I picked up roughly .5 gallon of frozen zinfandel grapes from the LHBS to add to the cider I will be buying from a local orchard (raw juice, no filtering or pasturization). The store also gave me a package of 1122 yeast to ferment everything. I don’t know much about handling wine grapes, so I can use a little advice on how to handle the grapes. Obviously, I will need to defrost and then crush them first. I will then add them to the bucket with 5 gallons of juice. Should I start the yeast a little early by adding it to the grapes in a 1 gallon jug? Should I sterilize the cider with campden? Any other thoughts or advice to get a good product out of this?
As I said, I am flying by the seat of my pants on this one!
What a great experiment! I don’t know a ton about wine, but I do know about cider. Kind of similar processes actually. No one will agree with me, but here’s exactly what I personally would do in your situation:
So, you’ve got roughly 4 lb grapes, right? One Campden tablet needed per lb fruit, so that’s 4 Campdens, crush them up and add those to your grapes once they are thawed. Then, let the grapes sit for a couple of days in the fridge before you add to your cider. Some people would also add pectic enzyme at the same time, which might help prevent your apple wine (or is it grape cider?) from being hazy and difficult to clear.
Personally I’m a big believer in heat pasteurization for cider, so I’d keep your apple juice in the fridge for those couple of days. Then, on “cider making day” after your grapes are ready, bring your 5 gallons of apple juice to 160 F for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place grapes into fermenter. Then pour your warm apple juice in on top of the grapes. Let this cool overnight (“no-chill”). Finally, next morning, add your yeast. Keep cool during fermentation – I would do the 50s Fahrenheit, sort of like a lager, but if you can’t keep cool it will still work out fine.
It will take a couple of months to ferment out and clear. If you want it to finish on the sweeter side, rack it every 7-10 days, then slam it with gelatin and refrigeration once it hits around 1.010. If you like it dry, just leave it in primary the whole time, and it will finish probably about 0.992-0.994. Or do something in between and have a semi-sweet. The choice is yours.
Totally disagree with Dave. Not really, but just saying that to make him feel better. :cheers:
I would do this a little bit differently - your 71B-1122 yeast is NOT a killer strain, so depending on your wild yeast tolerance, you may or may not want to use Campden or heat pasteurization to sanitize your cider. I would not be concerned about off-flavors with a wine yeast and Campden, that should be just fine. But I would ferment the cider by itself, and rack it to secondary over the zinfandel grapes. At that point, the alcohol and low pH of the cider should prevent anything wild on the grapes from growing, but there’s always a small risk. You’ll get a new fermentation, but adding them in secondary will preserve some of the aromatics in the grapes. I would just crush them up a little before adding.
There will be tannins in the skins and seeds, so taste it after a few weeks. Once you get the color extraction and the tannins are just a LITTLE too high, rack it off the grape pulp to clear. And I agree with Dave, this is an awesome experiment!
Sounds to me like porkchop has some experience with wine or grape fermentations. I think his advice of holding off on the grape additions for the latter portion of fermentation to help stave off any possible contamination makes perfect sense. Let the cider do its thing first, and then get the most flavor out of the grapes by holding off on those until later.
I wouldn’t say I have a lot of experience with grapes, but with a fairly small amount of fruit to add, it might help keep some of the character. Not knocking Dave’s suggestion, just giving another idea! :cheers:
