Muscadine......With or without hulls?

[nafarmboy]

Howdy, I have 135 lbs of muscadines (85 lbs purple and 50 bronze) as I gathered them I froze them 6 lbs to the bag. I was planning on using 6 lbs per gallon. I have a batch of bronze in secondary now that I am making from juice frozen last year. My question is......Is it better to juice them and make wine from juice or just crush them and put juice, hulls, and seed in a bag and put it in the primary. Before anyone mentions it, I have no intention of removing seed in 135 lbs of muscadines, however I have a Roma mill so juicing them and making from juice would be easy enough. Would love to hear from someone who has made muscadine before.
Tom

 

[saramc]

I personally have not made it, but have helped friends when visiting in GA while they made it. They just crush and destem and ferment with skins.
I think if you use your Roma foodmill you will crush the seeds too much which can impart a quite bitter aspect to the wine, overloading on tannin. Unless you can make some sort of adjustment so that the seeds will not be crushed. (I know some food mills will allow for a chunkier crushing).

Let us know what you decide to do.

 

[nafarmboy]

If I am juicing them for jelly I crush them add just a little water, cook them for a little while them run them through the juicer, doesn't even bust the seeds. Juice comes out one chute and hulls and seed s come out another. I'll keep you informed when I decide........got no space in freezer
Tom

 

[Julie]

nafarmboy, crush the grapes and take an acid test. Add enough water to lower the acid. Muscadine is probably the only grape I would recommend you to add water. The flavor of muscadine is strong enough in flavor to handle the water addition. Then add enough sugar to bring sg to 1.080 - 1.090. Ferment for bout 7 days and then press the grapes.

 

[nafarmboy]

Ferment for bout 7 days and then press the grapes.
Julie, glad you responded......I have read some of your posts mentioning muscadines so I feel comfortable taking your advice. Lots of questions.....what kind of yeast do you recommend? By pressing grapes do you mean putting them in a fermenting bag and squeezing it after 7 days or actually taking them out of the primary and pressing them in a press (don't have one of those)? Where is a starting point on a 6 gallon batch as far as lbs of muscadine? How much extra must do I make to compensate for removing the muscadines from the must? Do I add nutrient? I knew from reading there was an acid issue with muscadines so I waited till I got a ph meter to attempt them. What do you recommend as far as ta percent and ph? I am extremely new at making wine so don't take nothing for granted when talking to me.
Thanks Tom

 

[Julie]

Ferment for bout 7 days and then press the grapes.
Julie, glad you responded......I have read some of your posts mentioning muscadines so I feel comfortable taking your advice. Lots of questions.....what kind of yeast do you recommend? By pressing grapes do you mean putting them in a fermenting bag and squeezing it after 7 days or actually taking them out of the primary and pressing them in a press (don't have one of those)? Where is a starting point on a 6 gallon batch as far as lbs of muscadine? How much extra must do I make to compensate for removing the muscadines from the must? Do I add nutrient? I knew from reading there was an acid issue with muscadines so I waited till I got a ph meter to attempt them. What do you recommend as far as ta percent and ph? I am extremely new at making wine so don't take nothing for granted when talking to me.
Thanks Tom

Hi Tom, LOL, I didn't go to bed but I did starting watching a movie.

by pressing, yes you can place the grapes in a bag and squeeze but I use a press. Lowes or Home Depot sells paint straining bags, 2 for about $5, get them and pour your wine thru those and then squeeze. To be honest, I don't know how many lbs of grapes per gallon. It depends on how how high the acid is in the grapes and that all depends on the growing season. I would take a 7 gallon primary, fill it up with grapes, crush, add about a gallon of water, take a ph reading or an acid test, and taste it. I keep my ph around 3.5

 

[Sacalait]

My recommendation would be 7#'s/gal. for cultivated muscadines. If using the wild ones less are required since they have a stronger flavor in my opinion. For a 5gal batch figure on 1-1 1/2 gal of water and figure on ph of 3.30~3.25. The 5gal paint straining bag works well, I use it from the beginning. Do not crush the seeds but be sure that the skins are broken. Dump the mash into a 6gal primary that has been lined with the straining bag. Add 1/4tsp Kmeta. Boil the water and add 7#'s +/- sugar (SG will be about 1.082) to dissolve then add to primary. Lalvin 1118 does a fine job of fermenting. 5tsp of yeast nutrient and 1/4tsp (liquid) pectic enzyme is all that remains to be done. When the SG reaches 1.010 squeeze the bag and transfer the liquid to a 5gal carboy with air lock.

 

[jswordy]

Thanks for the comments Julie!

Still learning about this grape, but I use 10 pounds/gallon of a cultivar muscadine with 71B1122 (my favorite yeast overall). My friend uses 15 pounds of cultivar per gallon and has two dozen-plus blue ribbons for his muscadine wine. I don't know his yeast.

I keep hearing that EC1118 is good for this type wine, but I am afraid with the heavy sugar loads that are in my recipes, it would spike the alcohol off the charts.

If you want a white wine out of dark muscadines, press off the juice first and then ferment. Otherwise, keeping it on the skins is really good for the structure of the wine. Mine's always on the skins. I get the white scuppernongs for white wine.

Anxious this year to try a new recipe dictated to me by an 84 year old wife of a moonshiner. Kind of scared of it, too, since it is an open ferment right up to bottling. I may modify that part of it to include carboy secondary for my own peace of mind, though many have made it and say it is fine.

So I probably will divide out some grapes to use in the new-to-me recipe, and make the others to a traditional grape wine recipe. Just in case.