Grape wine experiment

[Boozehag]

Well had to try it sometime, making a wine from actual grapes. I usually make fruit wines like feijoa or blueberry but someone gave me 8kg of grapes to play with.

I know NOTHING about making grape wine, from what I have read on here, its a little more complex than other fruits so any help and advice much appreciated.
I realise that 8kg is only going to make a 5 gallon bottle worth so that's all cool ,but here are my questions -

1) These grapes are frozen, is that ok? They have been washed and stalks removed, not sure if that's good or bad either.

2) What are enzymes and do I have to use them? Or is there an alternative? I use yeast nutrients in other wines, is this the same sort of thing?

3) I was told these are red wine grapes but I have no idea of variety, they said they were told they were grown to make port and sherry!!! Does it matter how i treat them if I dont know what Im making?

Im going to treat it like an experiment but value a little advice on this if anyone can help me as I also don't want to waste time and ingredients regardless.

 

[Luc]

I realise that 8kg is only going to make a 5 gallon bottle worth so that's all cool ,but here are my questions -

1) These grapes are frozen, is that ok? They have been washed and stalks removed, not sure if that's good or bad either.

2) What are enzymes and do I have to use them? Or is there an alternative? I use yeast nutrients in other wines, is this the same sort of thing?

3) I was told these are red wine grapes but I have no idea of variety, they said they were told they were grown to make port and sherry!!! Does it matter how i treat them if I dont know what Im making?

Ehhhhhhhhh

8 kilo is nowhere going to make 5 galloon !!!!
8 kilo is likely to get you 4 liter juice being about 1 gallon !!!
So at most you will be making 2 gallon.

If you add water to 5 gallon it will be so much watered down that it will be a tasteless flavorless flabby wine.

Frzoen is ok. Just let them thaw and they will release their juice easily. Crush them next with a potato masher.

Look here for my wine recipe for wild grapes it will exactly tell you how to make wine from wild grapes and which ingredients to use.

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2009/09/wilde-druiven-wild-grapes.html

Luc

 

[Boozehag]

Duhhhh Im not good with these measurement things, I did mean 5 litres or the 1 gallon jar, it took me ages to find a receipe that would say how many kilos to use for what as most were in litres or ounces etc and as you can see maths is not my fortay. i did realsie i could only get about 6 bottles worth out of this lot.

thanks so much for your reply Luc thats most helpful and the link tells me all the rest i need to know. You have assisted me a lot!

 

[Wade E]

Collette, here is a link to a website withn any conversion you may need pretty much. I use it whey you people over there throw Kilos or something like that at me! LOL Bookmark it and youl be all set!
http://www.onlineconversion.com/

 

[Angie]

Rule of thumb we usually go by: 100 pounds of grapes gives you enough juice for 23L or about 6gallons - depending on the grape you can also get enough juice out of them to top up after racking

 

[robie]

This is a good starting manual for fresh/frozen grape wine making. I'll assume your grapes are for red wine.
Good luck!

http://www.morewinemaking.com/public/pdf/wredw.pdf

 

[Boozehag]

Great stuff, thanks all of you for your help! I have saved that link Wade for conversions, much needed i think!!! ;-)
Going to give the grape wine a go from today.

Our feijoa trees are producing massive amounts of fruit so there will be an abundance of feijoa wine happening in this part of the world right now! Now that I can handle!

 

[Boozehag]

Well youre all going to slap me, I didnt take a hydrometer reading at the beginning, couldnt get enough of a sample and was too lazy to filter some off (was late at night!
Anyway so far it looks great and is fermenting well, its definitely a red although not terribly dark, apparently half the grapes are a shiraz variety, the other i dont know!
Luc I loved your comment on your blog about the not going to make it again! I so understand if it wasnt all that great a wine cause its a lot of work isnt it. I found all the info shared on this thread most useful, so thanks to you all, I will let you know what the outcome is of this particular brew!
Going to make feijoa now the primary is freed up again!