Adding Concentrated Grape Juice to Kits

[CJH1]

I'm pretty new to wine making as I prefer making beer!.
I've made a couple of wine kits, the Young's Definitive 6 bottle range, and the Solomon Grundy & Carafe 21, 5 gallon kits.
I was wondering if I could put more body into these kits by adding a wine enricher - the Young's 245g costs £2.75 from wilko's, but would the same effect be achieved by adding Concentrated Grape Juice which is much cheaper from Asda, Tesco etc.
What are the drawbacks of this, if any, and would I have to cutback on the added sugar in my instructions?
Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[HLA91]

Can't really answer the effects question but what I can say is that last time I checked Tesco and Asda don't sell concentrated grape juice, what they so sell is "Grape juice not from concentrate" which is totally different from the grape juice concentrate sold in wilkinsons, which is a syrup made from 2nd class wine grapes I believe.

I'll have a go at the effects, the kits are designed to make a baseline bottle of wine if the instructions are followed exactly. By playing around you run the risk of having an even better result but also the risk of something not agreeing with the other ingredients in the kit and producing something below that base line.

Sugar you would have to check how much is in whatever you are adding and subtract that from the sugar you put in yourself.

 

[bobsbeer]

When it comes to wine kits, especially red, you kind of get what you pay for. I would recommend that you go for the £30-£40 ish kits and then brew slightly short. Once you have made up the must about 2 liters short take a SG reading. (Make sure you mix well before doing this). You want to aim for about 1.090- 1.085. Don't go above 1.090 or you will loose the balance of the wine.

Adding concentrate to any kit will help especially the cheap ones, but you are also adding sugar. Youngs small tins of concentrate have about 160g sugar, so if making a kit where you add sugar, reduce by this amount. HLA is right, juice from the supermarket is not the same stuff. Use it for topping up by all means, but don't expect great results if you just use red grape juice.

 

[Dieseljockey]

Can't really answer the effects question but what I can say is that last time I checked Tesco and Asda don't sell concentrated grape juice, what they so sell is "Grape juice not from concentrate" which is totally different from the grape juice concentrate sold in wilkinsons, which is a syrup made from 2nd class wine grapes I believe.

Ok so which is the best for making wine. The reason I ask is I've brewed beer for years and only about 3 wine kits. Now I'm having a go at these wines made from the 1 Liter cartons. Last Sat I started a Pom/WGJ one, going nice at the mo. I've got 11.5 kg of rhubarb in the freezer waiting for Fri to get that started.