Adding fresh skins to kits

[kuziwk]

I ran into someone that was telling me to start buying some wine grapes and putting them right in there with the kits. They said i can crush them up with my hands, than freeze them and add them when I’m ready. I was thinking a potatoe masher in a 5 gallon bucket might do the trick, however how much sulphites should i be adding? If I’m freezing do i need any at all? I would hate to cause an infection in one of my juice buckets are kits.

Up until this point i bought a few packs of skins separate from another supplier that are crushed and ready to go, they are $20 a bag though. Apparently the grapes i can get when they are In season are much cheaper, i can buy them in bulk. Process them and freeze them.

 

[CDrew]

If you can get fresh grapes, why bother with a kit? Just make your wine out of the grapes. Maybe I'm missing something?

 

[kuziwk]

Several reasons actually, mainly time being a factor since crushing 5-10 lbs of skins per kit vs 100 lbs of skins, Thats 10-20 times the amount of work and time required. I don’t have a crusher/destemmer and I’m not prepared to drop serious cash on it either right now, crushing and destemming 100LBS of grapes by hand would be crazy. Than the balancing act of acids and others, i cant imagine throwing 10 lbs of skins into a kit will throw the acid Balanced out much of any at all. Also there is variety, with kits i can make wine from around their world and in my opinion adding 5-10 lbs of skins for more body/tannnin wont change the taste dramatically of the kit other than color, structure and tannin, I chalk it up to a tweak.

one day when I’m retired I will make wine from fresh grapes and buy the proper equipment, i just dont have the time now.

 

[cmason1957]

Actually crushing/destemming 100 lbs of grapes only takes about 20 minutes or so. It isn't a pick each individual grape, it's run your hand down a bunch of grapes and pull off as many as fast as you can. My wife and I once did 400 pounds by hand. I thought she might be ready to kill me by the end of it, but no.

 

[kuziwk]

Actually crushing/destemming 100 lbs of grapes only takes about 20 minutes or so. It isn't a pick each individual grape, it's run your hand down a bunch of grapes and pull off as many as fast as you can. My wife and I once did 400 pounds by hand. I thought she might be ready to kill me by the end of it, but no.

Alright well regardless, if I wanted to add fresh grapes to my kits would I need to sulfite them if I immediately froze them? If so how much? would I than have to let them sit for 24 hours for the sulfite to disapate before pitching in the the must?

 

[cmason1957]

Alright well regardless, if I wanted to add fresh grapes to my kits would I need to sulfite them if I immediately froze them? If so how much? would I than have to let them sit for 24 hours for the sulfite to disapate before pitching in the the must?

I'm probably the wrong person to really answer this, since even when I get 400-500 lbs of grapes I don't sulfite at the beginning and I have been known to do completely native yeast ferments. At the 10-20 lbs level, I wouldn't freeze them, unless timing requires it and I wouldn't sulfite them.

 

[Johnd]

You should be able to strip 10 - 20 pounds of grapes off of the stems and smush them up a bit in just a few minutes. If grapes are in good shape (no mold, mildew, rot, etc), I don't ever sulfite them, and you could add them straight into your waiting must and pitch yeast immediately. You don't need to freeze them, but you certainly can if you like. If you do freeze them, you still won't need to sulfite them after thawing if they are in good shape.

 

[joeswine]

Ok ,yes, you can buy let say at your local superstore green grapes, red grapes strawberry, raspberries, blackberries, or your grape packs .
Go to making an fpac on this forum and vacuum seal for later.

 

[Rocky]

Kuz, I make all my wine these days from either kits or juice buckets. When using red juice buckets, I usually buy a lug of the same or similar grapes, strip them by hand, crush them in a 6 gallon bucket with a sanitized end of a 2x4 and add them to the wine in primary fermentation. The red kits I buy usually have a grape pack.

I have bought several lugs of grapes (usually Zinfandel or Cabernet Sauvignon), stripped, crushed and froze them in 1 gallon freezer bags without adding sulfite. I keep them until needed for a juice bucket or occasionally a kit and thaw them before adding to the fermentation. I have toyed with the idea of cooking off some of the water after crushing the grapes in order to concentrate the "grape pack" but I have always opted for expediency and gone straight to the freezer bags.

It takes a good 14+ pounds of grapes to net out 1 gallon of wine at bottling time. It also takes a lot of work and one is limited to Spring and Fall for wine making and limited to the varieties that are available. Over the years, I have made a great deal of wine from grapes. Some years were very good and some were very mediocre, depending on the grapes. I like the quality, availability, cost, simplicity and neatness of juice buckets and kits and I gladly sacrifice a marginal amount of increased quality for those attributes.

 

[joeswine]

Rocky,nice post .,.