So I got all these grapes...

Picked a good 7 or 8 gallons of these unknown "wine grapes" from family property that were going to waste.

Never really made anything but fruit wine. Can I just mash up throw in PE and yeast? Any advice?

They were free. Idk the quality but having the opportunity to pick 30+ pounds for free in 15 minutes after spending weeks collecting 15 pounds of blackberries I couldn't pass them up.

You'll have to separate them from the stems and pick out ones that aren't ripe. Then crush/mash them up really good. I'd let them sit on the skins for a week or so before pressing. Add your PE and yeast and you should be good to go. The yield might be a gallon...good luck.

these look like concord. you will need to add sugar and acid to get a good wine.

salcoco said:

these look like concord. you will need to add sugar and acid to get a good wine.

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I'm not a grape grower, and don't know the varietal, but are those ripe? Some green, some red, some halfway between? Or does that variety just ripen like that?

Johnd said:

I'm not a grape grower, and don't know the varietal, but are those ripe? Some green, some red, some halfway between? Or does that variety just ripen like that?

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They taste about the same regardless of the stage of color(minus the older ones starting to get a little old).

I will certainly separate them all and wash them. Really out of all those only a gallon??

I'll add PE, and acid, but what do you mean by leaving them on the skins for a while? You just mean leaving them sit as is for a week before mashing?

the variety is Concord. they are prone to ripening unevenly. just remove stems and crush using a potato smasher or a 2 x 4 piece o lumber. add potassium metabisulphite and let sit for about two days. the color from the skins will exude and give you a better color wine. keep grapes at a temp of 55 deg during this period. then let it warm up add sugar using hydrometer to sg=1085 and then yeast.

Excellent thank you! Thank god I got this excuse to buy another carboy haha

So for mashing/pressing... I'm sitting here pulling each grape off the stem. This will take ages for even this small 2 buckets.

It's really important to get all stems out when fermenting right? Trying to figure out how to not spend 8 hours prepping one gallon of juice lol.

Don't pull grape by grape. Just get them off. Last time my wife and I did 300 lbs by hand, it took about 4 hours. No need to be neat, just get them off and if you get a few stems, life goes on.

cmason1957 said:

Don't pull grape by grape. Just get them off. Last time my wife and I did 300 lbs by hand, it took about 4 hours. No need to be neat, just get them off and if you get a few stems, life goes on.

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Ok thanks. But I'm seeing quite a few are split with mold in the cracks. Imagine I don't want those in there. Can't see how I'd not do it grape by grape to sort them out. Unless you think that's normal and fine?

Cut the bunches into smaller sections so you can quickly pick off the moldy ones if you feel you need to do that. Then just strip the grapes off quickly as mentioned. Don't sweat the few stems that make in the must. That's why you do that first racking from primary to secondary.

WildernessMedic said:

Ok thanks. But I'm seeing quite a few are split with mold in the cracks. Imagine I don't want those in there. Can't see how I'd not do it grape by grape to sort them out. Unless you think that's normal and fine?

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I wouldn't worry about them. Get them all. If you have never watched a commercial winery at crush time, you should consider doing that. If it went into the lug, it will go through the crusher/destemmer.

cmason1957 said:

I wouldn't worry about them. Get them all. If you have never watched a commercial winery at crush time, you should consider doing that. If it went into the lug, it will go through the crusher/destemmer.

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I was thinking that when I was destemming. I thought that commercial wineries go through thousands of pounds in a shot, the mold and nasty stuff will be overpowered. However, me and my tiny little 6 gallon carboy might be in danger.
That being said, I swiped off the grapes when destemming. A little mold here and there didn't bother me, and when it got too much that it started to scare me, I would single pull off the good grapes and dump the rest.

You might have a few with mold.......we crush 6 pallets of grapes using a motorized crusher/destemmer......we don't check every grape to make sure they don't have mold....but if we see them we just pull them out. Too many stems can sometimes add bitterness to the wine.....but since you're crushing by hand you might not taste it so much, the motorized crusher really tears through the stems, we pick them out as well. Also, I read above about adding sugar.....it's a good idea to bring the SG up to 1.080+ then add your PE and yeast. Good luck and have fun with it.

Thanks for the replies. There was more mold than I thought. Enough for the grapes to have an odor. Went through them and after all the stem and bad ones removed there wasn't much as far as quantity. Not sure what to do.

Eat the good ones and run to the liquor store and buy a few bottles of wine.....LOL.

I dont agree. Crush the grapes as an experiment. Cover with a towel until the foaming stops and then let it rest. Drink and enjoy

So leaving for the weekend at 5am tomorrow hope for a reply. It will be about 36 hours and nothing. Openness lid still heavy sulfite smell. Should I repitch before leaving?

Stir it like crazy you don't need a lid just a towel it needs to breath. Oxygen is a good thing at the beginning stages of fermentaion until the fermentaion slows,then it becomes the enemy

Ok. I'll stir it and cover with a towel. If it is still heavy on sulfite does that mean it's good in its present state, or will other things in it start going bad