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jturkish · 11-04-2012, 06:25 AM

Hi,

I have a 2 gallon Mr. beer keg i'd like to house some wine in but can't find a recipe that includes just grapes or maybe some added berries and wine yeast - i'd like to avoid sugar other than what's naturally occurring in the fruits.

i'm ok with a lower alcohol content

any help would be appreciated

novalou · 11-04-2012, 01:00 PM

Grapes are easy, for 2 gallons, get 20-24 lbs. Crush and add yeast. Strain off the skins in 7-10 days.

Put into a vessel with minimal head space and let clear. Rack off the yeast lees as needed.

jturkish · 11-04-2012, 03:01 PM

Thank you

Does the same amount of fruit apply to, lets say, a frozen bag of mixed berries?

I'm really turned off on how much sugar is typically added, is there a happy compromise like adding 1 cup or should i not even bother?

clengman · 11-04-2012, 03:28 PM

Grapes have a lot of sugar, enough that you really don't need to add any sugar to make a wine. Most other fruit doesn't contain nearly as much natural sugar so if you want a final product with 7 or 8 % or more ABV you need to add sugar. You can start out with juice and measure the specific gravity. If it's under 1.065 or so you'll probably want to add more sugar. Or if you want to make, for instance, a berry wine, you can use grape juice or apple juice concentrate in place of sugar to boost the initial gravity, but really the end result is the same for the most part.

***Yooper*** · 11-04-2012, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clengman

Grapes have a lot of sugar, enough that you really don't need to add any sugar to make a wine. Most other fruit doesn't contain nearly as much natural sugar so if you want a final product with 7 or 8 % or more ABV you need to add sugar. You can start out with juice and measure the specific gravity. If it's under 1.065 or so you'll probably want to add more sugar. Or if you want to make, for instance, a berry wine, you can use grape juice or apple juice concentrate in place of sugar to boost the initial gravity, but really the end result is the same for the most part.

Well, some grapes don't have much sugar at all, unless you're talking about wine grapes. Native grapes may only have a touch of natural sugar.

That's why sugar is added, to boost the alcohol content of non-sweet fruits.

Apple juice might be the best wine to start with, if you don't want to add any sugar. Apple juice might be at 1.050-1.060 or so. Other fruits commonly available to us do not have enough natural sugar, aside from wine grapes.

jturkish · 11-04-2012, 03:41 PM

thanks guys

i'm cool with an abv of 4-6% if it means i've omitted added sugar

i'll get a hydrometer and measure the og and fg to see where it ends up, thanks again

Honda88 · 11-05-2012, 01:46 AM

make sure you santize the crap out of your bottles and add pottasium metabisulfite before bottling, 4-6% alcohol is not very much and there are microbials that can live in that range..

novalou · 11-05-2012, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honda88

make sure you santize the crap out of your bottles and add pottasium metabisulfite before bottling, 4-6% alcohol is not very much and there are microbials that can live in that range..

I would imagine at this range of alcohol PH may be important as well, around 3.0 or so to help keeping it safe from microbs.

tedscastle · 11-05-2012, 03:53 AM

Why are you against adding sugar? I have always just considered as yeast food.

Honda88 · 11-05-2012, 05:11 AM

yes, acid in wine kills microbes so at this level you are correct. if it isn't acidic enough your wine could have e coli or some other wack evil bacteria in it.