My grandparents who live in wisconsin grow some type of grape in their garden, not sure what kind,.but they want me to try and make some wine for them from these grapes., just curious if any one had a recipe I could use or point me in the right direction. I checked out jack kellers recipe for grapes and he stated that I would need to use a press for a certain portion of the recipe, but I don’t have a fruit puts.
Last Fall, I did two 6 gallon batches, a Norton and a Corot Noir, both without a press. Each was about 100 lbs of grapes.
I split each batch into two 5-6 gallon buckets and used the largest mesh/gauze bags I had. (You can find large ones at a paint supply store pretty cheaply). Since both types were for a red wine, I wasn’t worried about pressing them too soon. After 24 hours of camden (1 tab per gal) and pectic enzyme, I pitched the yeast right on top of the grapes; stirred and pushed cap down at least twice a day re-covering the bucket with muslin secured with a rubber band.
After 8-10 days (possibly too long on the skin-but what a rich color and tanin was not too strong), with surgical gloves from Walgreens, I just squeezed the bag gently till no liquid ran out…Racked to secondary and affixed airlock. Then let the mesh bag with pulp drip overnight through a sieve/collandar into a stainless steel brew pot…then added that to the secondary.
Note: all bags, gauze, gloves, bowls, sieves etc were sanitized with 5 Star.
Both have been racked several times in the last year and are now aging in 6 gallon carboys. If you don’t have glass or stainless for aging, you may have to stabilize and bottle sooner.
I’ve been pretty happy with each as taste has continued to improve. A white wine wouldn’t be left on the skins that long of course, but if I had access to free grapes, I’d be tempted to experiment…maybe do the squeezing after 24 hours of camden and pectic…it would just take more time as the grapes haven’t broken down as much…then pitch yeast.
good luck.
You can crush them by hand. Test sugar and add to a SG of 1.090. If you have an acid test kit, adjust to .65% for red wine, .70% for white wine.
1US Gal
18lbs grapes
1tsp Nutrient
1Campden (crushed)
1pkg of wine yeast
Crush grapes into primary and add campden. Adjust acid and sugar and add nutrient. Allow to set for 24hrs and add yeast. Keep the cap punched down and wet in red wines. Rack to secondary when SG reaches 1.030 straining pulp as well. Rack again when fermentation is complete. Rack when needed for clearing.
Just got done picking the grapes, brought back 6.5 gallons of juice and a little under 6 gallons of pulp with a lot of juice still in it. I am anxious to get started on this, never done fresh grapes before. Going to split it up into two batches, don’t have a primary fermenter big enough. Once you start the fermentation, what is the best way to get the juice out of the pulp bag? Just let it sit over night in a bucket?
Use your spoon to lightly press the bag against the side.
Alright thanks for all the info! Just pitched the yeast tonight. SG @ 1.090. Acidity was a little high so I added some calcium carbonate. Hopefully all goes good.
