wine, where do I start??

[SueSteve]

I have been thinking about making some wine for a little while, trying it first using a kit. that plan has now changed!!
This morning my Dad gave me a small crate of wine making grapes from his greenhouse, he used to make wine when I was a child, but in recent years gave them away to a friend, as he has been too unwell to use them himself, unfortunately that friend died a few months ago, so now I have the grapes!.
Dad is also too unwell at the moment for me to hassle him asking him how to make wine.

So I would be grateful if someone can advise me.

All Dad said was to take the grapes off the stalks and crush them, the easiest way is to put them through a juicer.
So for the past few hours I have been pulling them off the stalks, and I still have more to do.
When I was in my late teens Dad used to make a thick port like wine, I now he used to double ferment, anddouble ferment with brandy added. I too fancy making a port like wine, can anyone suggest how I would go about this?
Thanks,
Sue

[SueSteve]

Well I picked all the grapes off the stalks, put 2671g of blackcurrant sized grapes through the juicer and now have 1933ml of juice sittin gin the fridge until I can find out how to proceed!

[red]

fraid I have never done grape - perhaps look it up ion CJ Berry's book... or interwebthingy

good luck!

[9ball]

Hi Sue,


Do you have any equipment like a demijohn and a hydrometer? If you have a hydrometer measure the specific gravity of the juice - you are aiming for about 1090 which will give you a 12% wine, you will probably need to add some sugar to bring it up to this.
When you have the juice at the right S.G pop it in a demijohn (or some old fizzy drinks bottles) making sure they are thoughrally sterilised, add some wine yeast and fix an airlock on the top of the bottle - the airlock allows the CO2 produced in fermenting out - but doesn't let air back in which would spoil the wine. If you don't have airlocks you can put a balloon over the top or some clingfilm secured with a rubber band.
The wine will now ferment away happily for some time - at some point it will require racking off, this is where there is a lot of sediment at the bottom of the bottle, syphon or carefully pour the clearer liquid into a new sterilised bottle and let it carry on fermenting, you can rack off several times in order to get a clearer finished wine.
The ferment is finished when the balloon stops inflating or the airlock stops bubbling, and you should have a nice clear dry wine.
To then fortify it add the brandy to taste.

I would also suggest investing in 'First Steps in Winemaking' by CJJ Berry if you can, the home winemaking bible.

Hope this helps - a bit vague in parts I know.

Good luck! Any questions just ask.

[SueSteve]

Thanks very much 9ball.
We have demi johns and a hydrometer, I have some airlocks somewhere too.

So the sugar... how much do I add, and do I melt it in boiling water, or just add to the juice? How much sugar should I add at a time?
Yeast... Is bread making slow acting yeas ok? How much should I use?

I will try to get it going asap.

I guess I should start it off in the next 2 days, but if I can't do you think I can freeze the jjuice and then defrost and get it going at the weekend?

I have read about adding a steriliser to the juice, should I do this? If so then it will have to wait until I can get to a homebrew shop at the weekend.
Sue

[the.fee.fairy]

If it was me, i'd juice the grapes then chuck them all in a fermenting bin and make it up to the gallon with warm water.

leave it over night, and then strain the liquid into a demijohn, topping up with sugar water. Add some yeast (ii usually go for a teaspoon per demijohn, of whatever yeast i'm using - bread yeast will yield about 10% alcohol maximum i believe). Fit an airlock and leave for a couple of weeks in somewhere at about room temperature.

When it has finished bubbling, siphon into another clean demijohn, and top up with sugar water (as much sugar as you can dissolve into enough water to make it up to the gallon). Leave again til it stops bubbling and siphon off again. Have a taste. if its nice enough, then add campden tablets (1 crushed tablet per demijohn), leave for a week and bottle. Leave the bottles somewhere to mature.

However, i am so unscientific in my workings, its ridiculous. So if you're a perfectionist, then i'd recommend you getting a good winemaking book (CJJ Berry is brilliant!) and doing it that way.

I made my mystery wine as above, and it tuned out ok, but i've never used grapes, so i'm not sure what the differences are.

[Cheezy]

Thanks very much 9ball.
We have demi johns and a hydrometer, I have some airlocks somewhere too.

So the sugar... how much do I add, and do I melt it in boiling water, or just add to the juice? How much sugar should I add at a time?
Yeast... Is bread making slow acting yeas ok? How much should I use?

I will try to get it going asap.

I guess I should start it off in the next 2 days, but if I can't do you think I can freeze the jjuice and then defrost and get it going at the weekend?

I have read about adding a steriliser to the juice, should I do this? If so then it will have to wait until I can get to a homebrew shop at the weekend.
Sue

In theory if your grapes we're picked when their sugar content was high enough you shouldn't need to add any sugar, that how all "real" wines are made. THis can be checked with your hydrometer. If it isn't high enough you need to add extra sugar. You need approx 24% sugar content to produce 12% wine
(here is a good overview of the process: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winemaking)

It is important to use the right sort of yeast to get approx the style of finished wine you want. For a port you'll need a bordeaux style yeast.Or a specialist port one, your local home brew shop/t'internet will tell you.
Bakers yeast is not really good for wine making.
(again here is quiet a good procedure:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wine_making.)

However I've never heard of sodium metabisulphate giving problems, so long as your careful, and don't put too much in (1 campden tablet for 1 gallon water). Also depending on the volume you have and the sugar content, If you can fill a demi john, and your og is high enough I'd just use juice.
If you have to add water then you may have to add sugar solution. I would use the bordeaux yeast, mix it with some of the juice and let it start to bubble , then pitch it into the wine. I'm not sure about leaving the air lock off. THis is probably in case the yeast goes balistic. It's better to leave a gap of say 3 inches at the top of the demi john, and air lock straight away, this avoids infections.
Sterilise everything prior to use.
I'd wait 14 days after initial bubbles, and rack off the wine from the yeast and must. Then I would leave until the og is low enough or as m'gran did it stops bubbling . If this is a long time (say a month ) I would rack off the wine again, and repeat. Hope this helps.

[SueSteve]

Cheers cheezy :)

[frozenthunderbolt]

if you do end up having to ad sugar to the wine use brown sugar - gives a richer more porty type flavour - figure out the WEIGHT of sugar needed instead of the VOLUMN (cups in some recipies) as brownis much more dense than white

[SueSteve]

Thasnk for the advice FTB, I only buy brown sugar anyway!

I put a campden tablet in the juice and left for 24hrs.
Then put in DJohn with Gervin GV4(26) yeast (as recommended at homebrew shop) added enough brown sugar to raise the SG from 11 to 14 (as per CJJ Berry - bought in homebrew shop), added water up to shoulder of DJ.
It is now bubbling away.

[the.fee.fairy]

Sounds good. Let us know how it turns out!

[SueSteve]

Haha, just found this post,
thought I would give an update!
The wine is still sittin gin a demi john in the garage, it gets racked occasionally, but it hasn't cleared!
Maybe one day it will!
I think the juicer took something out of the grape skins that has caused it not to clear!

[MKG]

Close your eyes when you drink it. Haze? What haze?

Mike

[QB comes back]

With a bucket and enthusiasm.

Mr. QB makes his own and he always advises, keep it simple (he only ever uses water, sugar, fruit and baking yeast from the supermarket, no other ingredients), start with red fruits as they usually work best, and don't worry if it all goes wrong. You're bound to loose some stuff or create a hideous, noxious wine sometimes, just laugh and use it to clean the toilet.

Oh, Milton is also very good for cleaning equipment.

[MKG]

... when he's not writing poetry ...