Fermenters Forum

This recipe was made using grapes that had been previously boiled and then strained into two, one quart canning jars. This was just the juice so that there was juice from three pounds of grapes in each jar.

RECIPE
6 lbs concord grapes
5 pts water
3 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 campden crushed

I heated the water/sugar mixture on the stove to dissolve the sugar prior to placing into the primary fermenter. I then mixed all of the ingredients in a clean and sanitized primary.

24 HOURS LATER (October 11 PM)
Added 1/4 packet of Pasteur Red yeast.

3 DAYS AFTER ADDING YEAST (October 14 PM)
SG 1.035. Racked and placed into the secondary. Had a terrible time getting it to stop foaming out of the top.

FOUR MONTHS LATER (February 8, 2011)
Finally racked for the first time off of the lees. Very strong grape flavor and quite tangy and a bit fizzy.

EIGHT MONTHS
Bottled. Quite acidic for some reason. I may add a bit of water and see if that helps. I will probably test it for acid content also and post back.

I will be placing this in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks to try cold stabilization to remove some of the acidity. Hopefully it is tartaric acid and this process will work.

CHECK ACID CONTENT before adding yeast. Add more water if necessary at bottling. See reference from http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-grape.html:

Acid Level Adjustment
You would start by taking an acid level reading of the juice to determine where you are at. If the acid level is found to be twice as high as needed, then you would add equal amounts of water to cut the level in half. If the acid level is only 10 percent too high you would then only need to add 10 percent water. The acid test kit directions include recommended acid levels for different types of wine. For more information about controlling your wine's acidity see the article "Getting A Handle On Wine Acidity".

- Or after the fermentation, dilute the finished wine with water or another wine with similar character.

- In more drastic situations you can use acid neutralizers such as our Acid Reducing Crystals.

- Or in a very extreme case you can use a combination of any of the above.

UPDATE
Tested the grape wine again after chilling for two weeks. Still acidic. Added 2c cold water to the gallon and placed in the refrigerator again. Check in two more weeks.

After chilling and adding the extra tap water, this wine tastes outstanding!