# Muscadines



## ffemt128 (Oct 10, 2011)

I crushed 3-6 gallon buckets of Bronze, 3-6 gallon buckets of Reds and 5-6 gallon buckets of Nobles yesterday. I brought SG up to 1.090 for all of them. Pitched the yeast this morning around 10:00 am, I'm proud to say, we have fermentation in all batches. The nobles are developing a nice cap already. I used D47 on the Reds, 1122 on the Bronze and RC-212 on the Nobles. I'll give it a week to ten days the do my press on the grapes and remove from the skins.

The cellar is already smelling like the grapes.


----------



## djrockinsteve (Oct 10, 2011)

Doug I racked to clear the first bucket of red. I used lalvin yeast and these are fermenting the fastest. The ones on the wild yeast are a few days lagging.

I pulled my skins @1.030 and am making a muscadine skeeter.


----------



## Julie (Oct 10, 2011)

djrockinsteve said:


> Doug I racked to clear the first bucket of red. I used lalvin yeast and these are fermenting the fastest. The ones on the wild yeast are a few days lagging.
> 
> I pulled my skins @1.030 and am making a muscadine skeeter.



Steve, I made a muscadine skeeter from last years slurry, just bottled it, I'll let you know how it tastes, haven't taste it yet


----------



## ffemt128 (Oct 11, 2011)

Hmmm, a muscadine Skeeter. I guess I better add another carboy to the list.


----------



## djrockinsteve (Oct 11, 2011)

Doug it's a deep dark color and I will only add 2 bottles of lemon and add a few cans of some concentrate to back sweeten.

Me too I'm bottling to free up carboys.


----------



## ffemt128 (Oct 12, 2011)

Ahhhhh, the sweet smell of fresh grapes and fermentation last night in the dining room was outstanding.


----------



## Julie (Oct 12, 2011)

We picked 2 6g of bronze, 2 6g of red and 2 6g of noble, i was able to get 10g of wine from the bronze, 12g from the red and 15g from the nobles. I was really surprised on much juice we were getting from the nobles. We packed the buckets pretty full, while i was pushing down, Eddie kept adding more, then we had to push the lid down on them, so my buckets were pretty full. Mine are all off the skins and sitting in carboys bubbling away.


----------



## ffemt128 (Oct 12, 2011)

I'm planning on pressing the bronze Sunday morning. That will be a week ont he skins. I'll put those into a bucket until fermented dry. I'll check the SG on the Nobles and the Reds on Sunday as well and determine when I will need to press those. I may need to take a 1/2 day of work next week one day to accomplish this without any interuptions. (Think 4 y/o)


----------



## ffemt128 (Oct 14, 2011)

I just finished pressing the skins of my bronze. From 3 almost full six gallon buckets, I ended up with 12 gallons of juice. SG after pressing was 1.016. That was a down from 1.090 on Sunday. After pressing, I ended up with a bucket of tightly compressed skins. Put a lid on those and I'll turn those under my garden when I pull everything out this weekend.

I'll be checking the other muscadine and will likely be pressing those Sunday morning. Looks like I'll be buying some carboys next week on Payday.


----------



## ffemt128 (Oct 15, 2011)

Pressed the Red today. Almost 13 gallons of very heavy full bodied juice. I have this in 2 buckets and a gallon jug now. I will be pressing the Nobles tomorrow unless we do it tonight.

I'm anticipating some full bodied muscadine when these finish up and are bottled next April or May.


----------



## ffemt128 (Oct 16, 2011)

Pressed the Noble skins this morning. 24 gallons from 5-6 gallon buckets. Not to shabby. That was with 1 gallon of water per bucket as recommended.


----------



## ffemt128 (Oct 17, 2011)

Transferred the bronze and the red muscadine to carboys. SG of each was at .996. Nobles will be transferred tonight. Lot of sediment in the Reds. I'll probably lose 1 1/2 gallons to sediment from the 12 1/2 gallons starting. Time will tell, I'll take a look at it in a few weeks and transfer off the heavy lees at that time.


----------



## ffemt128 (Nov 12, 2011)

After pressing the 30 gallons (5-6 gallon buckets) of Noble grapes, I ended up with 18 1/2 gallons of juice. I added 1 gallon of water per bucket of grapes prior to fermentation. Eddie's recommendation was 1 gallon per 5 gallon of grapes. I made up a batch of water wine in anticipation of adding about another 1/2 gallon of water wine per 6 gallon carboy of wine to get me to where the recommended addition should have been. Anyway, after that long disertation, I sampled the Noble this am and while if is a very stong muscadine taste and heavy body wise, I may have to reconsider the addition of the water wine. I still have about 1 1/2 gallons of juice to pull off the slurry that was left after last racking. If I add any water wine it may be the minimal amount to maintain a completed 20 gallons of Noble. Boy am I excited abou this for next year. I think it will turn our very well. 

Now the question is, what to do with 4 gallons of water wine. Hmmmm I'm thinking a fruity sangria this summer may be in order or just save for topping up other wines.

Thank you again Eddie.


----------



## Sirs (Nov 12, 2011)

hey you came down and picked them, I know i helped but your the one who bore the expnse of the trip and all I'm just glad you was able to get plenty. So you think the noble even though it is a very stout grape may not need to have your water wine added to it huh?? That dry high ABV noble I gave you was one I did with no water added so it can be done


----------



## ffemt128 (Nov 13, 2011)

I'm looking forward to it. It will be good. Given I have 20 gallons, I'll likely play with this once clear. Do a dry batch, a batch with oak and a variation of sweetness. That sounds like a plan. Now the question, American or French oak? Which toast level and how much?


----------



## Julie (Nov 13, 2011)

ffemt128 said:


> I'm looking forward to it. It will be good. Given I have 20 gallons, I'll likely play with this once clear. Do a dry batch, a batch with oak and a variation of sweetness. That sounds like a plan. Now the question, American or French oak? Which toast level and how much?



depends on what you want as an end product with the oak, different oaks will give you a different flavor, I like Hungarian oak, it gives that vanilla flavor which I really like


----------



## ffemt128 (Nov 14, 2011)

I've generally used the medium toast french in my Elderberry.


----------



## ffemt128 (Nov 14, 2011)

I racked all the good juice from the red slurry and Noble slurry into a blend. I filled a 3 gallon carboy between the 2. I'll use this for any small topping up that will be needed down the road then keep the rest as a blend. May try a blend with the noble and red after back sweetening again as I did last year.


----------



## ffemt128 (Nov 20, 2011)

I racked the Bronze and the Red to clean carboys yesterday afternoon. While very gassy still at this point, the bronze was outstanding in flavor. I'll probably wait until after Christmas to rack again at which time I'll stabilize and back sweeten. 

On batch of the Noble has had zero activity in the airlock for a couple weeks. That one tasted wonderful the other day when I sampled.


----------



## n2tazmania (Nov 25, 2011)

*Nobles*



Sirs said:


> hey you came down and picked them, I know i helped but your the one who bore the expnse of the trip and all I'm just glad you was able to get plenty. So you think the noble even though it is a very stout grape may not need to have your water wine added to it huh?? That dry high ABV noble I gave you was one I did with no water added so it can be done



I have 2 Nobel vines that I set out this spring. How many pounds do you usually get from your Nobels? I was thinking about setting out 2 more along with 2 more Scuppernong.

I did have 1 bunch of about 5 on one of my Nobel vines. Can't wait til they start really bearing.....


----------



## Sirs (Nov 25, 2011)

n2tazmania said:


> I have 2 Nobel vines that I set out this spring. How many pounds do you usually get from your Nobels? I was thinking about setting out 2 more along with 2 more Scuppernong.
> 
> I did have 1 bunch of about 5 on one of my Nobel vines. Can't wait til they start really bearing.....



LOL well they're not mine but I can say once fully grown and if they do really good, you can probly expect to get 20 or 30 pounds from a single vine least thats how these have done but these are at least 4 years old and tobe honest in just about perfect placement from what I've read


----------



## ffemt128 (Nov 29, 2011)

What are the thoughts on oaking muscadine? I racked 20 gallons of Noble on Sunday and I thought about oaking 3 gallons of it but chickened out at the last minute. So, what's everyone say. Oak the 3 gallon or not. If I do I was planning on Medium French toast cubes and maybe finish this batch dry or semi-dry.


----------



## Sirs (Nov 29, 2011)

I know some of the local wineries oak the muscadines abit but not long becuase of the way they taste already they do have that very different taste, I'd say it's your wine if you wanna oak it oak it. I'm still trying to figure how you got that finish on the big reds lol


----------



## djrockinsteve (Nov 29, 2011)

Doug I pondered that too. My vote is No oak.


----------



## ffemt128 (Nov 29, 2011)

Sirs said:


> I know some of the local wineries oak the muscadines abit but not long becuase of the way they taste already they do have that very different taste, I'd say it's your wine if you wanna oak it oak it. I'm still trying to figure how you got that finish on the big reds lol



Which finish would that be?


----------



## ffemt128 (Nov 29, 2011)

djrockinsteve said:


> Doug I pondered that too. My vote is No oak.



Olesia was a no oak vote which is kind of why I decided against it initially. Still pondering. Muscadine does have that unique taste.


----------



## djrockinsteve (Nov 29, 2011)

Now I blended a bottle of muscadine with a gallon of merlot which was well oaked. It has a great taste. FYI


----------



## Sirs (Nov 29, 2011)

that finish on that bottle you gave me back in the summer when you came down the intial taste was normal muscadine but right after you swallow there is a lingering taste it was kinda like a sweet but not taste that felt like when you swallow jello. so to speak
it's like it coated your tongue and throat but I agree really no oak ask julie she'll tell you I'm no big oak fan


----------



## Julie (Nov 30, 2011)

I would vote no on the oak. I would think you would be taking away from that distintive taste that is unique to muscadines. Now blackberry screams for oak.

And yes Eddie does not like oak anymore than he likes working in the rain.


----------



## ffemt128 (Nov 30, 2011)

I guess the No's have it. I know what you're taking about Eddie. I can't say for sure. I know the Noble that had that taste, was enough noble to make 10 gallons that I turned into 6 then I blended a gallon of that with 4 gallons of the Red to get make my blend.

I think I have 3 bottles of last year's left. It was that good.


----------



## Sirs (Nov 30, 2011)

oh muscadines are good as wine or wine in pill form specially the nobles oh there is nothing better than the nobles when they've got so ripe they start to do the golf ball dimple thing specially if they've done went thru 2 or 3 good frost talk about yummy.........


----------



## ffemt128 (Dec 1, 2011)

I can only imagine how sweet they would be after a frost. I'm looking forward to this getting finishing up in a few months so we can sample. I think this batch should last longer than a year. I know the Bronze tastes pretty darn good at last racking. It's clearing nicely. I'll stabilize middle of decemeber and then back sweeten a tad.


----------

