I need a little help with muscadine wine

[Jme]

I’ve collected and frozen about five gallons of wild muscadine, I have selected primarily black ones and have produced juice by hand methods. This is only my second time making wine, the first I made a couple of months ago from some wild black cherries using only the natural yeast, was a pretty small batch and I was impressed with the flavor initially; looking forward to seeing it with some age.
So back to the muscadines; the juice is very thick, cranberry In color, and everything I’ve read says that muscadine is highly acidic but my pH is about 7.3, (I have not yet ordered a tartaric acid kit). According to hydrometer, the specific gravity of the unfiltered juice, (without skins) is 1.54, sugar content 14.5%, and the potential alcohol is 7%. I did test the hydrometer with distilled water and it reads 1.0 as you would expect. Do I dilute to reduce the S.G.? I’ve read of numerous folks who use 100% juice, but there isn’t a whole lot of it, and as I said, it is rather thick.Obviously will need more sugar to produce a higher abv.

 

[Fencepost]

Hey Jme, I am about to start a DangerDave Dragon Blood Muscadine and was looking at muscadine threads... I am also fairly new, done about a dozen batches... but looking above... I would double check that SG.... from the other data you proved it looks like it should be more like 1.054 instead of 1.54. SGs get mis-read a lot from what I read on the forum... and there are some good tools on it. Any way, will be following your thread, and I plan to do the DDDB since I only have about 18 lbs of muscadines... and I really like the DDDB recipe with using blackberries... it is a great reciepe. Look under Forums, Recipe if you want to check it out. Good luck... if I get more muscadines next year I may try an all juice like you. btw, how did you crush your muscadines? Thanks.

 

[Jme]

Doggone it, I’ll go back and scrutinize the hydro gauge again, This is my first time using it, and I definitely have made mistakes, (I’ve made three this year already, lol).
Basically, I sliced skin of each grape, separating skins from fruit. As the skins have a thick layer of juicy pulp, I squeeze as much liquid as possible by hand, (fist?). I am removing seeds by forcing fruit pulp through a plastic colander that has openings just small enough to retain the seeds. I plan to add skins for primary fermentation.

 

[Jme]

Doh! Got it! I see now that I did not comprehend that the range my reading falls in is between 1.000 to 1.100; makes total, obvious sense! Ty.

 

[KCCam]

Doh! Got it! I see now that I did not comprehend that the range my reading falls in is between 1.000 to 1.100; makes total, obvious sense! Ty.

Welcome to WMT @Jme!

Yes, tricky to read. But critical to get it right when asking for help. 1.54 is obviously wrong to us, and we’ll question it. But the difference between 1.05 and 1.005 is huge, but both are valid numbers during a normal fermentation. The first is in the thick of primary fermentation, the second is almost finished. It helps to show all 3 decimal places, ie 1.050, not 1.05.

 

[Rice_Guy]

my mom’s version of squeeze by hand was to put in a flour sack or pillow case tie it off, hang from a cabinet door knob and wring the bag. Nylon straining bags are readily available now a days which I use, , , also the juice is cleaner than when run in a colander.

I squeeze as much liquid as possible by hand, (fist?). I am removing seeds by forcing fruit pulp through a plastic colander that has openings just small enough to retain the seeds. I plan to add skins for primary fermentation.

 

[Fencepost]

I tried by hand, with a potato masher and those muscadines were exploding juice all over the place.... ended up putting about a quart at a time into a gallon ziploc freezer bag, pushing the air out and squishing them with the heal of my hand on the counter top... no more mess! Since I am fermenting with the skins and seeds I it will work out just fine. The muscadines sure smelled good... I had a mix of purple, red and bronze. Good luck with your batch... I do mostly blackberry and with the few pounds of muscadines I have left, I may do a bb/muscadine mix.

 

[Jme]

I ended up changing tactic; put in a large, flat-bottomed bowl, (using thawed grapes, most were already split open) and with my hand over the business part of the potato masher, did not get sprayed. Much more efficient time-wise; I was concerned about breaking seeds open and not sure I wanted to contribute that astringence.

 

[robert81650]

I make muscadine wine every fall almost entirely. I have a wooden crusher I bought for about 150 dollars and I use it to crush my Muscadines. I crush them over a 6 gallon ferment bucket and add Pot. Meta and pectic enzyme to the bucket. Then the next day I do several tests including Sugar, pH and TA on each bucket and then add sugar until I get up to 1.090 on Sp. Gr. The I add on red muscadines a powder the enhances the keeping of the red color and any other required ingredients that makes the must up to standards. I have used EC-1118, K1-1116 and other yeasts over the past to the must bucket after mixing it in some of the juice and adding Go-ferm and some DAP to the mixture until it starts to working, then add to the must and let it sit for about 5 to 8 days depending on how it is fermenting. Then pour up in glass carboys and wait about a month before I pull it to a clean glass carboy. Check pH and TA and add the other ingredients. Then I let it set in Wine room with temp of about 65 degrees for at least 2 months, then bottle.

 

[robert81650]

I use Noble, Carlos and Ison as the main ones for wines. But I have others varieties that I also make wine from that are the eating kind, but I don't cull any of them.

 

[Cruisin@55]

Hey Jme, I am about to start a DangerDave Dragon Blood Muscadine and was looking at muscadine threads... I am also fairly new, done about a dozen batches... but looking above... I would double check that SG.... from the other data you proved it looks like it should be more like 1.054 instead of 1.54. SGs get mis-read a lot from what I read on the forum... and there are some good tools on it. Any way, will be following your thread, and I plan to do the DDDB since I only have about 18 lbs of muscadines... and I really like the DDDB recipe with using blackberries... it is a great reciepe. Look under Forums, Recipe if you want to check it out. Good luck... if I get more muscadines next year I may try an all juice like you. btw, how did you crush your muscadines? Thanks.

Put about a quart of thawed muscadines in bottom of bucket and use a wine bottle to press. Just slow and steady as to not crush seeds. Just press a few at the time until all done.

 

[WinoDave]

I make muscadine wine every fall almost entirely. I have a wooden crusher I bought for about 150 dollars and I use it to crush my Muscadines. I crush them over a 6 gallon ferment bucket and add Pot. Meta and pectic enzyme to the bucket. Then the next day I do several tests including Sugar, pH and TA on each bucket and then add sugar until I get up to 1.090 on Sp. Gr. The I add on red muscadines a powder the enhances the keeping of the red color and any other required ingredients that makes the must up to standards. I have used EC-1118, K1-1116 and other yeasts over the past to the must bucket after mixing it in some of the juice and adding Go-ferm and some DAP to the mixture until it starts to working, then add to the must and let it sit for about 5 to 8 days depending on how it is fermenting. Then pour up in glass carboys and wait about a month before I pull it to a clean glass carboy. Check pH and TA and add the other ingredients. Then I let it set in Wine room with temp of about 65 degrees for at least 2 months, then bottle.

Hey Robert, could you help me out on this question, last year I made a muscadine wine and it came out perfect, semi sweet, nice clear purplish color, tasted great.
This year my muscadine came out really tart, I haven’t bottled it yet but any suggestions in how to reduce the tartness or do I just need to accept I picked some really tart grapes.

 

[robert81650]

What was the pH and TA of the juice. That could be your problems.

 

[KCCam]

Hey Robert, could you help me out on this question, last year I made a muscadine wine and it came out perfect, semi sweet, nice clear purplish color, tasted great.
This year my muscadine came out really tart, I haven’t bottled it yet but any suggestions in how to reduce the tartness or do I just need to accept I picked some really tart grapes.

For your semi-sweet, did you ferment dry and backsweeten, or did fermentation stop while there was still residual sugar? What were your starting and ending SG’s for each batch?

 

[robert81650]

I start at 1.090 and go to dry. Then take some of the dry wine and mix with sugar and make a sweetener that I use to back sweeten the wine with to about 1.030.

 

[hounddawg]

I start at 1.090 and go to dry. Then take some of the dry wine and mix with sugar and make a sweetener that I use to back sweeten the wine with to about 1.030.

amen brother, 1.030 perfect, and i know i sipped Roberts wines, and they be good,,,,,,,
Dawg

 

[WinoDave]

For your semi-sweet, did you ferment dry and backsweeten, or did fermentation stop while there was still residual sugar? What were your starting and ending SG’s for each batch?

Both times I fermented dry to .098 and then I back sweeten with Sugar/Water to 1.020ish.

 

[WinoDave]

For your semi-sweet, did you ferment dry and backsweeten, or did fermentation stop while there was still residual sugar? What were your starting and ending SG’s for each batch?

SG was 1.090 and 1.10.

 

[robert81650]

Sounds good to me......................

 

[KCCam]

Both times I fermented dry to .098 and then I back sweeten with Sugar/Water to 1.020ish.

I was asking only to know if you are familiar with backsweetening. Obviously you are. I’m not familiar with correcting pH and TA, but more sugar should help with tartness. Did you do bench trials?