Score and question

[EvilTOJ]

So me and SWMBO were over at her friends' house looking at the new construction on their Craftsman, and it's coming along great. In the backyard, there's some plants out there and we ask what they are. She says "Oh those are grape vines. They're not very good for eating because they're wine grapes. It's a pity though, we don't eat them and it's too bad we don't know anyone that makes wine." As you may have guessed, I'm practically frothing at the mouth to volunteer to take them off their hands. They said go for it, so woohoo for me! Now to steal some buckets from somewhere....

Now for my question; two of the vines are concord grapes, the other is a white mystery grape. What kind of wine will the concord grapes make, and what kind of yeast should I use? All I could find about concord grapes is they make kosher wine out of it, which isn't exactly helpful.

 

[Yooper]

Concord grape wine is not the best grape for wine, but it definitely can be done and made pretty tasty. I'd start here: winemaking: Native North American Grapes and Wines so you can see some of the issues with native grapes, and then read the bottom section on that type of grape.

My concord was fermented on the skins for about 5 days, but still came out a rose' color. The one I'm making now is a concord-type according to taste, but I really have no idea what kind of grapes they are, so I'm following the generic "wine from wild grapes" recipe. This one is much darker, and very red, and much less acidic.

I used cotes des blancs for these sweeter grapes. I was hoping for a fruity bouquet with them. For the catawba grapes, I used EC-1118. I was happy with that one.

Edit- here's a link to the specific concord section: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques10.asp

 

[EvilTOJ]

Ah HA that's the site I was looking for! Thanks Yooper, you're the man!


...metaphorically speaking, of course.

 

[Yooper]

Ah HA that's the site I was looking for! Thanks Yooper, you're the man!


...metaphorically speaking, of course.

Of course.