Tis the season of the Grapes

[screamlead]

Well over here we had a few days of rain in July which nicely watered the garden and brought the Grapes on big time so much so i have now harvested my two vines and nicked a few bunches off a vine crawling up a tree out the back of my place.
All initially crushed by SWMBO in her neatly sterilised wellies into a massve bowl, then juice poured off into a barrel and strained whilst doing it. Then the trub thats left went into my new (winter built) press to extract even more of the luvverly stuff.
Result - 80 ltr of juice. I have 75 ltr fermenting in various FV's as i am trying out a couple of different yeasts to see what the results will be like. The spare 5 ltr i am going to bottle in 500ml water bottles and freeze them for later use in possibly juice or fruit wines - which ever recipe dictates the use of grape juice etc.
I still have my 3 x 55 ltr barrels spare for when my turk m8 gets round to harvesting his from his village and gets me 150 ltr. :thumb:

 

[PD]

we had a nice day....... a week last Wednesday I think....

Nice one, got a lovely vision of swmbo in her wellies.

 

[pittsy]

I am starting to see why you moved out there , sounds like a overall great time :thumb:

 

[Cyclops]

Any more room over there? lol

 

[evanvine]

You're about two months ahead of us lesser mortals in the UK!
What was your OG and and acid level?

 

[screamlead]

Lol @ Jim

Fruits always ready here early though.
As for tests just done some on final batch and are as follows -
OG 1.055 - 7.2%
Brix 14
Litmus paper 3 - orange colour
PH Meter 3.9
The first gallon batch i started off was OG 1.050 so i added 500g sugar to that which boosted it to 1.085 - 11.3%
I'll test the barrels fermenting once they finish as didnt test them but both took off like rockets as i add Andrews to them for nutrient and it works a treat one even erupted out of the airlock so had to change the lid and bubbler. But inside was a nice krausen and bubbly head on it.
Cant remember the yeast numbers off hand but using Vitners Harvest types and one is a slow fermenting one and the other a crisp fruity dessert one i think.

 

[evanvine]

Thanks SL, gives me something to compare mine with in October.

 

[screamlead]

......and just as an add on to this thread - a friend of a friend just contacted me - so i now have to get up really early on the 9th sept to go pick a whole vines worth of Red wine grapes!! Gratis too the guy reckons 80-140 large bunches ! Result or what!
Reds are pretty rare out here only the markets seem to have them and want stupid prices per KG as well. So hopefully i will get my first decent red under my belt before too long.
:

 

[evanvine]

@screamlead
Now you are talking Vinting!
Was a little disappointed with your gravity and acid, was hoping for better things with your climate.

 

[screamlead]

Jim,

From what i have read so far it seems the OG for the white is about normal and needs added sugar. But i did a brew 2 years ago from these all natural nothing added at all and it was a superb wine. Lost the whole crop last year to acid rain.
But when i go to get the reds i am taking all my testing kit with me as he has 3 vines, its in a place called uzumlu which in turkish means grapes - its the vine growing area around here with loads of places growing them for wine producing. Hopefully if any good i will get some cuttings come winter. Also another friend up the same valley knows someone else where they get their grapes from who has some well known strains like chablis and chardonnay grapes plus reds but dont know what type yet. They are going to contact me when ready too.
Not much land where i am but i think i can get another 4-5 vines around the villa if any good.
My red cutting i took last year even produced fruit this year too - not many but its in a large pot and will be planted out this winter.

Just out of interest what is the OG and acid levels - on average - supposed to be or what should i be looking at?? :hmm:

 

[evanvine]

My chardonnay grapes last year attained an OG of 1072, but a very disappointind acid of 0.79%.
The ideal is 1084 and 0.5%.
The other disappointing thing was I only got 0.72 litres from 1.22Kg.
Hoping for better things this year.

 

[screamlead]

My chardonnay grapes last year attained an OG of 1072, but a very disappointind acid of 0.79%.
The ideal is 1084 and 0.5%.
The other disappointing thing was I only got 0.72 litres from 1.22Kg.
Hoping for better things this year.

Jim how do i work out the precentage of acid then? Is there a formula?

 

[evanvine]

Jim how do i work out the precentage of acid then? Is there a formula?

Unfortunately not Dave, at least not one that I'm aware of.
You have to titrate a 5ml sample with 0.1N Sodium Hydroxide and divide the result by 10.

 

[screamlead]

Think i have it sussed by PH Jim,
Been online searching but found the basic answer in good old CJJ Berry book.
Grape juice should be between 3 and 3.5 as a normal range and can be adjusted either way. Citric acid being one of them - cant remember the other offhand but fairly easy to do.
Cant be chewed with the tritation test - too much hassle - i always prefer the short cuts.
Seeing as mine was 3 with litmus paper and 3.9 on Ph meter its not that far out so good enough to me plus i made it the same way last time and it was very drinkable.

 

[evanvine]

Fair comment Dave.
I've been set up for measuring both % acid and ppm SO2 since I first started growing grapes, maybe, like you, I would think twice if I had to do it now!

 

[oldjiver]

Hi Screamlead, I used to have a house in UZUMLU a few years ago. Planned to move there from the UK till I got disabled and had to sell it. Best wine in the village is made by a lad called Mustafa, (mention Steve and Viv if you see him) his family has a shop uphill just past the Mosque. His Cabernet Sauvignon beats many of the wines I have payed £30 for here. (Made in big blue chemical barrels!). I lived next door to the Mayor, Hussein, up the top of the hill. Boy could he drink. Happy days. I suppose it has changed a lot in 6 years.

 

[screamlead]

Hi Screamlead, I used to have a house in UZUMLU a few years ago. Planned to move there from the UK till I got disabled and had to sell it. Best wine in the village is made by a lad called Mustafa, (mention Steve and Viv if you see him) his family has a shop uphill just past the Mosque. His Cabernet Sauvignon beats many of the wines I have payed £30 for here. (Made in big blue chemical barrels!). I lived next door to the Mayor, Hussein, up the top of the hill. Boy could he drink. Happy days. I suppose it has changed a lot in 6 years.

LOL to be honest i dont know Uzumlu that well although i have a few friends from up there who 'like' my wines. But i'm off up there next week to get about 3 barrels worth of red grapes off an irish guy who lives there and then on to Nif for 2kg of hops. Hopefully make a few contacts this year and get some cuttings for decent grapes too. Even though my 2 white ones make great wine too. :whistle:

 

[oldjiver]

A tip is to avoid the white wines in UZUMLU, they like their wines "pure" so they refuse to use sulphur (the Turks that is, dont know about the expats) usually sour and oxydized. The village barber "Bahri" was my mate, he has a field full of grapes.

 

[screamlead]

A tip is to avoid the white wines in UZUMLU, they like their wines "pure" so they refuse to use sulphur (the Turks that is, dont know about the expats) usually sour and oxydized. The village barber "Bahri" was my mate, he has a field full of grapes.

Funny you should mention that - my turk m8 told me the same. He uses the 100ltr blue barrels with clamp tops - absolutely useless to seal - and no airlocks. He said the turks he knew prefered the 'darker' white wine and of course the ex pats want the pure clear whiter stuff. But hes also not a fan of sulphates but he does use them in some of his stuff, he swears by adding extra tannin and ascorbic acid to wines after they finished fermenting??
Out of 12 barrels last sept he lost probably 4 to infection, i think also 5 oxydised but he had a neat trick for that stuff too. He flogged it by mixing with those sachets of mulberry powder and also cherry concentrate then selling as cherry and mulberry wine! :shock:
Just hope the reds i am picking up next sun can last out - the guy from uzumlu contacted me yesterday to say hes been watering the vines twice a day and some are drying out and some are over ripe - i told him to stop the watering so hoping i can still get a load. They all seem to have ripened early this year. I got some from calis in june and they were rotten - had to bin them.

 

[screamlead]

Just a quick update - been out over 9 hours today. 1st up was harvesting 2 full 55ltr barrels full of red grapes - not sure what type but small black and very sweet. Then a quick sprint up the mountains to meet a great couple and harvested over 3kg of hops so thats the freezer full of them now. Then the couple told me they have 9 dozen grolsh swing top bottles complete with a ton of spare rubber washers which i can have soon as they find them - lol Result i think! :thumb: