Wine from grapes!!

[muddy90]

My mate is giving me his grapes, I don't know what they are (small & black) but he's had a bumper crop. He doesn't use them but doesn't want them to go to waste.
Now, I've made wine from kits, juice & cordial but not grape. I have no means of squishing them except my feet!
Do I need to do anything special with the juice? Do I strain? add anything?
I'd like to think I could make something drinkable :pray:

 

[Chippy_Tea]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zglgFHAPg7E[/ame]

 

[muddy90]

PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME WATCH THAT AGAIN!!! :rofl:
So, basically the same as the the elderberry & blackberry I made last year that are both still in the demijohns in the shed!

 

[Slid]

PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME WATCH THAT AGAIN!!! :rofl:
So, basically the same as the the elderberry & blackberry I made last year that are both still in the demijohns in the shed!

Might be worth checking the last years demijohns out - elderberries can be really tannin and take ages to age, but if they were in the minority, may be worth a taste sometime soon. Blackberries are more you cheap and cheerful stuff.

The grapes are almost cerainly dessert grapes and could be treated as an input to a WOW type approach to wine, as opposed to a a Chateau.

Takes a surprising weight of grapes to give a litre of grape juice, and if you have loads, it might be worth getting a smaller bucket (FV) and doing an initial ferment on the pulped up grapes.

 

[Kiwigardener]

I made some last year from my grape vine (small black grapes unknown var.) picked them too early, didn't know how to read the hydrometer properly the resulting wine was rubbish! Am more hopeful this year: the plan is to pick them and treat them like any other berry - mash with a spud masher and leave them to sit for a day then sieve & squeeze + supermarket RGJ and follow a general fruit wine recipe with 800g - 1kg of sugar a batch (5ltrs) depending on the hydrometer reading- sorry I'm not much help novice too!!!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME WATCH THAT AGAIN!!! :rofl:
So, basically the same as the the elderberry & blackberry I made last year that are both still in the demijohns in the shed!

I liked his slippers. :lol:

 

[muddy90]

I will find out this morning how many grapes I have but 2 years ago he had 2 dustbins full :)

 

[muddy90]

Grapes picked, washed & squished. I have 15L of pulp sat in the fermenter with campden tablets.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Looks like you may need to remove the stems. You can leave them in, but this releases a lot of extra tannin.
I just harvested just under 14 kilos, after removing bad ones, of black grapes. After crushing, I removed a kilo of stems. The juice had an sg of 1065 and a pH of 3.3, so should have been left to ripen further, but they were starting to deteriorate. 1 kilo of sugar brought the sg up to 1090. I added pectic enzyme to speed up colour extraction, left them for 3 days then used a press to extract the juice. Fermentation had started naturally. After racking off the pulp sediment, there was enough to fill 2 dj's to the neck. This should yield 12 bottles of wine.

 

[muddy90]

Hi Tony. I squished them with my feet then removed the stems.
currently in Rome for 4 nights but left the pulp bubbling away & will strain it when we get back home. What's left will go into djs or 5l pet fermenter.
would like to get 12 bottles but anything drinkable is a bonus!

 

[wezil]

Hi, I put my grapes (from a relatives vine, mine are to small just yet) Through a juicer (heresy I know) just remove the stalks and juice! Leave it for a while then syphon the juice from under the cap and ferment away. Last years was a bit sharp due to too many unripe grapes but was still very drinkable and I only put in a few hundred grams of sugar to bring it up to 11%

 

[tonyhibbett]

While I have found a juicer great for apples, I was concerned about the release of excessive tannin from pulverising grape pips and stalks, which may have contributed to the sharpness (bitter taste?) of your previous brew. Also feeding grapes into the small aperture would be rather time-consuming, I assume.
I used to crush the grapes with my feet, which is fast, effective and cost-free (and a great foot massage!) then wring out the juice through a strong nylon straining bag, which is not very efficient and and hard on the wrists with more than a few kilos to process.
I now use a hand-cranked grape mill (a very lucky find at a boot fair) on top of a large bin, then pour the contents into the straining bag inside a 5 litre fruit press above a bucket. This yields about 20% more juice than hand-wringing with considerably less effort. However, if you only have a few kilos of grapes, hand-wringing is actually more efficient than a large press and considerably cheaper.

 

[muddy90]

My feet didn't enjoy the feeling if I'm honest!
As my pulp is already fermenting, do I need to do anything special when I strain it & transfer it to djs? Or just try not to get much O2 into it?

 

[tonyhibbett]

Leave it for a day to settle then rack off the pulp sediment then proceed as with any other wine.
You can use the skins and pips to make a pomace wine. Cover with water, using half the volume of the juice you got. Leave for a day to extract residual colour, sugar and flavour. Strain & press again and take a hydrometer reading. The amount of residual sugar depends on how efficiently it was initially pressed, but either way you will need to add a fair amount. I have done this many times and the results are surprisingly good and you do actually get 50% more wine from your grapes.

 

[muddy90]

Ok, so it's now sat in 2x5L pet fementers & has finished bubbling. It didn't taste horrendous when I racked it off so thats promising!
Couple more questions....
Do I de Gass before bottling & should I add Stabiliser?

 

[tonyhibbett]

Stabilising and degassing are really only required if you intend to use finings to clear the wine. It will clear naturally in a week or 2, especially if moved to a cooler place.

 

[muddy90]

I bottled about 10 days ago & got 12 bottles of lovely clear light red wine.
Well chuffed, it tastes fantastic!
It has a slight bit of co2 dissolved in it so I think I will de gas next time.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Looks great, well worth the effort. :thumb:

 

[tonyhibbett]

The co2 is probably the result of an in-bottle malolactic fermentation, which is common in wine made from fresh grapes. You can de-gass by simply decanting into another bottle and let it breathe a while.
Mine turned out to be rather too acidic, even though the pH was 3.6, which should be smooth enough. I blended it with a different batch with a pH of 4.0, resulting in a final pH of 3.8, which is perfect. However, this caused a slight reaction due to the reduction in acidity, so it will need further racking before bottling.

 

[muddy90]

It was sat in 5l pet fermenters for 4 weeks before I bottled with no activity what so ever. I racked it into them from the main fermenter & let it sit & clear.
Didn't test ph!:wha: