What can I mix with home grown grapes to get proper volume?

[brandont02]

I have a grape vine growing in my backyard but it hadn't been cared for before I moved in. There is a small amount of grapes, but probably not much more than a 5 gallon bucket's worth. What I am wondering is what can I add, or what would be good to add to my grapes so when it is time I can get my wine going? I will be getting a home beer brewing kit soon, so I was going to buy the few extra pieces of equipment I will need to do wine too, ie a 7.9 gallon fermenting bucket. I will be set up for 5 gallon beer batches, and I want to do wine in batches equivalent in size to the wine kits you can buy. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rocky]

Brandon, do you know what grapes you have? Depending on the variety there are a number of things that can be added to increase your volume and enhance the taste. Red wine grapes do well with berries (Blackberry, Blueberry, Raspberry) and white wine grape do well with other fruits like peaches or strawberries. In addition, there are fruit purees and concentrates that you can buy and red and white grape concentrates. I am not sure what you will get from a 5 gallon bucket of grapes but I can't imagine it will be much more than a gallon or two. Perhaps another alternative is to keep the wine purely that variety for this year and only make a couple of gallons.

 

[jswordy]

Rocky is spot-on about the volume. 5 gallons of grapes should yield a bit more than 2 gallons of 100% juice. I'd vote for 100% juice wine. All you need then would be two gallon glass jugs for secondary. Final yield should be 9 full and 1 partial 750 ml bottle.

 

[olusteebus]

I had about 20 pounds of muscadine left over once so I used that and added 5 jars of seedless blackberry jam. It never tasted very good but I finally backsweetened it and it turned out great. I think Muscadine needs backsweetening. It was so good I have made 11 more gallons.

 

[jswordy]

Yes, muscadine must have some degree of back sweetening. I am making a Fry scuppernong right now that tasted awful at .996 out of primary until I hit the test glass with a shot of sugar. It went from zero to hero!

Why not try using jelly as a back sweetener sometime?

 

[brandont02]

I might just do a smaller batch when the time comes then. I'm really excited about it and already can't wait until it is done.