjoy. Beyond a stiff margarita, I've found the world of frou frou mixed drinks have been lost on my palate. I don't judge those of you who enjoy all those syrupy, rum-infused rainbows garnished with alcohol, but...I take that back. I do judge you. I'm a booze, juice, food and general topics snob.

But I had to test the claims of Spike Your Juice, a yeast-based kit that ferments any 100% fruit juice, so long as it has 20G of sugar or more per serving, into an alcoholic brew with anywhere from 4-14% ABV. That puts the resulting potency somewhere between beer and wine. With a healthy 30G of sugar per serving, Welch's is a prime candidate for home fermentation.

You add a tiny yeast packet?about the same amount you might add to a bread-loaf of dough?to a 64 oz bottle of juice at room temperature. You ditch the normal cap for an included rubber stopper?one that allows gas to escape the bottle while otherwise keeping an airtight seal. And then you wait.

Apparently, this fast fermentation process is borrowed from the production of Federweißer, a German grape-based booze. Indeed, you can even make an authentic Federweißer with the kit.

Yeast munches on both the fructose and sucrose, then it expels alcohol along with CO2. My bottle of Welch's, as it transcended its forefathers through its alcoholic metamorphosis, fizzed after a bit of waiting. Then, after 24 hours, it bubbled like that slime from Ghostbusters 2.

The substance spilled out the airlock cap onto my counter, rebelling from its family-friendly roots with a new identity all its own.

What had I done?

"I swear you're making poison," my wife warns. I pretend I'm not afraid.

Another day later, and the juice had calmed down, still bubbling incessantly, but with the micro bubbles of champagne rather than the soapy bubbles of painful sequels.

Just an hour ago, I decided to pour a bit on the rocks since it fermented at room temperature. I tentatively sipped, expecting something that I could barely swallow. Instead, I was brought back to my childhood. Grape freezepops, grape sodas, grape jelly...but with a kick at the end. I wouldn't call it a burn, but a microbrew-like presence of alcohol behind the flavor.

After 2 1/2 glasses, it makes for a quick, harsh buzz?akin to the helmet of weight you get around your brow from vodka. There's no way this is 4% ABV?I'd guess it's closer to 8 or 10%.

I don't think I could drink the stuff every day. But I will say this: If Spike Your Juice were around during my childhood, I fear that Welch's concord grape could have had an entirely different connotation. Plus there's no way I'd have ever grown this tall.

Now whoever figures out how to spike peanut butter will be my personal savior.

Where'd you copy and paste that from? No way that's your writing. :winkwink:

i been brewing for a while. :) mostly beer its not my article never said it was.

interesting kit

I love me some Purple :)

Let us know if your buzz turns into a headache.

I've been brewing beer for a couple of years, but havent attempted a wine yet. The funny thing is that I dont even drink beer, I just enjoy the process and then I give all the beer away.

That was 100% cut and paste. You are not smart enough to write that well.

At least give credit. Not my article, indeed.

Where can i buy the kit to try this out at?

walmart

64oz 100% grape juice
bag of sugar
a balloon make sure to clean it with soapy water
1 pack of yeast

if you have a bigger bottle that's better. just make sure its been cleaned.

in the welches jar take some of the juice out. pour in 2 cups sugar and the yeast packet.
put on the balloon and pokes some holes in it with a pin.

wait 7 days if you want you can drink it after 48hrs ( i would wait)

So you make that in the Bordeaux region of your basement?

One of the most creative ways of purchasing alcohol with your EBT card.

:1orglaugh i've made it a few times. this is just a simple way. check this out

5 Gallon Fruit Winemaking Add-On Kit

Free purple drank, y'all.

I'll just buy wine already made. :)

good for you! :thumbsup

you have any cider recipe i can make some good beer but every time i touch cider it turns to shit

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

.

LOL sounds like someone getting ready to do time in prison

Does it actually come out tasting OK or does it taste like crap? Seems like it would be horrible.

:thumbsup :thumbsup

well it taste ok and you know there are no Sulfites added. Sulfites give you the headache the morning after. i use Champagne Yeast they are the best for me.

This I have to try. Thanks for sharing... I'll report back someday when I do it!

Brad

i'll have to remember this the next time I'm in prison, thanks

when i was growing up pn the farm we kids - teens - made hard cider every fall and most of the way thru the winter.

Temperature was the key - as well as light - you just put the plastic jugs in the root cellar, and depending on how long you waited you got a drink that varied from lightly alcoholic to brutal.

Because it was wild yeasts it sometimes went bad but you could smell the difference.

We did the same with concord grape juice and even made alcoholic root beer. Cider was the best and easiest.

Had to be a bit sneaky about it so the parents didn't find out.

Halloween was fun - perfect temps to do it, lots of cider available.

sauce

Might as well just put vodka in the juice.

where diz da clip, Darrion?

http://getdangoodman.com/wp-content/...y-strapped.jpg

Definitely like an "inmate brew". Except I think you normally would use a condom with a tiny pin prick hole to let the CO2 out.

You just have to be sure the juice has REAL sugar or the yeast won't eat it. No fake sweeteners.

Wish they sold that here.

how the hell is it a prison drink?? buy a wine making kit some come with 100% grape juice. its up to you what kind of grape juice. ive seen grape juice go up to about $60 for a 750ml

Right here, Cletus!

http://www.geekologie.com/2010/11/30/gun-girls.jpg

too old.

http://getdangoodman.com/wp-content/...9979291528.jpg

who de daddy iz?

http://getdangoodman.com/wp-content/...nant-bitch.jpg

http://www.justusboys.com/forum/user...8/0/338347.jpg

:1orglaugh

pure ignorance it's just a wine kit where does racism come in

Who said anything about racism?

:thumbsup

What I'm saying is that "inmate brew" is a common term used for brews basically made from a bottle of juice, yeast and a hand made airlock. Youtube is packed with inmate brew videos, under that terminology.

I havent done one yet but I've been thinking about it. It'd make a wine cooler type of drink which isn't bad. I've seen videos of a guy using frozen juice concentrate to make wine as well, but more of a full blown process just replacing the juice kit with welches frozen.

well check out prison wine. they put some krazy stuff in it. most people would rather just buy it than learn how to make it. oh and ive seen plenty of the youtube stuff.

Fuck yeah!

Word ?inmate? is very touchy issue for some people.