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Yesterday I picked about 10lbs of black grapes, and I am going to be pressing them this afternoon.

However, my recipe book (which is from the mid-40s or something) says I don't actually need to use either campden tablets (whatever the heck THEY are) or yeast. It reckons you can use the bloom from the grapes as a natural fermenter.

Basically, it says to press the grapes, add sugar and then put it in my fermenter (which I am assuming is my big glass jars with the two wee handles whose names escape me just now) along with those funny little plastic straws with a bend in them.

And can I put those jars back in the garage, or will it be too cold in there?

The jars are demijohns, but I reckon with 10lbs of grapes you might need something a bit bigger. Campden tablets contain sterilising chemicals which kill off all microbes including both the kind that make alcohol and the kind that make mould. Personally I'd use them, and then add commercial wine yeast, just to sure you get wine and not mould, but for centuries people used just the bloom on the grapes, before freeze-dried yeast sachets were ever invented. The garage might be a bit cold, they need to be somewhere warm for fermentation.

Thanks Chickpea. I have about half a dozen demijohns (of course they are!) but I am hand pressing, so I shall probably not get as much juice from the grapes as machine pressing. I've only got two of those curly straw things as well.

I have got sterilising stuff - I didn't know that is what campden tablets were, so I can sterilise the demijohns with that stuff instead. It will be an interesting exercise to see if I can get wine without using the yeast. I don't have any spare cash right now so buying the yeast is out of the question.

I shall put the demijohns in the sauna - it is the only place the kids don't go!

Thanks for the advice.

PurpleDragon, here in France they dont use any chemicals whatsoever - (its a real bind having to keep buying my stuff thru the internet), they just use the yeast from the grapes and sugar, in layers. My friends just used a big barrel of some kind (perhaps a large bucket could do?) to allow for the first ferment. Then it was pressed and bottled. Voila!

Thanks for that, Chadspad. Is it warmer there though?

I have gotten the juice out of the grapes, and have about 2 demijohns worth (although the juice is currently in a pail on the kitchen counter just now). I added sugar, stirred it, and covered it. I shall add more sugar tomorrow and the next day, then sieve it again into the demi johns.

Hopefully I shall end up with something drinkable, because 10lbs of grapes wasted would be an awful shame.