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My first attempt at wine - need some help please

I picked 2 bushels of Buffalo grapes (home grown by me, color blue black)last Tues and my daughter and I hand stemmed and hand crushed the lot on Wed. My daughter wanted to attempt a fruity sweet pink/blush product so we put the crushed grapes in a cheesecloth bag and squeezed the juice right into a 7 gallon bucket before any modifications for acid, sugar etc. So much for pink/blush, juice turned red before we finished squeezing. No problem we are just going with it. We bought all the gadgets, carboys, fermenting buckets, chemicals etc. from a local vendor. We ran the sugar up to SG 1.112(not on purpose) and after the sugar/water add the TA came up at 6.0.(again, not on purpose) Don't have a ph gadget so we don't know the ph. Per the recipe (5 gallon) we then did the 5 Campden tablets, pectin stuff, yeast nutrient and let the whole batch sit covered for 12 hours. After the 12 hour wait I added 1 packet of yeast (Red Star)to 104 degree water and let it sit 10 minutes. It foamed a little and turned the water cloudy. I then dumped it into the 7 gallon bucket and waited. Temp was right at 72 degrees. There was no bubbles, no foam, nothing for 48 hours. I re-did the yeast thing. Still nothing after 24 hours. In desperation I threw in a pack of dry yeast right into the must. Bingo ! Big time bubbles and foam. Looks like the stuff is boiling. My question(s). Have I ruined the wine with all the yeast ? Do you treat squeezed juice different in recipes that are written for crushed grapes ? Thanks in advance for any guidance. No matter the outcome we had a lovely day together outside.

Reply to
Kentucky
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3 packets of yeast will not harm the batch, if you consider how much yeast is present at the end of fermentation, it is quite small. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the original yeasts kicked in just as you added your third. its not unusual for yeast to take 24 - 36 hours to really get together and start running.

squeezed juice and crushed grapes are treated the same (basically)only suspect thing i can see is when you said you let it sit "covered" for 12 hours. when you hit it with campden tablets it creates sulphur dioxide gas which inhibits the natural yeast and allows the pectinase time to break down the pectin content. Was the cover a porous one that would allow the gas to escape or was it such that the gas was contained inside?

by the way what part of kentucky are you in? i'm in cadiz, kentucky -- sort of by paducah (land between the lakes region). i'd be happy to talk with you about winemaking and grapes anytime.

Reply to
woodwerks

Thanks for the info. To your question regarding the cover, I used an old clean towel draped over the top of the bucket. Porous but dense enough to keep out the bugs. I live up top of the KY bump down river from Cincinnati. I'll take you up on your offer and keep you apprised of the results of my first batch.

Reply to
Kentucky

KY, Your process was sound, I think it was one of the first yeasts kicking in too.

As to making Rose, I make one from grenache. The idea is to just get it off the skins as soon as possible and you did that. Even though it looks dark now it may lighten up. See what it looks like in a small glass too, it looks darker in large volumes.

I think there is a good winemaking store in Covington of Cinci; there is definitely a good one in Akron. (Sometimes you need an answer NOW...)

We have a saying, "Wine makes itself, it will turn out fine no matter what you do to it." Your sugar is a little high, but that red star my die out early giving you a sweet wine. Rose is good sweet.

Joe

Kentucky wrote:

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

Clearly you do not mean that TA was 6.0% right? It was 0.6 %....at least I am hoping. Assuming actually, I am sure yeast cannot survive in 6% acid.

Reply to
Droopy

Hi Droopy. From a "newbie" perspective what I read as a 6 was actually the amount of the test liquid required to turn the juice sample black. I used a TA kit and started with the specified 10cc and had 4 left when the color change stabilized in the juice sample. You might get a chuckle in the number of times we did the test to get a number that occured more than once. Soooo, we called it a six. I am amazed at the strong reaction in the fermentor. It is trying to climb out of the bucket !! The solids from the juice are forming a cap somewhat like the consistency of a loose ricotta cheese and actually pushing up a dome in the towel I have draped over the bucket. I stir it down each morning and wipe down the inside of the exposed bucket with a clean damp cloth. I am concerned that the sludge residue might get funky if left exposed to the air with no liquid surrounding it. I am going to test the SG tonight as woodwerks suggested in his recent email. I am leery though of putting this animal in a glass closed jar until it calms down a good bit. Thanks to all of you from a "newbie".

Reply to
Kentucky

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