Lots of Niagara grapes...let's make some wine

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C4PNJ4ZZ

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i've been brewing for a couple years and I make some damn good beers. So not being one to leave well enough alone, I'm going to make the wine plunge. Let it be stated that I haven't read much about wine.

My folks have a vine of Niagara grapes that has an over-abundance of fruit right now. It is growing over a pergola on the porch. I got 4lbs of grapes after 10 minutes of picking from one small area. It got me thinking into making some small batches of wine.

Where do I start? Skins? no skins? potato masher? food processor?

What kind of yeast should I use?

If I were to do it my way, I'd smash the grapes into juice, campden tablet them then pitch some ale yeast to try to get a wine cider kind of feel.

Let's make some SWEET BERRY WINE!
:mug:
 
I could be wrong but i think if you let the juice sit with its skins you will get "red" wine juice. The redness comes form tannins. hope that is helpful....
 
Crush the fruit and let it ferment on the skins, but only for a couple of days. Then, you can press as you usually would. Niagra is a white grape. You will not end up with a red wine as a result. You will need more than four pounds.

We crushed 1200 pounds of them about ten days ago. We did an equal amount of Concord today. Later I will blend the two about 50/50 and lightly sweeten with HFCS. I don't like it sugary but some sweetness brings out the fruit. I made twelve cases of this last year. It is a great wine for non-wine drinkers.
 
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