Muscadine wine recipe help

[Brew-Dude]

Hello to all in the Brewing universe. In the past couple of days I've picked approximately 20 gallons of muscadine and scuppernong grapes. I have all necessary equipment and ingredients however I am lacking a sweet muscadine wine recipe. In doing my research I found that there were two methods that seem to be most popular. One being hand crushing or using some tool to crush the grapes to expose their innards. Or whatever they're called. In the second method I've seen involves pretty much the same thing with the addition of simmering the crushed grapes for a short period of time before adding them to the primary.

Also I've heard where some people press their grapes before they go into primary While others pressed their grapes after primary to get all of the juices out. Which method is best?

As I've never done a fresh grape wine before, I'm looking for some pointers or even a really solid recipe to get me going. Or at the very least shown another thread where this topic has come up. I'm looking at doing 2 5 gallon batches.

Thanks for your help!
Cheers

 

[shelly_belly]

I freeze mine in gallon size bags, thaw them and then crush in the baggies with a rolling pin. I can crush 30 pounds in about 10 minutes. I have never added heat. I get my winemaking recipes from http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Let me know how it goes! I'm in the midst of picking muscadines myself. I picked some the other day. I'm not sure about the weight, but it reached the 2 gallon mark on my fermentation bucket, and I have at least that much more to pick.

 

[Brew-Dude]

I found a few recipes online that seemed pretty consistent with my resurch into the matter. This is the basics of what I did: Today I hand crushed approximately 25lbs of muscadines, added 3/4 tsp of pectic enzyme, 5 tbs yeast nutrien and, 5 tsp wine tannin . I then boiled 2 gal water and dissolved 10lbs sugar in it. Cooled and mixed with grape pulp mixture. Fill up to the 5.5 gal mark. Finally I added 5 crushed campden tables and covered with large mesh straining bag. After 24 hours, the yeast will be added and maintained in the 69-74 degree range for approximately 7 days. After primary is complete, press or stain grapes/pulp. Transfer to secondary and maintain until wine has cleared and gravity is below 0.990. then add 5 more campden tabs, back sweeten to taste then bottle. Age for at least 6 months.

I'll certainly keep this thread up to date with my progress if anybody ever needs a decent recipe.

Cheers