Catrys
Junior
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2009
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Hi all,
I recently started attempting to make my first batch of wine from fresh grapes. My past wine making experience is only 4 kits from WE, so it's not that broad-based, but I have read a decent amount from this forum.
First, the basics:
I'm making a Concord wine (the grapes were free from my grandparents' garden), and got the recipe from WineMaker magazine's website (had to modify the recipe to the correct amount of grapes we had available).
The wine was started last week Saturday. We had approx. 31 lbs of grapes after destemming & removing any bad ones. First, we crushed the grapes, put them into a sanitized 5 gal paint strainer in the primary, added pectic enzyme as indicated on the bottle, and added 4 campden tablets after crushing them & dissolving them in some of the juice.
Next, we tested for sugar (SG = 1.044) and acid (1.25%), then added water to bring acid down to 0.75% and sugar to bring SG up to 1.095.
After covering the primary & waiting 24 hrs (kept at 68°F), a yeast starter was made & yeast pitched, along with 4 tsp of yeast nutrient. The must/wine was then stirred twice daily to keep the skins wet.
Based on the SG, it's now time to rack the wine into the secondary, and here's where I come to my noob question
...with the WE kits, you leave any sediment in the bottom of the primary when transferring to the secondary. I'm assuming that I should do the same when racking this concord wine. Is this true?
Thanks in advance for your help!
I recently started attempting to make my first batch of wine from fresh grapes. My past wine making experience is only 4 kits from WE, so it's not that broad-based, but I have read a decent amount from this forum.
First, the basics:
I'm making a Concord wine (the grapes were free from my grandparents' garden), and got the recipe from WineMaker magazine's website (had to modify the recipe to the correct amount of grapes we had available).
The wine was started last week Saturday. We had approx. 31 lbs of grapes after destemming & removing any bad ones. First, we crushed the grapes, put them into a sanitized 5 gal paint strainer in the primary, added pectic enzyme as indicated on the bottle, and added 4 campden tablets after crushing them & dissolving them in some of the juice.
Next, we tested for sugar (SG = 1.044) and acid (1.25%), then added water to bring acid down to 0.75% and sugar to bring SG up to 1.095.
After covering the primary & waiting 24 hrs (kept at 68°F), a yeast starter was made & yeast pitched, along with 4 tsp of yeast nutrient. The must/wine was then stirred twice daily to keep the skins wet.
Based on the SG, it's now time to rack the wine into the secondary, and here's where I come to my noob question
Thanks in advance for your help!