Suggestions please - Grapes

**BrewBrain** · 08-28-2007, 10:55 PM

I've got a grape vine in my yard that produces a whole crap load o' grapes. The flavor is very good - sweet as can be. The problem is they are a bit of a pain to eat because they have some sort of weird membrane in them holding the juice - sort of like a placenta

Anywho, I want to crush them up and use them for a variation of EdWort's apfelwine. How should I go about this without infecting the batch? I don't think I should heat the juice up, and I really don't want to add a bunch of booze.

Any good ideas? I can't just toss them in and ferment, can I? Will the alcohol build strong enough to kill the nasties?

**Yooper** · 08-28-2007, 11:10 PM

Wine making isn't too difficult- just a bit different. Here's a great place to start: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/basics.asp

You do NOT want to boil or heat the grapes. You use campden tablets to kill microbes before you begin fermentation. Using a wine yeast will work, though- since wine yeasts are not inhibited by campden tablets.

I'd wash the grapes and then freeze them to make it easier to mash them up. Then I'd put them in a huge grain bag in my primary and tie it and let them thaw. Mash them up (without breaking the seeds, since seeds have cyanide in them) and then bring the juice to an sg of around 1.085 by adding sugar and/or water if the grapes are too tart. Add 1 smashed up campden tablet per gallon of liquid and stir well. I'd also add 1 tsp of pectic enzyme (per gallon) to it. After 12 hours, you could pitch the yeast. Cover with a towel to keep the fruitflies and other critters out. After 3 days or so, remove the fruit pulp in the grain bag and check the sg. If it's under 1.010, put in carboy with an airlock. If you know the types of grapes they are (or can google it), Jack Keller has all kinds of more exact recipes on his site!

**BrewBrain** · 08-29-2007, 12:04 AM

Thanks, Yooper Chick.

Mine are concord grapes. A little research tells me they are not great for wine - too sweet I guess. Maybe I'll figure out how to make jelly or something

landhoney · 08-29-2007, 04:00 AM

It's not the sweetness - the sugar is fermented out. They can make ok wine, I've had a cryo-concentrated(freeze juice and thaw to up the sugar, no sugar added) higher alcohol version that was aged and wasn't bad at all. It just had that very distinct 'concord/grape jelly' taste that is not very desireable if you're used to drinking cab/merlot/chard/etc. That taste is what makes concords less desireable for making wine in my opinion.

**Yooper** · 08-29-2007, 01:06 PM

I actually like concord grape wine- it's got that "mogen david" quality to it. I make Welch's 100% Concord Grape Juice into wine all the time and while it's not fine wine, it's definitely drinkable at the dinner table. Of course, I make wine out of anything that holds still long enough to ferment.