6 Gal Buckets Of Juice Vs. Grapes - Help

[Grancru]

I am considering a move from the standard grapes available here in Michigan - Lodi Gold, Top Brass, Valley Gold or Smiling Baby - to 6 gallon buckets of juice. As I get older and my annual production increases it is getting hard to transport, crush / destem, relocate, ferment, and then relocate to press.

My questions before I make the move are:

What are the pros & cons to this change?

Is the quality of the juice the same or better than the semi fresh grape?

Is the juice balanced or are additives required?

Is there a loss of color, body and taste from not fermenting on the skins and seeds?

The cost is cheaper and the end quantity is far greater with juice (along with far less Motrin). Italian and Chilean juice are available at different times of the year offering additional production.

Your experience is greatly appreciated!!!!!!

Grancru

 

[pumpkinman2012]

You will be disappointed once you move from fresh grapes to juice buckets.
I can understand your concern with increased production and a lot of moving everything around during the destem/crush and again at pressing, it is a lot of work, but in recent years, I've started to purchase more equipment that saves me time and my back, and I have my son, daughter and her boyfriend that help.


It sounds like you have this well thought through, but I'll post my personal experience.
I made wine from Juice buckets for a few years and had to convince myself that the quality was the same. Now don't get me wrong, you can make a good wine from juice buckets by using a few techniques that I learned over the years, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Juice buckets are (for the most part) grapes that are crushed and pressed and balanced, and yeast added, most times generic EC-1118 depending on the manufacturer; while this is basically fine for white wine that doesn't depend on the grape skins for body, color and flavor, your red wines will be greatly inferior to using premium grapes, you can expect a thinner, lighter wine with far less flavor.

You can improve the wine made from juice buckets by doing the following:
Barrel aging the wine, I feel that this is almost a "must" for red juices
I have to give credit to Zac Brown (BZac) for this tip - Using chips in the primary , the active yeast metabolizes and buffers the oak, much like a barrel ferment.
Adding grape skins during fermentation, you can purchase grape skin packs, or you can purchase a few lugs and crush and destem, I've added up to a lug per bucket to try to simulate fresh grape wine.
If you add grape skins, you can add enzymes such as opti-red, booster rouge and so forth.
Malolactic fermentation - As with wine made from grapes, this will soften the wine and add body and mouthfeel depending on the MLB that you select.

I would recommend getting a bucket or two this coming season and make them, you will be the judge.

I hope that this helps.