Any tips on making wine from fresh grapes?

[JuiceBar]

I live in the American south and the muscadine grapes are about to ripen at a vineyard near me.

I've really only had experience making wine from bottled or frozen juices. Do you have any tips for using fresh grapes?

From the books I've read they suggest that you crush the grapes, squeeze the liquid, then leave the liquid and grape hulls in a sterilized container for 3 days to help extract the flavor. Is that pretty standard?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi JuiceBar. I live in the NE and am not at all familiar with muscadine grapes, but for red grapes, you want to crush the grapes, to expose the yeast to the flesh; you then want to add pectic enzyme to a) help extract the juice; b) help set the color and c) help remove any pectic haze from the wine. You might want to freeze the grapes immediately after harvesting because when you allow them to thaw more juice is extracted (the ice crystals rip cell walls releasing juice).
I have no idea of the juice content of these grapes (so I have no idea whether you want/need to add any water or not) but assuming you don't I might add K-meta and after 24 hours pitch the yeast. With wine grapes meant for red wine, you allow the skins to macerate for two weeks and you punch down the berries two or three times a day to make sure that they are always sopping wet. after about two weeks, much or all the active fermentation is done and you remove the fruit to press. Here you have a choice. You can allow the berries to drain under very little pressure (their own weight may be sufficient, and you collect that volume and add it to the wine in your fermenter. Then you press the fruit to extract every last drop of juice and you can either add that juice to the same fermenter or you can treat this volume as being slightly more tannic than the free run and so add this wine to a new carboy.

With regular wine grapes you can often (always?) add more sugar to the pressed mass and more water and make a second run of wine. I have no idea if that works with muscadine grapes.

White wine is similar except that you press the berries a few hours after crushing so that the skins and seeds are not macerated and so don't release their color or the tannin, respectively. I am assuming muscadine grapes make a red wine.

For an orange wine, you might press the berries two or three days after the crush.

 

[shetc]

Clean your feet

 

[bernardsmith]

Clean your feet

You need to clean your feet even if you are not climbing into a bucket. Most folk I know use a milk crate to crush grapes or else use a hand cranked crusher. Stomping on grapes to crush 'em may be fun in a group but if you are making wine alone, you could easily slip and split your noggin. Gapes are slippery.

 

[JuiceBar]

Clean your feet

@bernardsmith
Thank you so much for the information! Muscadines can be white or red. I'll be picking red. Sounds like I need to begin fermentation with the grape hulls for 2 weeks before pressing. Thank you!

 

[MilesBFree]

Personally, I hate muscadines as eating grapes but a friend made wine from some and it was surprisingly good! Hope yours turns out well.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

I was just given a quantity of frozen muscadines, and intend to do a run soon. I have done blends of muscadine, blackberry, and filled in the rest with grape concentrate to get a 5 gallon batch. These usually turn out pretty well.
I did do 3 gallon run with the scuppernong variety (white) before. It came out very tart. So I added more sugar and let it run. Later, still tart. I added more sugar and let it run. About a year later after many additions, I finally overwhelmed the yeast and had a slightly sweet, high alcohol, tasty wine!

The freezing is a good idea for reasons already stated. However, there are occasions when the grapes are available, but you are not ready to make wine yet, and you can’t tie up the freezer space long term. I know a home wine maker that will often process the grapes by cooking them down and pressing out all the juice. The juice is then sealed in canning jars until the occasion for wine making is better.

 

[billyghoate]

I live in the American south and the muscadine grapes are about to ripen at a vineyard near me.

I've really only had experience making wine from bottled or frozen juices. Do you have any tips for using fresh grapes?

From the books I've read they suggest that you crush the grapes, squeeze the liquid, then leave the liquid and grape hulls in a sterilized container for 3 days to help extract the flavor. Is that pretty standard?

Yes I live in east central Florida...muscadines are native. Crush em up, but not enough to crush seeds...can be a little off flavor if you do

 

[JuiceBar]

Personally, I hate muscadines as eating grapes but a friend made wine from some and it was surprisingly good! Hope yours turns out well.

They are very chewy. Not great for eating. But they do make a great jam.

I was just given a quantity of frozen muscadines, and intend to do a run soon. I have done blends of muscadine, blackberry, and filled in the rest with grape concentrate to get a 5 gallon batch. These usually turn out pretty well.
I did do 3 gallon run with the scuppernong variety (white) before. It came out very tart. So I added more sugar and let it run. Later, still tart. I added more sugar and let it run. About a year later after many additions, I finally overwhelmed the yeast and had a slightly sweet, high alcohol, tasty wine!

The freezing is a good idea for reasons already stated. However, there are occasions when the grapes are available, but you are not ready to make wine yet, and you can’t tie up the freezer space long term. I know a home wine maker that will often process the grapes by cooking them down and pressing out all the juice. The juice is then sealed in canning jars until the occasion for wine making is better.

Thank you for the info. Freezing them sounds like the easiest solution.... if I can make room in my freezer.

Yes I live in east central Florida...muscadines are native. Crush em up, but not enough to crush seeds...can be a little off flavor if you do

Good to know. Thank you!

 

[Closet Fermenter]

I have thawed my muscadines and hand crushed them into the brew pot. I am going to bring up to just a simmer then drain and press into gallon jugs which I will refrigerate for a short period until a better time to make the wine.

 

[JuiceBar]

I have thawed my muscadines and hand crushed them into the brew pot. I am going to bring up to just a simmer then drain and press into gallon jugs which I will refrigerate for a short period until a better time to make the wine.

Why do you simmer the grapes?

 

[MajorJC]

Last time I made muscadine wine I used an old strainer to remove the juice from the skins and seeds.

Similar to this one, but mine is around 80 years old.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

In the end, I didn’t bring them to a full simmer but just well heated. They had come from the freezer, and although I left them in a cooler overnight, there were still a number of frozen muscadines. The heat completed the thawing for all, and unless someone tells me differently, I believe it helps break down the skins and makes it all easier to press the juice in my small fruit press. I decided just to bottle in gallon jugs & refrigerate, but if I were going to seal in canning jars I may have taken the temperature on up.