Wild Grapes ??

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Bombo80

Bombo80

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jan 7, 2008
Messages
530
Reaction score
67
Location
Maple Grove
being new to the wine field, I was wondering if these grapes would be good for making a wine. They are growing wild out where I duck hunt. It's going to be a chore to pick them, since they are fairly sparce, but I tasted one last weekend and they were very sweet.

Jus twondering if it would be worth spending some time picking them.

Let me know your thoughts.

THX

Wild Grapes.jpg
 
Wild grapes can taste sweet but they're also very acidic. They are, however, very disease resistant and very hardy and are the foundation for most of the hybrid grapes grown for wine in cooler climates. Sure, you can try it but the wine they produce may not be worth the effort.
 
I have a refractometer, so measuring the sugars will be easy. pH strips shouldn't be that much, in fact I might even have some hiding somewhere in my brewing supplies.

I really want to pick a bunch, I just have a feeling that I could spend hours picking them and only have enough for a half gallon of wine. The area is around several trees that were knocked down during a tornado several years ago, and just getting to them is going to be tricky.

Thanks for the responses
 
I think it's cool to make wines out of stuff like that, just for the adventure of it. If you have the time, why not go for it? If you only make a half-gallon or so, blend it with something else to get enough for bottling/drinking. I'm doing pear wine and blueberry mead from fruit in my back yard. I'd love to do persimmon wine, but I don't think my tree is going to produce this year. BTW, if you do make some, run that photo through a color printer for your label--that's a beautiful shot!
 
My neighbor keeps reminding me of the hops near his house. Except they are in a blackberry bramble, in a ditch. A very big blackberry bramble. At some point 'free' just isn't worth the price.
 
jcobbs said:
I think it's cool to make wines out of stuff like that, just for the adventure of it. If you have the time, why not go for it? If you only make a half-gallon or so, blend it with something else to get enough for bottling/drinking. I'm doing pear wine and blueberry mead from fruit in my back yard. I'd love to do persimmon wine, but I don't think my tree is going to produce this year. BTW, if you do make some, run that photo through a color printer for your label--that's a beautiful shot!
Click to expand...

Like he said. If I did it I'd blend the grapes with blackberries. I think you'd have a good combination.
 
Unfortunately I believe the "wild grapes" I discovered, are actually Virginia Creeper Berries. From what I have found on the internet, the berries are poisonous. I have tastes a few of them with no ill effects. I spent two hours picking a whole bunch of them. Not sure how many pounds I have, but I cannot find any information on the berries, as far as the viability to make wine with them.

Any comments or suggestions ???

Thanks
 
I have both the wild concord grape and Virgina creeper growing on my property and from the picture that you posted you have grapes there and not VC berries. Now if they are twined together then I would worry but your picture only has grape leaves showing. My wild Concords look just like that photo- I would snap a picture for you but the hard frost this weekend dropped the leaves and then a flock of birds came thru and just stripped the whole vine on me!:( Wild fox grapes are much smaller but have the same flavor of sweet grapes with a tangy bite at the end and a huge pit/seed compared to the wild Concords. Also most poisonous berries will be bitter and nasty tasting. If you ate some you would know it.
The berries that you picked and tasted should have tasted like grapes, how did they taste to you?

ETA: I just went and looked in my herbal book and it said that the berries from VC vine are very bitter and not palatable at all, and highly toxic. So unless you have really dull taste buds you are probably looking at and ate some wild grapes- I would link you a site with pictures of wild grapes but I haven't been a member long enuf. Hope this helps. EM
 
The picture in this thread is one I found on the interent. I didn't have my camera along. Here is what the berries look like ...

I believe these are VC, but could they still be used for a wine ????

wild berries.jpg


wildgrapes.jpg
 
I have to say that the Virgina creeper berries are not to be brewed ever! they are bitter and very toxic, would be bad to brew as it would probably kill ya outright to drink.
I have been a gardener for many, many years and have also harvested wild plants/berries/mushrooms for food and am still very cautious on what I put in my mouth! I do know that certain foods are toxic if not prepared properly but would not risk trying to brew with berries that you are not sure of. The red stems on those berries do not look like grape vine to me.
Personally I would go back next summer and check the leaves of the fruiting vines and then tag them with colored yarns if they are grape and not VC and pick next fall.
I know which are which in my area/yard but it is too hard to tell from just your photos to be comfortable giving too much advice.
I wish that there were more places that taught wild harvesting with certified teachers. I am trying to learn more of the wild mushrooms in MI and while there are many that are choice eating, I am leery of picking them due to the fact that I haven't got a good fungus guy to teach me which is which.. Well other than the morels and giant puff balls.
 
OK, Thanks.

I will put this one under the heading of "******* things to do", and just dispose of them. Too bad I will never get back the two hours I spent picking them.

BTW, the leaves were of the 5 leaf variety, that had turned a very bright red color. There are definitely wild grapes out there, because I picked a few of them too. The leaves looked just like the ones in my initial post, and were slightly more clumped in the grouping, if that made any sense. These berries were much darker, almost black in color. Maybe I will locate the base of a few of these and clean out around them to see if they might grow better next year. While I'm at it, I might just chop down a bunch of the V.C. plants too. I'm out there each weekend during the duck hunting season anyway, so I might as well give it a shot. It couldn't hurt matters, the way I see it.

Anyway, I will opt on the side of caution and just toss them all out.

Thanks again.
 
Sorry about your two hours:( But clearing out the VC will allow any grape vines to do better. I have been thinking of moving the wild Concord vines that make grapes over to a controlled area of the yard, so that if I pruned them they would produce better. The vines in the yard (I have a wild small wooded area in my yard) seem to be quite blight/mold resistant so with a bit of love and care they might have more berries and even better taste. I have done that with just a couple of the wild blackberries and even tho this is the first year after I moved them they had about twice the berries that they normally have in the woods. And bigger berries. If they do better next year I will be moving more of the wild ones over into a proper garden bed. I love free plants!:D
 

Similar threads

WhisperCloud
Waiting more than 24 hours before adding yeast
Replies
2
Views
528
Erik the Awful
E
U
Slugs on grapes
Replies
1
Views
333
SoCalPlumber
SoCalPlumber
S
Growing wine grapes
Replies
2
Views
894
Srimmey
S
4
Please recommend your favorite easy muscadine recipe for a beginner.
Replies
1
Views
853
maf58d
maf58d
Cannonball Jones
Traditional Amis method of making jiuniang/酒釀/boozy rice.
Replies
0
Views
531
Cannonball Jones
Cannonball Jones
Brewer's Friend 300

Latest posts

Back
Top