Concord Grape Wine

This is my first batch of wine, so I'll let you know how it turns out in a year or two .

40lbs concord grapes, de-stemmed and crushed
8lbs sugar (1.105sg)
Water to bring to 6.5gal
3tsp Pectic Enzyme
6tsp yeast nutrient
Sulphite - as required
Red Star Montrachet yeast.

I don't have a press or crusher, so I crushed the grapes using a strainer and wooden spoon and put the pulp into a nylon strainer bag. I added the sugar, topped up with water to about 6gal and added the sulphite and yeast nutrient. 12hrs later, I added the pectic enzyme. When all was said and done, I came out with about 6.5gal of must.

I am doing a similar wine, but with Apples instead of grapes (my first wine too). When do you plan to rack to secondary?

Why do you need to add sugar and that much?

The sugar will vary with the sugar content of your grapes. I added enough sugar to bring my OG up to 1.105. It's up to you how much if any you add depending on how high you want the potential alcohol to be.

Rhys79 said:

The sugar will vary with the sugar content of your grapes. I added enough sugar to bring my OG up to 1.105. It's up to you how much if any you add depending on how high you want the potential alcohol to be.

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I understand about sugar/SG/alcohol, but I guess if I am pressing grapes I would want the product to be just grape juice being fermented regardless of the resulting alcohol content. Just a preference I guess.

Wine needs to be about 13% alcohol to be self preserving, hence the added sugar to bring the OG up high enough to hit that level. It's just the way it's generally done.

Rhys79 said:

Wine needs to be about 13% alcohol to be self preserving, hence the added sugar to bring the OG up high enough to hit that level. It's just the way it's generally done.

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Wineries add sugar?

The way I understand it is the concord grapes are not as high in sugar as wine grapes, hence you need to add sugar. I made a batch of concord with about 40 lbs of grapes also. Followed a recipe for dago red from the grapestomper web page. I actually added 15 lbs of sugar. I also have a batch of 5 gal zinfandel grape juice that I bought in a juice pail and did not add any sugar at all. Of course, I am a noob and we'll have to see how they both come out!

Correct, concord grapes are significantly lower in sugar than standard wine grapes. Most fruit wines require at least some sugar added as well. This may be my first batch of wine, but I did my homework before I ever started.

I did some wine kits in the past and did an all grape wine (table grapes) and it was very good but not too strong. My GF makes plum wine with a LOT of sugar because that is her grandmother's recipe and she likes them sweet, but after a few years it wasn't sweet just very strong. A friend likened it to vermouth. I want her to make another and age for another 3+ years, might as well get going soon as that is a long time to wait. Oh, and she open air fermented, wild yeast.

I am actually an all grain brewer, I like beer more but I like a glass of wine here and there too.

I'm generally a beer brewer, haven't gotten into all grain yet. I got about 100lbs of grapes for free, so I had to do something with them... Half went to wine, and half went to jam and juice.

Rhys79 said:

I'm generally a beer brewer, haven't gotten into all grain yet. I got about 100lbs of grapes for free, so I had to do something with them... Half went to wine, and half went to jam and juice.

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100lbs of grapes?? Nice, I am jealous. I would be making wine too!

Yeah, and I get to go pick more this weekend, the 100lbs was just what I could reach and was ripe. If the frost last night didn't destroy them, I can probably get another 50-100lbs. There were a lot of bunches that weren't quite ripe enough to pick, and alot that probably were, but I needed a ladder to get to. The vines have been let go wild and trees have grown up through the vine row, and there are grapes clear up to the top of the trees...

first frost is good but get them NOW

The closest to now I can get is Sunday.

if it stays cold you might be good, best is day of first frost

Wasn't aware of that, thanks for the info! As far as I know it's not supposed to get terribly warm through the weekend. High 50's on the high side.

Jack Keller agrees, to get 1.095 you need to go to 1.105 for the make up for racking loss. Needs to be at least 12% .. You did do your homework

He also says for concord wine from grapes it takes 2 years to age.

I would makes some 5 day cider in the meantime

I'm making some myself... got 150# free and has a SG of 1.052

2 years is a long time to wait

Good Luck