Some hastey wine making - flawed to say the least.

[Nikster]

So, I got a call from a friend who has an allotment that he's acquired, and before tidying stuff back that was already there I got the chance to get some free grapes. I rushed to make this as there are plenty of other beer kits I need to get through, I've noted I forgot to add any form of tea. would it be OK to add some now or wait until fermentation dies down a bit (doesn't appear to be kicking off great atm anyway)

I added 1KG of dextrose and 680g of syrup which gave an SG of 1110, I'm starting to think using wilkinsons wine yeast isn't going to cut it, albeit it'll do something but be rather sweet (not sure the limit of that yeast)

So what else may I have overlooked in my haste?

Some piccies as I enjoy them when people post them up.

[WalesAles]

Sorry I can`t help you on this!
But I also like photos! Your Brew looks very nice!
WA

[oldbloke]

What sort of grapes? "real" grape wine doesn't need tannin adding, but if yours are dessert grapes maybe. you can add it now, won't matter.

[boingy]

I've never made wine from grapes but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't have cooked 'em and ideally you wouldn't have added any extra sugar (depends on the grapes I guess). I think you need about 7kg or 8kg of grapes for a gallon of wine.

But what you've got will definitely ferment. Wine yeast might manage it but champagne yeast would be better.
Ferment it and see what you get!

[Nikster]

Thanks for that chaps.

They're real grapes, not sure what kind but they were the size of blueberries. They were damn sweet but only got 1066 reading before adding sugar. My juice method was hand blender and strained through a flour sieve. The stuff in the pint pot was extra stuff gained by using a half pint glass to squash what wasn't strained.

I boiled to get rid of nasties as by the time I got to the bottom of the barrel I managed to harvest stuff with legs, as soon as it hit 100c I chucked it into the sink with some ice packs to try crash cool.

It was improvise city on this one.

I need a smaller FV as with a 5 gallon one there looks to be nowt in there, but was nearly a gallon and half of raw juice.

[oldbloke]

Tiny grapes sounds quite good. Wine grapes are smaller, and even if yours are dessert grapes that just didn't plump up they'll have some of the qualities of wine grapes due to the size. I reckon a decent chance of something good coming out of this

[fatbloke]

I'd just let it run as it is and correct/meddle at the end.....

If you wanted some oak, get a bit of broken half barrel planter frome the garden centre , plane it to clean wood then just plane down for a handful per gallon.

With wine grapes, they're normally just de-stemmed and crushed a bit. You will likely have damaged the seeds with a stick blender, plus altered the base fruit flavour some with the heating.

If you read the Grapefest 2013 thread over at winesathome, most of them who got grapes will be finishing the base ferments as it was a fortnight ago that we crushed and de-stemmed.....

So people are pressing about now. You blitzed your grape so once the ferment is complete you'll likely have to carefully strain it....

[WalesAles]

I need a smaller FV as with a 5 gallon one there looks to be nowt in there, but was nearly a gallon and half of raw juice.

Hello Nik,
Try one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221204280579? ... 1438.l2649

WA

[Nikster]

Hi WA.

Yeah, I went to my LHBS and saw some small FVs this one would possibly do me http://thebrewmart.com/2-gallon-bucket- ... 01671.html but they had a 3 gallon one as well (which I might end up getting for the sundew can split experiments), I didn't bother as this was a one off small batch rush job, and I also bought another 5 gallon one to try make a mash tun I saw on instructables (think it may have originated on here somewhere) still need another one mind.

@fatbloke, yes, there were plenty of seeds that came out on my initial filter (and skin), like I say, I only boiled as I wasn't sure what nasties may crap it up, we grabbed some from outside which were more hardened skin wise and no doubt covered in pigeon farts and god knows what else.

I'll get some viola (sp?) that I'll tie to the end of the tube when I'm racking to secondary, see what happens. I guess if there's alcomahol in there it can't be any worse than my dilute robinsons stuff, and will be cheaper, but at least I've had a crack and learnt a few bits along the way (thanks to you guys).

Had a look this morning, there's a buldge on my FV lid and the bubbler's still half arsed and not bubbling but there is about a 2-3 inch krausen that's formed over the last day, so I'm happy it's doing its shizzle.

[Nikster]

Update, so I've just taken a reading, we are currently at 0998. Had a taste and it actually tastes like red wine. in fact I'd be happy to sup the lot now.

The only caveat is the krausen is still at the top, quite thick as well, every brew I've done before it's usually dropped after four days, what's all the about? And what's the best way of transferring to secondary without bringing that across?