Wine with grapes....

[michjen]

Ok, I am sure this has been asked a million times... If I want to do a 5 gallon carboy of fresh grapes, how many pounds of grapes do I need? Is it better to make juice first? Or crush and let it ferment? Petic enzyme? What kind if yeast is best? These are red grapes that I want to use..

 

[michjen]

Needing help!!!

 

[cedarswamp]

Ok, I am sure this has been asked a million times... If I want to do a 5 gallon carboy of fresh grapes, how many pounds of grapes do I need? Is it better to make juice first? Or crush and let it ferment? Petic enzyme? What kind if yeast is best? These are red grapes that I want to use..

Around 90-100 lbs, for a red crush and ferment, yes to PE, best yeast depends on grape variety.

 

[michjen]

That seems like a lot! Do I pour boiling water o. The grapes once crushed?

 

[garymc]

Sounds like a lot to me, too. I use about 30 pounds of muscadine grapes. They don't make as much juice as regular grapes pound for pound, but a lot more water can be used with them. If the grapes are flavorful, aromatic and acidic I like to use Lalvin 71b-1122. http://www.lalvinyeast.com/71B.asp

 

[saramc]

12-15# of fresh grapes typically yields one gallon of 100% juice. Of course this varies per cultivar and conditions at harvest, crush/press. Just about every vineyard that sells grapes here expects you to use 75#/5-gal batch.

 

[grapeman]

It is best to use pure grapes as they come crushed. Pectic enzyme is not needed for reds. The fermentation process breaks down the grapes. When almost finished fermenting you press what is left. Most of the wine will drain out as free run after it has fermented. Grapes like Concord and Muscadine as mentioned may be cut with water, but most wine grapes have an acceptable acid content without diluting.

Use a yeast made for red wines. Lalvin and Red Star make charts for selectin a yeast for the style wine you are doing.

 

[michjen]

Haha ok some of you said yes to PE and some of you said no need for it... 75 pounds sounds reasonable... I will crush and ferment maybe add alittle boiling water guess I will just have to crush them and see what it looks like!

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I typically use approx 100 pounds or so - its always better to go over than under. I don't understand about boiling water ?????

I crush the grapes and add some meta and then if you want cold masculate it or just add the yeast. Make sure you take a hydrometer reading - and all depending on the grape depends on the yeast being used.

I have never used Pectic enzyme for red grapes

Do you have some sort of instructions on how you are going to do this or is someone teaching you ??

 

[novalou]

Haha ok some of you said yes to PE and some of you said no need for it... 75 pounds sounds reasonable... I will crush and ferment maybe add alittle boiling water guess I will just have to crush them and see what it looks like!

Don't forget, fermentation will generate heat to extract color from the grape skins. Boiling water is not necessary.

 

[michjen]

No instructions!!! That's why I am here looking for advice, never done this before so I need guidance)

 

[spaniel]

Read a lot of threads, plenty of information already here. Add 1 campden tablet per gallon of must when you crush; pitch the yeast the next day. The sulfite sterilizes/stuns the must so the boiling water is not necessary. Pectic enzyme is not necessary but typically will not hurt either. When the SG gets down to 1.010-1.020, press the must and put the wine in a secondary with airlock to finish fermentation. Rack off gross lees at about 3 weeks. This should give you plenty of time to read up and decide what you want to do from there!

 

[michjen]

Thank you! Campden tablets are hard for me to find, substitute?

 

[spaniel]

Thank you! Campden tablets are hard for me to find, substitute?

They are just sodium or potassium metabisulphite in pre-measured tablet form. Use a similar amount of one of those in a powdered/granulated format.

Google Midwest Supplies or one of many other online vendors which supply everything you will need.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

here ae some good links to read prior to starting - there are alot of personal different ways of making wine - but they all come out drinkable as long as you follow the basics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winemaking

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/media/pdf-printouts/wine_from_grapes.pdf

 

[novalou]

Read a lot of threads, plenty of information already here. Add 1 campden tablet per gallon of must when you crush; pitch the yeast the next day. The sulfite sterilizes/stuns the must so the boiling water is not necessary. Pectic enzyme is not necessary but typically will not hurt either. When the SG gets down to 1.010-1.020, press the must and put the wine in a secondary with airlock to finish fermentation. Rack off gross lees at about 3 weeks. This should give you plenty of time to read up and decide what you want to do from there!

Another thing: during fermentation, all of the CO2 will push the grape skins to the surface, creating a "cap" this will need to be "punched" down into the liquid at least once a day.

 

[cedarswamp]

Haha ok some of you said yes to PE and some of you said no need for it... 75 pounds sounds reasonable... I will crush and ferment maybe add alittle boiling water guess I will just have to crush them and see what it looks like!

I would go with Grapeman over me.

To those more in the know the reason I said yes is because I added Opti-red and it was recommended to be used in conjunction with Lallzyme EX a pectinase, is this wrong/not needed?

 

[Poni]

Might i suggest the books the way to make wine, or wine making step by step? If you go to morewinemaking.com, to the yeast section, you can see all the different deacriptions of the yeast and what they offer. You could also read the morewine guide to red and white wine making, very good sources of info! You could also check out the lallemand site for descriptions of their yeast too, this would be a big help along with the books i suggested..

id read the books first before weeding through threads on forums, this way you can easily weed out bad information or things that do not apply to you, such as if you should us pectic enzyme or not. Hope this helps

 

[Poni]

Why would you add boiling water to grapes? Ive never seen this, take the pot of water off the stove and order those books! Phew! That was a close one!

 

[michjen]

Hahaha!!!! Tell me about it I am just researching getting as much info as I need I will get the books! Pronto!!!