About to attempt wine made with grapes, any tips?

[Annabella]

Hello everyone, I'm a new member although I have looked things up on this forum in the past & found it very informative, thank you!
I inherited an overgrown grape vine when I took over my late f-i-law's allotment 2 years ago. Knowing zero about grape growing I kind of winged it & pruned it hard as it had taken over the polytunnel it is growing in. Last year I picked about 5lbs of grapes, which I froze. Today I've picked a massive 32lbs & now I'm about to attempt to make wine with them.
The grapes are small, sweet and very fragrant; unfortunately I don't know what type they are.
I have all the equipment as I've already got plum, pear & apple wine on the go from last year's harvest.
Any tips on wine making from grapes would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum.

I don't think any of our members make wine from their own grapes but i may be wrong, there is a good guide in the link below, let us know how you get on.

https://www.lovetobrew.co.uk/how-to-make-wine-from-grapes-26-w.asp

.

 

[Annabella]

Thank you Chippy_Tea, I'll have a good look at that link & let you know what happens.

 

[chthon]

The guide is a bit thin, especially to the reason why to leave the pressed juice 24 hours before adding yeast.

Also, you wouldn't leave the pressed juice standing 24 hours as such, without some desinfection. I add 40 mg of metabisulfite/liter of juice. This is to make sure that it doesn't start fermenting in those 24 hours. Grape skins also contain yeast.

I only get 1/2 liter juice per kg of grapes.

Are your grapes already sweet? Last year I pressed end september, the year before that only at the end of October.

Btw. since this is year would be the third time I make wine, I am also still a beginner. However, my wine has succeeded twice.

 

[Annabella]

Thank you chthon, for the reply.
My grapes are lovely & sweet, also very juicy. Like yours though, they were ready later last year. I can only think it's because of the fantastic summer we've had, that they are ripe a few weeks earlier this year. The bunches had begun to drop off the vine if you so much as looked at them, so I felt it advisable to pick them.
I ended up with about 37lbs in total and from that I got exactly 3 gallons of juice. I didn't include the skins or pulp, only the juice. Just as a matter of interest, I had frozen last years grapes and it was a lot easier to extract the juice from that batch than the fresh ones, something to bear in mind for next year maybe.
As per the method in the link that Chippy Tea provided, I have measured the SG (1.060) and have added 3 crushed Campden tablets to kill off any wild yeast.
My next step, in a day or so, is to add sugar gradually to bring the SG up to 1.090.
I will come back & report how it's all going. :)

 

[Dutto]

Welcome to The Forum!

 

[Annabella]

Thanks for the welcome Dutto
The fermentation seems to be going great guns, thought you might like to see a pic.

 

[Dutto]

Looks good, now cover it up and leave it alone for at least two weeks so that the yeast can do its stuff.

 

[brumbrew]

Sure I made a thread or commented on one years ago as a work colleague had a vine growing over his shed. Gave me a few kilo of very tart sour grapes.

I mashed them up in boiling water and let them sit to cool down.

Waited for any bugs to float to the top. Strained the lot onto a sugar solution and let it go with gervin white wime yeast.

That was a few years back. But I remember it made a very nice summer drinking wine.

Did you test the sweetness of the grapes before hand?

 

[brumbrew]

Sorry you've said they are sweet and and ripe. In my shed having a cigarette and didn't read all the posts thoroughly.

How did you press the juice? I've used a simple wooden frame, a car scissor jack and a baking tray before with real good success.

 

[brumbrew]

My press I made years back. Still servese well to this day for small batches

 

[chthon]

My press I made years back. Still servese well to this day for small batches

Nice. I will have my fruit press next week. It's something that I lend from an ex-colleague (and good friend) of my wife. Her husband is teacher in a technical school, and he once did a project with students. I'll post a picture next week.

In the meantime my blue grapes seem nice, and they are probably already sweetening (the wasps seem to like them, but the birds not yet). My white grapes seem to need their time until the end of September, but my wife has another ex-colleague who has a big garden (that garden is his hobby), and he also complains that his grapes are ripe too soon, so I will probably start with fermenting from my blue and his white grapes.

 

[Annabella]

Thanks Dutto, yep it's covered and bubbling away happily in my airing cupboard.
Hello brumbrew, my other half squished them all by hand. We filled a sterilised net bag meant for washing delicate items in the washing machine, he squashed & squeezed all the juice out. Took us all morning. I'm thinking a fruit press of some description would be very handy indeed.

 

[brumbrew]

It was made out of simple scraps of 3x2 timber. Reinforced the corner joints with plywood cut unto L shapes as these corners are where the stress will be. Then I got a baking tray and drilled a hole at one end.

Put the chopped or scratted apples into a mesh bag like you have and put a wooden chopping board on top of them. Then simply crank up the jack and watch the juice flow.

 

[Annabella]

Quick update. Three gallons of golden/green wine with very little sediment on the bottom of each. Will probably leave it alone until next year. Have also got two gallons of apple wine & two of plum & rhubarb on the go, from my allotment.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Let us know how it turns out. :thumba:

 

[Annabella]

Will do