jswordy
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2012
- Messages
- 10,038
- Reaction score
- 35,235
Well, I intended to start this when I first got the must going but got delayed, and then Photobucket got hacked, but anyway here's the whole thing all at once.
For those who don't know / haven't searched, Bell Bottom Blues is a blueberry and grape wine made from 3 pounds blueberries per gallon and 5 or 6 gallons of second pressing grapes (or Welch's Concord in a pinch). The biggest waste home winemakers commit is throwing out grapes after the first pressing. Don't do that, when they can provide the background structure for a wine like this, and especially if you bag yours like I do. It is so easy to keep them. I even saved the muscadines I used here for a THIRD pressing of another fruit wine later. Froze them. If you look at the wine supply places, they all want to sell you the same thing. See "grape skins."
Anyway, the pix...
The must...
Pressing today...
Racking my muscadine. The Bell Bottom Blues is to the right in the 6 gallon carboy and the 3 jugs. I amazingly got an 8.5 gallon yield, more than projected. Unusual, as I usually am short of projections on yield.
The muscadine looked so pretty coming through the hose, I could not resist a pic.
So save those grapes for at least one more go-round. Just put them in Ziplock bags and throw them in the freezer. I even freeze my emptied paint strainer bags, to get a second use out of them. Works great.
For those who don't know / haven't searched, Bell Bottom Blues is a blueberry and grape wine made from 3 pounds blueberries per gallon and 5 or 6 gallons of second pressing grapes (or Welch's Concord in a pinch). The biggest waste home winemakers commit is throwing out grapes after the first pressing. Don't do that, when they can provide the background structure for a wine like this, and especially if you bag yours like I do. It is so easy to keep them. I even saved the muscadines I used here for a THIRD pressing of another fruit wine later. Froze them. If you look at the wine supply places, they all want to sell you the same thing. See "grape skins."
Anyway, the pix...
The must...
Pressing today...
Racking my muscadine. The Bell Bottom Blues is to the right in the 6 gallon carboy and the 3 jugs. I amazingly got an 8.5 gallon yield, more than projected. Unusual, as I usually am short of projections on yield.
The muscadine looked so pretty coming through the hose, I could not resist a pic.
So save those grapes for at least one more go-round. Just put them in Ziplock bags and throw them in the freezer. I even freeze my emptied paint strainer bags, to get a second use out of them. Works great.