12 lbs of fresh cab grapes

[Greg Teegarden]

Hello all!

I’ve harvested around 12 pounds of cab grapes from 4 vines I planted around 6 years ago. I was originally planning on tossing them as a substitute for the grape skin pack into a cab wine kit, but I’ve harvested more than I expected which makes me wonder if I have enough to actually make a stand-alone wine.

Wondering what the room here thinks? Is 12 pounds of grapes enough to do anything with?

Thanks.

 

[ibglowin]

You might get one gallon finished out of 18lbs. Thats is sorta a cutoff point IMHO. Or two "ho-made" grape packs for kit wines.

 

[Lwrightjs]

2 ho-made packs for sure. I would love to have grape packs like that

 

[Greg Teegarden]

Thanks for the responses. I had a feeling that this was probably going to be the case. All this said, what’s the recommendation for using them? I have a WineXpert Lodi 11 cab kit ready to go. Guess I’ll save the skin kit it came with for something else.

Question is, should I just add the skins, discarding the juice, or should I add both the crushed grapes and juice, or just put whole berries in and let the fermentation break them down? I plan on doing another EM of 8 weeks on this kit as I did with my last one. I bought some Lallzyme EX with the idea of breaking down the grapes a little first before adding to the kit. The brix at picking time ranged from 22.5 on the low end to almost 30 on the higher end. Most are around 25.

Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks again.

 

[mainshipfred]

There are a number of ways you could do it but if it were me I would crush the lot and add it and the skins (or you could save the skins) and ferment it all together. I know people do it but for me a one gallon batch is too much trouble.

 

[Greg Teegarden]

Thanks, that’s the direction I was leaning. Would it make any sense to crush them all, treat with any enzymes first, add and metabisulfites before adding them to the kit juice? Or just crush and toss it all in as is?

Thanks!

 

[stickman]

If the fruit is in good condition you probably don't need any sulfite, it's a different story if the fruit is broken, insect damaged, or moldy etc.