PossumPie
Junior
I've been making wine off and on for 10+ years. My parents have a large grape arbor, but they are all Concord. We gather the grapes, wash them, smash them in 5-gallon buckets, and then run them through a homemade press. My parents don't drink, so they only want the grapes for jelly/juice, therefore I leave there with 5-6 gallons of juice. B/C the juice doesn't ferment "on the skins" it is always a blush wine.
I only made 1 gallon this year, Used a campden tab. the day before, added pectin the next day, and used champagne yeast (it was all I had) and I added sugar to bring it to 22 Brix. pH was 3.7 after adding raisins and lemon peel. Racked several times, it is clear and I bottled today. Tasted good (for unaged wine) but not completely dry, An alcohol value test showed ABV of only 4.7%. Usually I can get closer to 7-8% so I don't know why it stalled this year. Yeast stored in fridge, fermented at 72F. Definitely not dry-tasting, but no fermentation so I'm not worried about bottling. Any ideas?
I only made 1 gallon this year, Used a campden tab. the day before, added pectin the next day, and used champagne yeast (it was all I had) and I added sugar to bring it to 22 Brix. pH was 3.7 after adding raisins and lemon peel. Racked several times, it is clear and I bottled today. Tasted good (for unaged wine) but not completely dry, An alcohol value test showed ABV of only 4.7%. Usually I can get closer to 7-8% so I don't know why it stalled this year. Yeast stored in fridge, fermented at 72F. Definitely not dry-tasting, but no fermentation so I'm not worried about bottling. Any ideas?