Thick Muscadine wine help. Warning, long read!

[garymc]

When you were talking about removing the stems, I thought "that doesn't sound like muscadines." You pick muscadines off the stem grape by grape and you don't have any stems in your bucket. I don't know anything about mustang grapes. But if the sweetness is close, it will seem to sweeten up as it ages. The acids and bitter stuff will mellow and allow the sweetness to be more prominent.

 

[jamesngalveston]

garymc...you can sit and eat muscadines with out any problem..You can not eat mustang grapes..Period.
They are so acidic that it prevents you from eating, no sugar contend at all, and will break you out in a rash if you handle them for very long.
They have a flavor thats not like a grape really.
They make excellent wine if made correctly.

 

[saramc]

Did you add sorbate and k-meta before you added the concentrate?

Also, in future, check out www.homewinery.com for wine concentrates in a variety of grape and fruits. Website shows product for five gallons, but you can call them and order smaller volume.

 

[LoneStarLori]

Did you add sorbate and k-meta before you added the concentrate?

Also, in future, check out www.homewinery.com for wine concentrates in a variety of grape and fruits. Website shows product for five gallons, but you can call them and order smaller volume.

yes, I added them 5 days ago to be sure it was stable. 12 hours later and no bubbles. I think I'm safe.
I bought a concentrate of black currant from Midwest and am making the 3 gal recipe. I got this concentrate from http://www.swansonvitamins.com/bernard-jensen-concord-grape-concentrate-16-fl-oz-liquid

I can tell you it was way stronger than the Vinters Reserve black currant. For drinking purposes it's 1 tbl to 8 oz water.

 

[LoneStarLori]

garymc...you can sit and eat muscadines with out any problem..You can not eat mustang grapes..Period.
They are so acidic that it prevents you from eating, no sugar contend at all, and will break you out in a rash if you handle them for very long.
They have a flavor thats not like a grape really.
They make excellent wine if made correctly.

I have to agree with James. They are not edible on their own and the taste is very tart and hard to compare to any other grape.
I'm aiming to make this a real slow wine. At this point with all the additions, I have to look at is as Mustang blend and not a Muscadine. Whatever it is, I hope it's drinkable.

 

[corinth]

I followed the whole thread and found it a truly learning experience since so much of what I have done so far is not set in memory. BTW, LoneStarLori,
how has it gone so far?? Your last post was in August

 

[LoneStarLori]

Glad you liked the thread. I got lots of good advice on it.

I hit it with some Super Kleer in Sept and that helped a little but not nearly clear enough. It has been cold stabilizing in a spare refrigerator since late sept. I am going to have to rack it and strain the tartaric crystals if there are any tomorrow. I would like to leave it where it is for another month, but we have guests coming this weekend and family at Thanksgiving and think they will want to use the fridge in the guest house.
If that does'nt do the job, I have a filter for the AIO that I haven't used yet. I may try filtering. I'll take and post some pictures of the process.

 

[LoneStarLori]

Well, I took this out of the cold stabilization on Friday. It was a bit clearer than when I put it in 2 months ago, but not much sediment on the bottom. While cold, I filtered it through a fine mesh coffee filter looking for crystals as Wordy suggested and I saw nothing. It was still a little 'thick' so I decided to filter it using my AIO and the whole house filter. One pass left it a little less thick, but not my much. So I decided to filter again. First I backwashed the filter first to get out as much sediment as I could. After the second racking, there was a noticeable color change, however I didn't photograph it before I dumped it. The color was more orange than shown below.
The taste is coming around. It is hot for sure. I'm beginning to think this is the alcohol that is making it thick. I don't think I'll ever know the ABV since I didn't have a hydrometer when I started, and also put it through a second fermentation by accident. I would guess it is at least 20%. The mustang is now resting again in the dark. I believe this will be a drinkable, strong wine in the next year. Only time will tell.