Yooper_Brew--Welch's Grape wine question

acy said:

I am going to make a couple gallons of grape juice wine using your recipe. This will be my second time making wine. Last fall I made several gallons of plum wine and apple wine from my fruit trees. Both turned out very well, but the trees didn't produce this year, hence the grape juice. When using the fruit to make wine, I started fermetation in a large plastic primary, for 5 or 6 days, before transferring the wine into one gallon secondary jugs that I bought at a wine making supply store. The way I read your recipe, you are skipping the larger primary vessel and going straight to the one gallon secondary. Is that correct? Also, is there a specific yeast that you prefer for this wine?

BTW- I put a couple dozen plums (very sweet prune plums) in the freezer last fall. I am going to get them out, remove the skins and pits, boil them and use the juice in place of water in one of the gallons of grape wine just to see what happens. Bad idea??

Thanks, Al

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Failure to Clear: If you boiled ingredients to extract flavor, color or both and your wine fails to clear, you most likely have a pectin haze (see Pectin Haze below). If your wine is made from starchy ingredients, especially grains or tubers, that were boiled and pressed through a nylon straining bag and then fails to clear, you most likely have a starch haze (see Starch Haze below). If your wine has an off-color haze that fails to clear, you probably have a metal contamination (see Colored Haze below). If you have a haze following a malo-lactic bacteria inoculation, you probably have a lactic acid bacteria haze (see Lactic Acid Bacteria Haze below). If none of these apply and your wine fails to clear after six rackings at 30-day intervals, you simply have a nonspecific cloudy wine. Unless there is a bacterial contamination at work, the wine will probably clear but may take up to a year to do so. If you don't care to wait that long, there are several things you can do.

Pectin Haze: The most common cause of a haze in wine is the presence of pectin, which forms gelatinous solutions in the wine. The problem is aggravated if the must is initially boiled to extract flavor, color or both. To check if a haze is pectin in origin, add 3-4 fluid ounces of methylated spirit to a fluid ounce of wine. If jelly-like clots or strings form, then the problem is most likely pectin and should be treated.

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acy said:

Thanks dfc & lumpher. No boiling the plums. Al

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klcramer said:

do the raisins make a big difference?

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perschml said:

Your recipe says to no air lock it it'll "primary fermentation" is complete... How do I know if "primary fermentation" is complete? I have it in a 1 gal glass jug covered with a napkin and its been bubbling like mad for 3 days now.

Should I wait till the bubbling slows or ??????

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klcramer said:

do the raisins make a big difference?

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perschml said:

I started this recipe 10 days ago. OG was 1.090 and 10 days later it is 1.000. is this the normal amount of time for fermentation? I'm going to stop fermentation tonight with some campden because I like the taste where its at... So do I stop fermentation and then bottle a few days later? I have racked it and its in the fridge to stop fermentation till I can get campden tablets today...

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