Complete Novice with a lot of grapes

[Lyndsey]

Hello

I need some very basic help I have read through some of the Tutorials but I am lost, I have no idea what a pearsons square or a carboy is and am just looking for 'How to for idiots'

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I know I have to get a hydrometer and some brewing buckets, I have baby bottle steriliser, will that do? I have some yeast with nutrients in and some campden tablets and also some citric acid..... what else will I need?

Many Thanks in advance x x x

 

[Arne]

To start, you need some kind of a fermenting bucket. Size depends on how big of a batch you are attempting to make. It has to be bigger than the batch so all of the ingredients will fit in it. If you are using grapes, first step is get em off the stems, then break the skins. Catch all the juice and place in the fermenting bucket. (We refer to the bucket as the primary.) I have not made many grape wines so my method is not necessairly the correct one. Anyway, if you want to use wild yeast, you just throw the grapes and juice in the primary. If you can, check the acid and ph. You will have to check the specific gravity which is what you use the hydrometer for. It will tell you about how much alcohol by volume you will wind up with in your wine. It also lets you know how the ferment is coming along. You put some of the juice in a tall skinny jar or test tube and see what the hydrometer reads when it floats in the wine or juice. If not letting it ferment on its own, you should put campden tabs (same as k-meta powder) in the must (the juice and skins you are making wine from.) Let it sit for 12 hrs, and add pectic enzime (helps break down the fruit and aids in clearing later) wait 12 more hours and pitch the yeast. I forgot to add if your brix is not high enough (measured with the hydrometer) you will need to add some sugar to bring it up so you get the alcohol content you want. Let it ferment for a few days in the primary with a towel over the top to keep dirt and bugs out. Mite need to set a lid on top of the towel if you have a cat . It will form a cap on top of the must, you should punch that down a couple times a day or so. I also put the fruit in a ferment bag, something to hold the fruit in, but let the juice out. A paint strainer bag from a paint store works good for this. After 5 or 6 days or so, pull the fruit out and squeeze the juice out of it. Best is to press it, but if you don't have a press, squeezing will work. Now let it sit til the specific gravity gets down to 1.010 or so and transfer to the secondary. this is just a large glass container that you can put a bung in and a airlock. The airlock keeps the air out but lets the co2 made while fermenting out of the wine. Let it finish fermenting and then it will be time to rack off the lees. (the gunk that has fallen out while fermenting. ) It should be in a carboy of some kind, topped up towards the neck so there is not a lot of surface exposed to the air. Up in the neck, but down a couple of inches or so from the bottom of the bung. Now you wait for it to clear. It can be tasted at this time, it will probably have a yeasty, maybe bitter young taste. When you get close to this stage, ask some more and we will give you some more advise. This was for a red wine, if making a white, i believe you press the grapes after crushing and just use the juice, then do the fermenting thing. Good luck with it, hope I didn't make this too confusing, Arne.

 

[jamesngalveston]

carboy: It is a glass or plastic vessel used in fermenting beverages such as wine, mead, and beer. Usually it is fitted with a rubber stopper and a fermentation lock to prevent bacteria and oxygen from entering during the fermentation process.

Its a glass are plastic bottle to hold liquids.

Would not worry about pearsons square..its a formula for mixing two diffrent liquids.

Your hydrometer measures the specific gravity of your must.
You will need, One Step Cleaner for cleaning and sanitizing.

Good wine yeast
Yeast nutrient
Yeast energizer
acid blend
tannin
pectic enzyme
auto syphon racking cane, for 5/16 clear hose
5/16 clear hose
stainless funnel
large measure device
tube for your hydrometer
turkey baster (wine thief)

 

[jamesngalveston]

Arne, nice post ...
Does your cat get into your bucket...

Mite need to set a lid on top of the towel if you have a cat.

lol

 

[Arne]

Arne, nice post ...
Does your cat get into your bucket...

Mite need to set a lid on top of the towel if you have a cat.

lol

No problems with him anymore, he is about 2 yrs old now. But when he was younger, he was in to everything. Got me started setting the lid on and still do out of habit. LOL, Arne.

 

[jswordy]

Should make that Arne post a sticky and call it Shorthand Fermentation Tutorial or something.

 

[Arne]

Should make that Arne post a sticky and call it Shorthand Fermentation Tutorial or something.

lol, maybe should of signed it JSWindy. On second thought, maybe Windy Arne.

 

[Lyndsey]

Thankyou very much for your replies, they are a great help, I knew there was a reason not to get a cat and now I have found it

I have spent the day getting grapes off stalks and squishing them, its taken hours! I now have a new 5 gallon bucket half full with squished red grapes. Should I add the campden tablet as there were a few mouldy bits and they grew outside so might even have bird pooh! seems silly to sterilise everything then put bird pooh in it (maybe)

Then I have to wait 12 hours before I add the yeast right?

I havn't been able to get a hydrometer yet, it will be the middle of next week before I can get one so should I just chuck a bag of sugar in and hope for the best, the grapes are nice and sweet and very ripe.

Thankyou for indulging me x x x

 

[jswordy]

In the future, try to remove all grapes with mold or other imperfections. It's probably too late now. For now, yes, add the campden tablets (crushed) and any other items like yeast nutrient, acid blend, pectic nzyme, etc. that you might wish to use.

On your sugar, you will probably be generally within the recommended area if you add 1 pound per gallon of must. But you are guessing - it is better by far to have a hydrometer and raise sugar to 1.080-1.085. This is your starting specific gravity, and you will be able to measure progress exactly from here. Hydrometers are about $10-15. If you can, get a triple scale one. Handy.

Then wait a day (12-24 hours) and either sprinkle on your yeast or make a yeast starter from the pack directions and pour it in. You will be off to the races!

 

[Lyndsey]

Done! Thanks jswindy x x x no cats in my vat

I have powdered campden tablets so put half a tsp in and 1 tsp of nutrient stuff called .... tronozymol, sounds like a chemotherapy drug *_*

I chucked out all the mouldy bits, its just that they were so close on the vine I thought there would be some contamination, I am quite sure I have only got nice plump juicy grapes in there

 

[Lyndsey]

Sorry for being so forward, its Friday night here in the South of England and I have been trying out a friends cider, it tastes like apple juice but stops your legs working

Can I ask what type of sugar to use? I have put a pound of ordinary granulated stuff in but probably need another pound and all I have in the cupboard is a bit of demerara and some very dark stuff that may well have come from Voldermorts bum

 

[reefman]

I use regular cane sugar (granulated), dissolved in water. 2 cups sugar to one cup water, heat to just under a boil, and stir till disolved and clear. Then let cool, and add to your wine, to taste.
Lots of good post on all of this in the Beginners threads, just search!
HERMIONE CAN TAKE CARE OF THE DARK STUFF FOR YOU!::

 

[Lyndsey]

lol Thankyou I have now got a hydrometer! it seems to be at 22? (quite low down) does that mean I should add sugar? I have got some brewing sugar (1kg) The must looks good, gets a bit crusty on top but have been stirring it every day.

Thanks for your help x x x

 

[Lyndsey]

Hello I know this post goes back 6 years but life got in the way and I didn't get round to bottling the stuff I made. It has been sat in 2 demijohns since then, is there anything I can do with it?

 

[Intheswamp]

Have you smelled or tasted it? What has it been sealed with? Was there any k-meta or k-sorbate added to it? Been sitting on the lees?

I bottled a 3-gal carboy of mead that had sat for 7 years on the lees. It was sealed with an airlock with vodka in it. It turned out pretty good, ABV 14%. I"m not sure how yours will be...taste it.

 

[Intheswamp]

Hydrometer reading? Around or below the 1.0000 level?

 

[Lyndsey]

Thank you for the reply intheswamp it did have sorbate in it, I will check the hydrometer later today , it tasted a bit 'earthy' but ok ish and I don't know what 'on the lees' means :/ it has been in the demijohns with a rubber bung and curly plastic air thing on the top

 

[Jal5]

The lees is the sediment that forms at the bottom or sides of the glass carboy. Dead yeast etc. you generally siphon or rack the wine off the lees into another container periodically as it ages- every 3 months is standard.

 

[chicken]

If it doesn't taste bad, I would say go ahead and bottle it and see what happens.

I have often been surprised at how forgiving wine can be. One year we crushed the grapes but didn't press them until a couple weeks later (don't know why --maybe the weather didn't cooperate?). Then we completely neglected the wine, and it sat on the lees for almost an entire year (Again, I don't know why --my notes are frustratingly incomplete. But we had young kids then, as did the other couple we made the wine with, so life was probably somewhat chaotic that year). We bottled it anyway, even though it tasted rather sharp. A year later, it was very tasty and well balanced. It turned out to be one of our better wines!

 

[Intheswamp]

The sorbate should have the yeast shutdown so most likely is safe to bottle. K-meta (potassium metabisulfite) gives the wine protection from oxidation and other spoilage. My mead had none and survived those years. But the mead *is* a high ABV% honey wine of around 14%...and it's mead. Grape and fruit wines appear to be more "delicate" in regards to oxidation. But there are wines pulled from the bottom of the seas that withstood ships sinking...and the wine was still drinkable. It all depend on you tasting it...if it's something you would enjoy drinking then it's good, if it's something that creates a confused crease to form somewhere on your face it might not be bottle-worthy wine. You're are the wine judge.

Did you take an initial hydrometer reading? If you did you can get a close estimate of the ABV% of the wine. A higher percentage helps with storage. What kind of wine and what color is it?