The grapes were picked off the bunches so as to exclude really mouldy or unripe ones, tiny little hard green pre-grapes which don't add to the flavour, and excess protein (creepy-crawlies). Here are the grapes post-sort:
I have a huge blister on the palm of my hand because I didn't go to the garage for a pair of gloves in time:
I'm wondering about buying or making a crusher, but £150-upwards for something I'll only use once a year is extravagant even for me.
Juice from the bucket of mashed grapes:
...tasted both sweet and acidic, so I didn't bother doing anything to it. About 1080 at 18C. I made a starter with two dsp of gran in 300ml of boiled, cooled, water using Young's Dessert/High Alcohol Wine Yeast, which took off quite well. Pitched that into the crushed grapes, and aerated for half an hour through the HEPA filter and stainless stone. The pump does about 27 litres/hour for water but I haven't measured it for air.
Apologies for that picture - I don't know what the Pentax thought it was focusing on!
Got bored with aerating when the foam started to climb over the top of the brewing bin. The bin is in my shed with a non-fitting lid and two bin liners over its head. In a couple of days we'll press the grapes - a little pink colour is OK, half-way to red like last year and you get the taste of nasty red wine as well. The grapes and the brewer aren't up to making posh red wine and keeping it for ten years...
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