Topic: New to wine making, please help!!

[SueSteve]

My Dad has given me a small crate of wine making graps the size of blackcurrants!
I picked them all off their stalks, gave them a good wash in the washing up bowl and put them through a juicer.
2671g of grapes now 1933ml of lovely red juice.
What do I do now?
(I have some demijohns, a couple of air locks, I have some sugar in the cupboard and some bread making yeast that says that it's suitable for wine and beer making, dh has campden tablets as he makes beer).
I've never made wine before, and think I have jumped in on this one, but dad says that they needed to be prepared asap or would be no good!
There is a home brew shop about 10miles away tat I can visit if I need to.
Thanks,
sue

[Country Eye]

Hi Sue,

The trick is to keep it simple.

I have just made a batch of grape wine from a friends vine and have just finished the first stage of my next batch of sloe and blackberry wine.

All I do is as follows:

Clean the fruit, chuck 3 or 3.5 pound of the fruit into a well cleaned bucket.

Pour a gallon of boiling water onto it, mash it up with a potato masher thingie. Seal the bucket so it is air tight and stir daily.

Leave for about 8 days then add 3lb of unrefined or refined sugar. Stir until dissolved. Add two tea spoons of wine/brewing yeast.

Put in demi-john and watch it bubble away.

Once fermentation has stopped (important that you are sure that the bubbles have stopped) bottle the wine and leave for a few months (if you can)!

This works for me and my father in law but everbody seems to have their own ways of making wine.

Hawthorn and sloes are all out there waiting for you!

Hope this helps.

[davee52uk]

Even simpler: I got 16lbs of outdoor grapes and squashed them in a plastic barrel. left them for a few days and then will put into a demijohn to ferment down.

No yeast, no nutrient, no sugar. I've been told by my Italian allotment friend that this is how they do it in Italy so who I am to argue?

[SueSteve]

I am enjoying this wine making lark!!
I started with the red grape, and have since started black cherry (kit), pear (windfalls from the park), hawthornberry (from the park), parsnip (half price parsnips at tesco!!).
When I have enough demi johns I will make some more!

[Just Vegging Out]

DON'T WASH THE GRAPES!!!!  They have on them what is known as a BLOOM which is like a fine white film - NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH MOULD - it is this fine bloom that gets the wine going and helps with fermentation - SO NEXT YEAR DON'T WASH THEM