Vintner's Best Concord Wine Base

Vintners Best Concord wine base. Makes 5 gallons of Cherry wine. Includes all ingredients except yeast. 128 oz jug of fruit juice and sugar. No straining bag required.

* Campden tablets, sorbate (or wine conditioner) and sugar may be needed for sweetening.

Directions:
1. Sanitize: Clean all equipment and utensils with a sanitizing solution
2. Add Ingredients: In a sanitized fermenter, add 4 gallons of water and the one gallon fruit base. Stir well. Record Starting specific gravity (use a hydrometer).
3. Pitch Yeast: Sprinkle yeast on surface of the must and stir well. Allow fermentation to begin. Maintain temperature at 68-72 deg F. during fermentation.
4. Monitor: Fermentation will begin within 24-48 hours. Allow must to ferment for 2 weeks (14 days).
5. Secondary Racking: After 2 weeks of primary fermentation, rack the wine into a clean and sanitized secondary fermenter (glass or plastic carboy). Allow wine to finish fermentation for an additional 4 weeks (30 days).
6. Record: After the 4 week secondary fermentation, take a specific gravity reading with your hydrometer. If specific gravity is at or below 1.000, proceed with step 7. If gravity is higher than 1.000, continue fermentation until gravity is 1.000 or lower.
7. Stabilizing and clearing: Rack wine to a sanitized carboy, leaving any sediment behind. To stabilize the wine, add one crushed campden tablet per gallon of finished wine. Next, add 1/2 teaspoon potassium sorbate per gallon to the wine and stir well. Allow time for the wine to clear. After approximately 7 days, the wine should be clear and ready to sweeten/bottle. NOTE: do not move to sweetening step until wine is clear.