This weekend I helped my neighbor process his 700+ vines. At the end of the day he had three 4 gallon buckets of juice he could not fit on his truck that was going to a local winery for sale. I ended up with 8 gallons of frontenac gris. I've never made wine (successfully) from raw grapes so here is my question.
I put the juice in frig on the day it was created. On day three I added campden tablets (1 per gallon), I did not crush them. I waited a day before adding yeast. The juice with the campden was very active the next day. Lots of noise and bubbling. I expected to have the sulfites kill all native yeasts and not see this activity.
Questions:
1. When using raw unprocessed juice, is one tablet per gallon of campden correct?
2. Is it normally to see bubbling the next day after adding the campden before adding the wine yeast?
3. When adding sugar, I did not see significant changes on hydrometer readings. I dissolved corn sugar in water then added, stirred into must, then remeasured... no significant change. Is this the correct process?
I put the juice in frig on the day it was created. On day three I added campden tablets (1 per gallon), I did not crush them. I waited a day before adding yeast. The juice with the campden was very active the next day. Lots of noise and bubbling. I expected to have the sulfites kill all native yeasts and not see this activity.
Questions:
1. When using raw unprocessed juice, is one tablet per gallon of campden correct?
2. Is it normally to see bubbling the next day after adding the campden before adding the wine yeast?
3. When adding sugar, I did not see significant changes on hydrometer readings. I dissolved corn sugar in water then added, stirred into must, then remeasured... no significant change. Is this the correct process?