Might be a dumb ?

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CSIJon

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This might be a dumb question but I just want to make sure I get as much right as I can. I will be crushing grapes soon. The directions call for adding a little over a gallon of water to the juice. Is it a needed to use some type of bottled water (spring, distilled, or similar)? Or can you just use simple tap water.
Thanks all,
 
If you do not have a water softer and you are happy with your tap water that will be fine. No strong Oder's or chlorine. Otherwise just get some spring water at Walmart
 
What grapes are you using as there are many ways to go about this and watering them down isnt always the best resolution.
 
I fully agree with wade on this.

Why should you add water ???

If possible give us the kind of grapes, the recipe you are following and the measurements you might have like acidity and SG.
From that we can easily derive wether it is needed to add water or not.

Luc
 
Here is what I will be following.
For a 1 gal. batch. use the following recipe:
Depending on the variety of muscadines you will need 8-9#'s/gal. Wild muscadines take less since they are stronger in flavor. Freeze them as they are gathered until you have enough for your batch. Freezing breaks down the cell walls and makes juice extraction easier. Thaw (I usually do this in a bucket of water for a quick thaw) and mash then add to a primary container. Add 1#-1.5#'s sugar, you're shooting for a S.G. of 1.085. Add 1/4gal. water, one crushed and dissolved campden tablet, one tsp. yeast nutrient, 3 drops liquid pectic enzyme or 1/8 tsp. dry. Stir and allow to sit for 24hrs before pitching yeast. Any good wine yeast will work. I used a pkt. of RC 212 on my last batch and it worked well. One pkt. is good for a 1-5 gal. batch. After fermentation has begun stir mixture twice daily. Check S.G. on 3rd day and check regularly thereafter. When S.G. reaches 1.010 rack and strain the must into a secondary container fitted with an air lock. Rack in a month or until wine has cleared and add 1 crushed and dissolved campden/gal. Bottle in 3-4 months.

I just froze about 40-42lbs of muscadines yesterday and plan on starting next week. The part I was refering to as far as adding water is in the above paragraph. I plan on making 5 gallons by multiplying the recipe by 5.
 

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