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Preparing Concord Grapes for Wine Making

Good morning,

I think I've finally got enough concord grapes to make my first batch of homemade wine. I probably have between 40-50 lbs (stems and all) sitting in the fridge. I haven't had any luck finding information on what to do next. I gather I need to get them crushed, but I'm not sure if I need to pull the grapes from the stems or simply crush them as is. I assume that crushing is something I can do by hand. I would be grateful if someone could point me to some resources or be willing to provide some assistance for this first-time wine maker.

Thank you very much for any help you may be able to provide.

Mike

Athens, Ohio

Reply to
Takeadoe
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For general information on wine making:

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In particular for Concord:

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The recipes are for one gallon. Scale to what you have (except for the yeast). If you use a recipe that does not add water, you probably only need a 3 gallon carboy. Campden tablets are a more economical form of metabisulfite for small batches.

Reply to
shbailey

NO. Rubbermaid trash containers are NOT food grade. They will leach into your wine. I just called yesterday to see if they are suitable for winemaking and I was told they are NOT.

I buy HDPE fermenters from Unites States Plastic Corp.

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Call and ask them for a catalog 1 800 537 9724

US plastics sells the Rubbermaid Brute containers along with all kinds of plastics products.

The price is right so I talked to technical support at US plastics. They told me that they were not safe for winemaking. To confirm this they called Rubbermaid and verified that they are NOT SAFE for this purpose.

Reply to
Paul E. Lehmann

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