having some trouble with a muscadine wine... recipe.

[EasTexan]

I've made a few wines with kits but never with wild muscadines. Well I harvested around 25lbs this year and I decided to try to make a wine.

I froze them to help break down the cell walls as I have read that helps produce a greater juice yield.

This is the recipe used. Its a recipe from Jack Keller and its seems pretty popular from what I have read.

**Yeast used was Red Star Montrachet**
S.G. on day one was 1.090. 1.030 on day three, and 1.015 on day four when I transferred to the secondary.

It has been in the secondary for 10 days.



I followed the instructions to a T.

6 lbs ripe Muscadine Grapes
2-1/4 lbs granulated sugar
3 qts water
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 packet Montrachet wine yeast
Boil the water and dissolve the sugar in it. While sugar-water is cooling, wash, destem and crush the grapes, being sure to wear rubber gloves. Pour crushed grapes into nylon straining bag, tie securely, and put in primary. Pour water over grapes, add crushed Campden tablet and yeast nutrient, and cover primary securely. After 12 hours add pectic enzyme. Wait additional 12 hours and measure both specific gravity and acid. S.G. should be 1.090 or higher; acidity no higher than 7 p.p.t. tartaric. Correct S.G. if required by adding additional sugar, acid by using one of three methods described below following recipes. Add yeast, recover primary, and squeeze nylon bag lightly and stir must twice daily for about 5-7 days or until S.G. drops to 1.030. Press pulp well to extract liquid. Pour into secondary fermentation vessel, fit airlock, and let stand 3 weeks. Rack and top up, then rack again in 2 months and again after additional 2 months. If wine has cleared, bottle. If not, wait until wine clears, rack again and bottle. This wine may be sweetened before bottling by stabilizing, waiting 10-12 hours, then adding 2/3 to 1-1/3 cup sugar-water per gallon (2 parts sugar dissolved in 1 part water. May taste after one year, but improves remarkably with age (2-4 years). [Author's recipe.]

Can anyone tell me why I have such a large amount of sediment in my carboy? I was careful when racking from the primary to the secondary so I am not sure what I did wrong.

Also, I know I will need to rack again and top up. When I top up what would be the best to top up with?

 

[djrockinsteve]

You will get a lot of sediment and maybe seeds if any fell out of your bag. Just rack off of the sediment, add a pinch of sulfite and let it age awhile.

The remaining pour into a smaller carboy or magnum bottle w/airlock. Put it in the refrigerator for a few days. More of the wine should rise up and sediment fall. Carefully siphon that off and add to your original carboy.

My muscadine wine has always been thick and acidic and I added some water up front to thin it or make a water wine and thin later. You could probably add 25% water or water wine. It's all in how it feels in your mouth. You could top off with a small amount of water if you want. This would lower the ABV from 12% to maybe 11%

If you like 12% then you would want to top off with a water wine of any concentrate juice (grape) or if you had access to any muscadine wine from someone else or another batch.

I just now checked a red muscadine wine I have clearing. It has a ph of 2.88 and an acid of .69% I'll let it cold stabilize over the winter and I'll see where the acid % ends up.

For more detailed info "Sirs" on here can really help you. He's the expert.

 

[EasTexan]

You will get a lot of sediment and maybe seeds if any fell out of your bag. Just rack off of the sediment, add a pinch of sulfite and let it age awhile.

The remaining pour into a smaller carboy or magnum bottle w/airlock. Put it in the refrigerator for a few days. More of the wine should rise up and sediment fall. Carefully siphon that off and add to your original carboy.

My muscadine wine has always been thick and acidic and I added some water up front to thin it or make a water wine and thin later. You could probably add 25% water or water wine. It's all in how it feels in your mouth. You could top off with a small amount of water if you want. This would lower the ABV from 12% to maybe 11%

If you like 12% then you would want to top off with a water wine of any concentrate juice (grape) or if you had access to any muscadine wine from someone else or another batch.

I just now checked a red muscadine wine I have clearing. It has a ph of 2.88 and an acid of .69% I'll let it cold stabilize over the winter and I'll see where the acid % ends up.

For more detailed info "Sirs" on here can really help you. He's the expert.

Thanks for the info. I was just scratching my head at the amount if sediment.

Glad its no biggie. I have a ton of grapes left so I may as well press them and top up with that.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Last year we froze the grapes and pressed well, then I fermented the juice and for the skins I added sugar water and made a muscadine skeeter pee.

This year I ran the grapes thru my press to just break the skins, not press the juice out.

I then fermented the juice and skins to 1.030 From there I removed five million tons of pulp and seeds. Took those skins and made a muscadine skeeter pee. The juice fermented to .990

Last year I added 1 1/2 gallons of water to a 5 gallon amount of muscadine. I did this post fermentation so I had to add it as a water wine. This time I added some water pre fermentation and I'll make adjustments in the spring if I need it.

I did last week blend 1 bottle of muscadine with 1 gallon of merlot. A great combination. Just FYI

 

[Sirs]

yeah you'll get a ton of sediment with them especially if they're not really ripe but they'll still make really good wine no matter

 

[takenbywine]

i have a hydro reading of 1.090 before adding yeast. Day 6 after adding yeast and have a reading of 1.010. Any suggestions what's going on?

 

[Johnd]

i have a hydro reading of 1.090 before adding yeast. Day 6 after adding yeast and have a reading of 1.010. Any suggestions what's going on?

The yeast are converting sugar to alcohol, thus the decreasing SG. Looks like a normal fermentation to me.

 

[garymc]

Can someone tell me what a "water wine" is?

 

[Johnd]

Can someone tell me what a "water wine" is?

”Wine” made from water and sugar, I presume.