Newbie Equipment Question

Hello all,

I am usually in the beer forum. I have been home brewing beer for about 8 months. All batches (6+) have been successfull. I have access to all the Merlot grapes I can pick. My freind is the manager of 2000+ acres of wine grapes in central coast of california.

I would like to pick about 100 pounds tomorrow and make wine. I have all sorts of brew equip. I need to know what else I need. I have carboys, hydrometers, rubber stoppers, air locks, I only have a bottling bucket it has no lid. Can anyone shed a little light. I have a LBS that will help with the add ins to the grapes. I am planning on getting 100 ponds of Merlot or Cab grapes. I get to pick all the grapes on the end rows that the machine cant get.


Thanks for the help.

Also what am I looking at quantity wise if I start with 100 pounds. I am only gonna do this once for now so I may want to do more pounds if I can handle it. The grapes are free and very good. They are from French Camp Vineyards

How are you planning to press 100 lb of grapes for the juice?

Im going to let my 15 year old daughter crush them with her feet, hence the wines name "Mylissa's Moonlight Merlot"


This should work right

Thanks for the reply

Gee.....Never worked with " little girl crushed " grapes. That's really cute. How much juice Mylissa can extract should determine how much wine you can make. If you want to use straight juice, you might be able to do a couple of carboys worth. 100 lb is a LOT of grapes. When I've used fresh grapes, I macerated them in the blender, skins and all. I used 10-12 lb for a 5 gal batch. Added 5 lb of sugar, topped to 5 gal with water, and used a sweet finishing yeast ( Cotes Blanc, just my personal preference). I do a week or two of primary, then rack it off the skins and secondary for a couple of weeks. Be sure your SG is constant for a few days before you bottle. Once had a glass gallon jug explode in my shed. Naaaasty!!!
If you were going with straight juice, you can see how many gallons you get. Maybe do one batch with 5 gal of juice, so much sugar and the yeast of your choice. Do another batch with water added and a different yeast. Fool around with it some.
I'm not a wine expert by any stretch of the imagination. I've only made eight batches of wine to date. Six came out great, two were undrinkable. I started with some questionable fruit ( apples that smelled like potatoes and pears that weren't sweet at all) and ended with shoe polish. You can't make good wine from bad ingredients.
Go for it and have fun. That's really what it's all about.