what measurement to take when making grape wine ?

[andrew_YSK]

Hii,

I just harvested grape from my own vine, it is sweet enough to eat just like that. Usually the grape should be done harvest by now, but since sun is not so good this year, harvest was delayed due to not enough sweetness.

I never do a proper grape wine before (i have done many batches of wine in my life so far, but never with proper procedure and measuring and calculation.

I would like to try to do a proper one this time, hence would love to have input from you guys what to measure.
Oh by the way , i don't use the C.Tablet for it, because this batch of wine gonna used for Holy Communion purposes (because i am a Christian).

I just rinsed and meshed the grape to break the skin in a glass vessel.
This is my measurement :
grape juice : 14.9% brix
Acidity: PH2.4
Taste test: sweet (not overly sweet) with grape skin sourness

Do i need to do hydrometer measurement ? I didn't take the measurement, because of all the pulp and skin in it, i believe definately hydrometer measurement now is inaccurate.
What else should i do or take measurement off ?

Thank you.
Andrew

 

[Jaybird]

Did you add water? I mean a hydrometer reading is really the only way to know what the starting gravity is. You can do some math if you added water but a hydrometer was your best bet. If its ONLY because of the pulp and skin ETC as to why not to take a reading... Just pull a sample, measure the sample..

Cheers
Jay

 

[andrew_YSK]

Did you add water? I mean a hydrometer reading is really the only way to know what the starting gravity is. Just pull a sample, measure the sample..

Cheers
Jay

Hii Jay,
No i didn't add any water.. the grape was just rinsed with water , drained and went it goes into the glass vessel.
I will take a measurement just in case, but since the grape pulp and flesh is kind of like mucus, i think it will affect the hydrometer measurement.. I don't want to put in the synthetic enzyme chemical to make the "mucus" to separate with water.
Anyway, i will take a hydrometer measurement according to your advice... just in case it is useful.
Thanks

 

[andrew_YSK]

I took hydrometer measuring already :
Due to thick flesh of the grape meat, the hydrometer can't spin freely. hence i have to shake shake shake until hydrometer settle naturally.
When i push hydrometer all the way to the bottom and shake shake until it float to natural position it shows 58SG
When i drop hydrometer on top of the mash, and shake shake until it sink to the natural position, it shows 54SG.
Hence SG 54-58. (that's why i said hydrometer could be not accurate). How other people take hydrometer reading with freshly mashed grape mash ? they use enzyme to break it down before doing hydrometer measurement ?

grape juice : 14.9% brix
Acidity: PH2.4
Taste test: sweet (not overly sweet) with grape skin sourness
specific gravity : 54 - 58

Any idea what should i do next ? add sugar ? because the brix is a bit low isn't it ? Pitch champagne yeast directly ?

Thx

 

[HCWHunter]

I took hydrometer measuring already :
Due to thick flesh of the grape meat, the hydrometer can't spin freely. hence i have to shake shake shake until hydrometer settle naturally.
When i push hydrometer all the way to the bottom and shake shake until it float to natural position it shows 58SG
When i drop hydrometer on top of the mash, and shake shake until it sink to the natural position, it shows 54SG.
Hence SG 54-58. (that's why i said hydrometer could be not accurate). How other people take hydrometer reading with freshly mashed grape mash ? they use enzyme to break it down before doing hydrometer measurement ?

grape juice : 14.9% brix
Acidity: PH2.4
Taste test: sweet (not overly sweet) with grape skin sourness
specific gravity : 54 - 58

Any idea what should i do next ? add sugar ? because the brix is a bit low isn't it ? Pitch champagne yeast directly ?

Thx

I know this is an old thread, but I am curious as to how your wine came out? I had the same problem trying to measure the SG for my concord grape wine must and decided to strain out as much of the pulp and skins from the must for my sample and used a hydrometer. I know that there is more sugar in the pulp but decided that the other solids in the must would throw off the reading. I found a brix to OG converter that says that 14.9 brix equals 1.0607 SG. How did you measure the brix? Did you add sugar to your must?

 

[bernardsmith]

Old thread being resuscitated, but if you place a drop of juice in a refractometer and you get the Brix reading which will be accurate and reliable, you simply multiply that by 4 to get a rough and ready SG if that is what you are looking for. A drop of juice will give you a fair estimation of the sugar content of the fruit if you can assume that the one berry you squeezed is a good sample of the entire batch. If you are unsure of that take a handful of berries from different clusters and take a reading from each berry, add the total Brix and divide that by the number of berries you sampled... and again, multiply that number by 4 to get an approximation to the SG.