First "Wine" (1 week vintage)

I am posting before the buzz of my first "wine" wears off. Last Saturday (1 week ago) , I started my first "wine". Bought approx 2.5 lb of red seedless grapes (from Chile) from my local grocery store. Crushed each grape with a hand garlic press into a half gallon mason jar. In 1/2 cup of water, I added a tsp of sugar and 1 packet of regular yeast (for bread). After it foamed, added it to crushed grapes, put on the lid loosely and stored it in a cabinet. Approx twice daily I shook the content. Since the temperature has been about

78 F, fermentation pretty much finished by 4th day. Today (7th day) I strained the content into an old wine bottle and 1 large glass for immediate inspection and consumption. It has the color of a raspberries milk shake, but the consistency is much thinner. And it does taste like a non-descript wine, diluted by a factor of 2 or 3. It gave me a light buzz, much like beer. Now I am waiting to see If it will give me a headache / hangover or a visit to the ER before sharing it with neighbors :)
Reply to
jay
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That was the funniest post in a long time. Tell me you are a stand up comic and not really using grocery store grapes.... tell me. . .

wait for it...

wait for it...

If this is true, you have great promise in local wineries here in this state. No I am not tell you what state it is. smile. DAve

jay wrote:

Reply to
Dave Allison

The buzz lasted an hour or two. Its now the morning after and I am still alive. I didn't get the headache/hangover that I usually get from most budget Californian wines.

:) Last night after the wine buzz wore off, I went back to my local grocery store and bought more grapes (cheapest ones, which were again from Chile) and blueberries. This time, instead of crushing them, I put them thru the blender and dumped it into the 1/2 gallon mason jar with the prior must. This morning, the mixture was starting to a ooze out like an ice cream popsicle so I transfered the mixture to a larger tupperware container.

California?

Reply to
jay

Well, you sort of made a Nouveau wine. If you want to name it you might consider BowJayLay NewWow... :o)

Seriously, wine is wine in a week, it can be better than what you had but it was made that way and drunk that way for thousands of years. I had an old Italian wine maker give me a well made glass of Thompson Seedless in a paper cup years ago; it was good wine.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

I'll have to swipe a few dixie cups during my next dental appointment :)

This second batch, which used the prior must instead of a new packet of yeast, fermented much faster. I started it Saturday night and it was done by Monday morning. I had to stir the concoction every hour it seemed on Sunday. Is there a simpler way to jiggle the bubbles to the top and sink the ever-rising pulp? What is the disadvantage of pureeing the grapes with a blender versus crushing the grapes? What is the disadvantage of using the prior must for each new batch? Thx

Reply to
jay

It may have been warmer this time, yeast like temps of 70 to 85 F best.Stirring it feels good but isn't making it ferment faster, you are just creating nucleation sites that cause bubble formation, it's fermenting at it's own rate. Yeast evolve so sooner or later you will get a sluggish ferment, just add new yeast in that case. Grinding grapes can scar or crack seeds which makes things bitter. Pulp is always pushed to the top either way. cracking the skin is all that is necessary to get the yeast to the sugar faster. As long as you keep the pulp wet you will be ok, the pulp is called a cap. Since these are small quantities you could just swirl to break it up.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

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