source for small amount of wine grapes?

[Corey Fish]

Hi there! I'm planning on a 5 gal batch of apple cider from our apple harvest this year. I'd like to do a pink, "rosé" style cider with primary fermentation on 2-3 pounds of grape skins and some hibiscus petals. I've contacted several people off our local craigslist (we are in Portland, OR) and a few local wineries in town. Harvest has happened or is happening now and I'm sure crush is going on currently.

Anyway, I've yet to hear back, which is completely understandable given my small need, and the fact that I'm sure these folks are busy with things far more important than helping out a hobbyist cider maker.

I've found a huge pack of grape skins in a pack from canada but with the cost and import fees, I'm not sure it's worth it. Anybody have any good ideas for sourcing some wine grapes? Not picky so long as they are red.

Thanks in advance,

Corey

 

[jgmillr1]

You could check with Main Street Homebrewing in Hillsboro. I used to get grapes and supplies from them when I lived in the area. You are right that this is getting late in the season.

 

[Corey Fish]

You could check with Main Street Homebrewing in Hillsboro. I used to get grapes and supplies from them when I lived in the area. You are right that this is getting late in the season.

Thanks! A grower got back to me and has agreed to sell me a few pounds of Pinot Noir. That's good though, I didn't know that Main Street sold that kinda stuff. Appreciate the help!

 

[Corey Fish]

Picked 4 pounds of pinot noir grapes today. I shoulda snapped a pic, beautiful Pacific Northwest Misty day, vineyard overlooking this forrested gully, gorgeous. Super therapeutic. If anyone wants me to just pick grapes all day, I'd be happy to do it! Pretty pumped for my Rosé cider project. Only 7 more days until apple pressing day!

@jgmillr1 My plan was to put the de-stemmed and crushed grapes in a sanitized mesh bag along with the dried hibiscus petals and just leave it in the apple juice in the fermenter until primary fermentation is complete. Any issue with that doing that with such a small amount of Pinot Noir? Or should I consider opening the fermenter before primary is complete and using a colander to manually "juice" the grapes back into the fermenter? I'm fine with picking up some tannins but I don't want any odd flavors.

Thanks for the help!

 

[William 'Bill' Moore]

Hi there! I'm planning on a 5 gal batch of apple cider from our apple harvest this year. I'd like to do a pink, "rosé" style cider with primary fermentation on 2-3 pounds of grape skins and some hibiscus petals. I've contacted several people off our local craigslist (we are in Portland, OR) and a few local wineries in town. Harvest has happened or is happening now and I'm sure crush is going on currently.

Anyway, I've yet to hear back, which is completely understandable given my small need, and the fact that I'm sure these folks are busy with things far more important than helping out a hobbyist cider maker.

I've found a huge pack of grape skins in a pack from canada but with the cost and import fees, I'm not sure it's worth it. Anybody have any good ideas for sourcing some wine grapes? Not picky so long as they are red.

Thanks in advance,

Corey[/QUOTE
Lucky you living within a reasonable distance from Oregon's wine country. You might contact a local winery and ask for seconds. These are grapes left on the vine during the first pick that weren't quite ripe at the first pick so they were left on the vines. Depending on the quantity left on the vines, many wineries leave them to turn to raisins and basically for the birds. You'll have top pick them yourself and who knows, you might get enough grapes to make 5 gallons of wine. You'll need approximately 100 lbs and depending on the grape variety, you'll get 5 - 6 gallons of finished wine. Sometimes these grapes are free as labor to harvest small quantities is cost prohibitive. Good luck!

 

[jgmillr1]

@jgmillr1 My plan was to put the de-stemmed and crushed grapes in a sanitized mesh bag along with the dried hibiscus petals and just leave it in the apple juice in the fermenter until primary fermentation is complete. Any issue with that doing that with such a small amount of Pinot Noir? Or should I consider opening the fermenter before primary is complete and using a colander to manually "juice" the grapes back into the fermenter? I'm fine with picking up some tannins but I don't want any odd flavors.

I don't foresee any issues with your plans. I've never used the hibiscus petals though, so it is possible that fermenting with the petals there could produce some unusual aromas but I have no idea. Pinot noir is low in tannin so you won't risk getting too much in the wine. Good luck and brew on.

 

[Corey Fish]

I don't foresee any issues with your plans. I've never used the hibiscus petals though, so it is possible that fermenting with the petals there could produce some unusual aromas but I have no idea. Pinot noir is low in tannin so you won't risk getting too much in the wine. Good luck and brew on.

Thanks a bunch! I'll post here with an update in a couple of weeks. Appreciate the help

 

[davidlewis]

Thanks a bunch! I'll post here with an update in a couple of weeks. Appreciate the help

Looking forward to hearing how this goes!

 

[Corey Fish]

Ok, so I combined 4 pounds of frozen Pinot noir grapes and 50g dried hibiscus petals in a grain bag and added to apple juice of 3.5 gal Macintosh, 2.5 gal golden delicious, and 1 gal crabapple juice. I added 2 pounds of turbinado sugar to bring the brix from 12 to 15. Sulfite, pectic 12 h later, and M2 wine yeast dry 12h after (1g per gallon). Should be done with primary in a couple weeks. Looking forward to seeing how it goes!

 

[Adam Bowman]

Any Updates? This sounds like a pretty interesting idea.

 

[Corey Fish]

Yeah! So I ended up using medium char american oak cubes ~1.5 oz in 6 gal and let it sit for 4 weeks. I racked off the oak to a clean carboy and it's just been chilling in secondary for about 2 months now. I tasted a month ago and it was still pretty young tasting and there was definitely more oak than I would've liked which I was a bit surprised by given how little I used and the fact they were cubes and not chips... Hoping the oak mellows with time. I'll likely bottle in the next month (bottle condition) but may have to do some blending to mellow the oak. But it's a lovely dark purple color. I'd do it again, but less oak next time.