Zintrigue
Senior Member
Hey guys. I've been making kit wine for a few years now, and I'm wondering how much different a wine *from grapes* would be. I plan on diving into this undertaking in the fall. I did some Googling here to get the exact process in my head, and while I learned about acidity testing and whatnot, I still have more questions. So here we go.
1.) Sourcing. I'm in Sonora, CA. I'll probably have to call a few local wineries and see who's selling (spoiler alert: most weren't, last I checked). Anyone near me have a good recommendation that won't require an overnight hotel? I have ankle biters chaining me to the house.
2.) Must VS grapes. So is the must I would purchase mostly juice with just some grapes, or is must the industry term for only juice? And if the former, is there a standardized amount of grapes per parts juice going on here? Like after I strain off the skins, can I expect a set amount of volume loss?
3.) Volume. In the event that I purchase just grapes, I read that I would need 16 lbs of grapes to make 1 gallon of finished juice. That seems a bit extreme to me, as I'd need 96 lbs of grapes to fill my 6 gallon carboy. Which kind of ties back into my above question. To make this simple: how many pounds of grapes do I need to get a full 6 gallon carboy of wine?
4.) Crushing. I'm not sticking my bare feet into those beautiful grapes. And I'm not going to purchase a crusher for this unless it's more cost effective to use grapes instead of kits and my first grape to wine experiment goes well. I may just decide to stick to kits. In the meantime, do we have a good method of grape crushing going on? Like if I really have to order 96 lbs of grapes, should I just sanitize a new kiddie pool and wrap everyone's feet in plastic wrap? Seems daunting. I don't have 4+ hours to mash these things with a potato masher in small amounts. I know one of you geniuses has a good idea.
5.) Sanitize must before pitching? Seems like a plethora of microbes could be hanging out on these grapes, and to prevent any sort of horrific incidents from happening I'm tempted to toss in some kmeta and let it sit overnight. Yes, no, maybe so?
6.) Fermenting. So um, if 96 lbs of grapes is correct, that seems to me like maybe my tiny 7.9gal pail and my 6gal pail won't be enough for all this? Granted I've never really handled a large amount of grapes before, but if it adds up to be more than my two pails then I'm in trouble, yeah? Thoughts? Reassurances? Laughter?
7.) I'm sure I'm missing something. Someone educate me further.
Thanks everyone. Provided I have the tools/time to handle this, I'm really looking forward to the experience.
1.) Sourcing. I'm in Sonora, CA. I'll probably have to call a few local wineries and see who's selling (spoiler alert: most weren't, last I checked). Anyone near me have a good recommendation that won't require an overnight hotel? I have ankle biters chaining me to the house.
2.) Must VS grapes. So is the must I would purchase mostly juice with just some grapes, or is must the industry term for only juice? And if the former, is there a standardized amount of grapes per parts juice going on here? Like after I strain off the skins, can I expect a set amount of volume loss?
3.) Volume. In the event that I purchase just grapes, I read that I would need 16 lbs of grapes to make 1 gallon of finished juice. That seems a bit extreme to me, as I'd need 96 lbs of grapes to fill my 6 gallon carboy. Which kind of ties back into my above question. To make this simple: how many pounds of grapes do I need to get a full 6 gallon carboy of wine?
4.) Crushing. I'm not sticking my bare feet into those beautiful grapes. And I'm not going to purchase a crusher for this unless it's more cost effective to use grapes instead of kits and my first grape to wine experiment goes well. I may just decide to stick to kits. In the meantime, do we have a good method of grape crushing going on? Like if I really have to order 96 lbs of grapes, should I just sanitize a new kiddie pool and wrap everyone's feet in plastic wrap? Seems daunting. I don't have 4+ hours to mash these things with a potato masher in small amounts. I know one of you geniuses has a good idea.
5.) Sanitize must before pitching? Seems like a plethora of microbes could be hanging out on these grapes, and to prevent any sort of horrific incidents from happening I'm tempted to toss in some kmeta and let it sit overnight. Yes, no, maybe so?
6.) Fermenting. So um, if 96 lbs of grapes is correct, that seems to me like maybe my tiny 7.9gal pail and my 6gal pail won't be enough for all this? Granted I've never really handled a large amount of grapes before, but if it adds up to be more than my two pails then I'm in trouble, yeah? Thoughts? Reassurances? Laughter?
7.) I'm sure I'm missing something. Someone educate me further.
Thanks everyone. Provided I have the tools/time to handle this, I'm really looking forward to the experience.