Yooper

Recipes 

A friend gave us her grapes. She mostly uses them for jam/jelly but gave the rest of them to us for wine. They are a beta-cross, similar to a concord grape but very tart.

We stuck them (once destemmed) in the freezer and finally got around to them this weekend.

When we weighed them, we had 78.5 pounds! I knew there were a lot, but not THAT many. So I got ready to make 13 gallons of wine.

Since they are hard to crush and press without a chrusher or a press, we put them in nylon mesh bags and allowed them to thaw in the fermenters. Bob found a big stake (baseball bat sized) that I bleached and rinsed and he got to work.

I'm using approximately 6 pounds of grapes per gallon, one liter of grape concentrate for the whole batch, and I think it was 22 pounds of sugar total for an OG of 1.085. Pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient was added as well, but no tannin or any other additives at this point (besides the campden when thawing the grapes in the fermenters).

I did not do any acid adjustments at this point, as the grapes are known to be acidic but the must tasted so good I didn't even bother to check the acidity. We'll see if that was a mistake or not!

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

Yooper

Recipes 

I thought I'd update this thread.

The wine went into secondary around Thanksgiving, and then sat while we were gone to Texas. It was pretty cool in our house, and the wine went through cold stabilization while we were gone, I guess!

I sampled and racked today. All the carboys were full of wine diamonds (tartaric acid crystals), and the wine has a definitely lowered acidity.

It's beautifully clear, rich tasting, and dry at .990. It's a tiny bit tart on the back of the tongue, so I racked it onto some medium toast oak cubes and I'll let that sit for a few weeks.

I'm very happy with the way this is turning out! It's going to be a wonderful wine.

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

Rossnaree

Recipes 

What yeast, Yooper?

__________________
Some knowledge will never be shared, not from a desire to conceal it, but because it is so common to the individual that it is assumed to be already known.

Primary: Chardonel
Secondary: Apfelwein, Chambourcin, Blackstone Pond American Ale, King of the North, Concord, 2nd wine from pulp of both
Bottled: Bavarian Hefeweizen, Dortmunder, King of the North (2010), Apfelwein (2010), Lesser Wilderness Mead (2010), King of the North (2nd wine - 2010)

Yooper

Recipes 

I used k1-1116.

I'm looking forward to sampling it again in a couple of weeks, to check on the oaking!

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

Unferth

Recipes 

Concord is in the beta family right?

Does it taste anything similar to Welches grape juice wine, then?

Yooper

Recipes 

Yes, concord is very similar (beta is a concord, crossed with a wild grape), and before when we made it was was very concord-ish.

but this time, it's not like Welch's at all. It's got a hint of that tartness, but that's it. It tastes more like a wine grape, but with a hint of concord behind it, if that makes sense.

The grapes had more natural sweetness this year, and I think that's part of it. They were big and really juicy and very ripe when we picked them!

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

WilliamSlayer

Recipes 

Awesome. Nice to hear when American varietals come out as great wine. Cheers!