I am trying Concords, Suggestions??

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

kc_in_wv

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
233
Reaction score
14
Location
Princeton
I have been drinking a semi sweet wine made from concords that I get from a winery. I thought I would experiment with my own batch.

Last night I 15 lbs crushed concords
added 2 gal water, 9 cups sugar, 3 tsp yeast nutrient, crushed in 2 camden tablets.
I have to pick up some Pectic Enzyme and I thought I would add it and the yeast tonight. I will take the SG reading before I start also and up the sugar if I need to.

Do you have any suggestions on anything else I might do?
 
I hope you do better than I did.. I misread my recipe.. went to the neighbors and picked a bucket full of grapes.. destemmed and washed em all and ended up with a bit over 21 pounds..... Squeezed some straight juice into the hydro tube and it was 1.040... As I said I misremembered the volume of grapes as 4 pounds per gallon when it was 6 pounds per gallon. I added water to 5 gallons. Took a LOT of sugar added to get the SG up to the recommended level.I hope it is not so thin as to be undrinkable. I am hoping the pectic enzyme and more thorough mashing will help.. anyone have any advice for us rookies?
 
I let my must sit for a day and a half mainly because I wanted to get the right yeast. I took the SG this morning and it was at 1.06 which is not high enough. I added another 5 lbs of sugar before I got the SG up to the 1.105 that my recipe suggested starting at.

I am going to let it sit for a few hours to make sure the sugar was mixed good and then pitch some Red Star Côte des Blancs. From what I have read I think it will have an end result I like.

I want low alcohol, good fruit flavor and semi-sweet. The slow fermenting I think will be a plus also.
 
As I said I misremembered the volume of grapes as 4 pounds per gallon when it was 6 pounds per gallon.

Can you add more Grapes? Another think I did was leave a little bit of the stems. I have a long time winemaker who lives near me. (He has Wine he has been bulk aging for 20 years) He runs his stems through the crusher and leaves them in for a few days. He said it adds tannin to the wine. He does use Foch Grapes instead of Concords though.
 
Stems don't seem like the right solution for tannin. Stems will give a green flavor that isn't very desirable. Leaving the skins in will give plenty of tannin, especially if they are in for over a week. Some wineries want a touch of evergreen flavor in the final product, but they don't force it.
 
Thanks WIP I left very few stems because I don't like a heavy amount of tannin in my wine. I will probably fish those out too.

After I did my last stir and measurment befor I pitched the yeast. I tasted to see what I thought I thought the grape level of the finished product might be. I almost took it home to can up the juice since I enjoy Grape juice also.
 
Back
Top