I made my first home-made wine, but I have some questions and need guidance, HELP please

[Draittan]

Hello friends..
I live in a country where alcohol is prohibited in all its forms, and I used to travel every weekend to a country that is close to drinking wine, but with the Coruna Virus crisis it became impossible.
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So I decided to make home wine with my wife, and we searched for the best recipe, and after a long research we decided to make a very simple red wine made from grapes only.
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But I feel that we made a mistake and I hope that you tell me if there is any error, and I hope that you correct it please
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Ingredients:
1- red Grape 11 lbs
2- that's it
We squeezed the grapes well and did not add any yeast to it. We relied on the natural yeast that the grape contains, and we put grape juice with peels in a 4-gallon plastic container.
We closed the plastic container well .. and inserted a hose with it in order to release the carbon resulting from the fermentation process .. We drowned the second end of the hose with water to make sure of the bubbles that established the fermentation process began.
But after a day and a half, we did not see continuous bubbles indicating the success of the fermentation process. Rather, it released a bubble every two or three hours only, which makes me ask, is the fermentation process a failure? Or is it working?
And if it was a failure, then what is the reason? Should we have followed other steps? Did we simplify it to the point that it became ridiculous? Was the size of the plastic container large compared to the quantity of grapes squeezed in it, which allowed oxygen to enter and disrupt the clotting process?
I need a lot of education and I will work to gain experience so that I don’t have to travel in order to enjoy my time .. but the beginning was difficult
And thank you guys for interacting with me in advance.

 

[Jayjay1976]

It could be that the lid isn't sealing so most of the CO2 is escaping rather than traveling down the hose into the jar of water.
I would give it some more time and taste a sample to confirm that the sweetness is decreasing. Also, do everything you can to prevent any sort of small fly from entering, as that will cause it to slowly turn to vinegar.

Did you separate the juice from the grapes or is all of the fruit still in there?

 

[Draittan]

It could be that the lid isn't sealing so most of the CO2 is escaping rather than traveling down the hose into the jar of water.
I would give it some more time and taste a sample to confirm that the sweetness is decreasing. Also, do everything you can to prevent any sort of small fly from entering, as that will cause it to slowly turn to vinegar.

Did you separate the juice from the grapes or is all of the fruit still in there?

I think the lid is sealed, I cover all its holes with silicone, but it seems that the idea of trying the taste is very appropriate I will try it .. As for your question, the grape fruit with juice still did not separate them

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Fahad - and welcome. So, two or three quick thoughts:
1. Looks like you chose to use whatever indigenous yeast might be on the grapes but there may not be a great deal of yeast on them so it may take a little while for the yeast to reproduce enough to create a large enough colony to ferment the juice you extracted. If you simply pressed the grapes to break the skins but not express the juice then this may take even longer.

2. Table grapes - grapes for eating - typically do not have anything like the amount of sugar (or flavor) of wine grapes and while , of course , you can certainly make a wine from them I would have suggested that for your first wines you might have looked for more local flavor rich fruits - figs, dates, pomegranates, all make delightful wines. The key idea is that you are looking to have enough fermentable sugar to make a wine that has about 12 % alcohol by volume and that means that the liquid you ferment has a gravity (or density from the sugar) of about 1.090.

3. Brewing beer might benefit from sealing the fermenter and using an airlock to allow the carbon dioxide to escape, but in wine making with fruit (or honey) the fruit is not likely to become a haven for spoilage organisms such as mold and the like. (of course , you need to keep the fruit saturated with juice and not dry out on the surface. What many seasoned wine makers do is simply cover their fermenting buckets with a towel. This then is easily removed and allows the wine maker to stir the fruit to keep it wet AND to keep the yeast from dropping to the bottom too quickly.

Good luck - and stay safe.

 

[Draittan]

Hi Fahad - and welcome. So, two or three quick thoughts:
1. Looks like you chose to use whatever indigenous yeast might be on the grapes but there may not be a great deal of yeast on them so it may take a little while for the yeast to reproduce enough to create a large enough colony to ferment the juice you extracted. If you simply pressed the grapes to break the skins but not express the juice then this may take even longer.

2. Table grapes - grapes for eating - typically do not have anything like the amount of sugar (or flavor) of wine grapes and while , of course , you can certainly make a wine from them I would have suggested that for your first wines you might have looked for more local flavor rich fruits - figs, dates, pomegranates, all make delightful wines. The key idea is that you are looking to have enough fermentable sugar to make a wine that has about 12 % alcohol by volume and that means that the liquid you ferment has a gravity (or density from the sugar) of about 1.090.

3. Brewing beer might benefit from sealing the fermenter and using an airlock to allow the carbon dioxide to escape, but in wine making with fruit (or honey) the fruit is not likely to become a haven for spoilage organisms such as mold and the like. (of course , you need to keep the fruit saturated with juice and not dry out on the surface. What many seasoned wine makers do is simply cover their fermenting buckets with a towel. This then is easily removed and allows the wine maker to stir the fruit to keep it wet AND to keep the yeast from dropping to the bottom too quickly.

Good luck - and stay safe.

Hello my dear friend, I thank you for the welcome. Actually I was dependent on natural yeast in my first random experience for me adventure, but after grape squeeze I left it for 7 hours in the air in order to be exposed to oxygen and the natural yeast multiply, it seems that fermentation started to work well now because the bubbles started to multiply At the rate of a bubble every 20 or 30 seconds, thank you so much for enriching my information, and already I'm heading to date wine now, so I have plenty of wine.
Stay safe ⚘