Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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James
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making wine from grapes (advice please)My vine is producing its first decent crop this year- I have a large quantity of grapes that’ll be ready in late September.
I’m finding out as much as I can about making grape wine properly. The variety is “Madeleine Angevine 7672” , a white grape from Alsace.
I’m planning on doing the following:
1. de-stem & crush (By hand? Any other ideas please….), add sulphite
2. press out juice, leaving a mushy cake
3. wash cake with a small amount of hot water & extract last bit of juice to use for topping up (...freeze for later)
4. check pH & sugar content, adjust
5. pitch yeast (any recommendations? I’m thinking champagne yeast or another yeast which ferments to dryness with a clean neutral taste)
6. ferment under airlock, top-up after initial vigorous fermentation
7. ferment out & let settle, rack off, sulphite, top-up, airlock
8. Let clear totally, rack again, solid bung, mature ? months, bottle.
How do I know exactly when to harvest? I've got a refractometer on order, but this wont tell me about the acid levels. Apparently M.A.7672 looses acid rapidly on maturing, so harvest date is critical to the quality.
I’ve read some notes that recommend using pectolase. I didn’t think this was necessary with grapes, anyone have experience either way?
How much stem should be removed? I’d imagine this greatly effects the tannin levels in the final wine.
Roughly how many pounds of grapes will produce a gallon of wine?
What length of bulk maturing should I be looking at? I'm thinking probably 6 months in the demijohn followed by a few months in the bottle.
thanks, James
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cab
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Ripe as you can get for harvest time. Don't worry too much about acid, you can always add more back in if you need (a squeeze of lemon, unless you're being fussy about not using anything but grapes). Pectolase will help, but it isn't necessary. Leaving the grapes on the bunches adds tannin I think, but oughtn't be a big deal. A bigger impact on that is how long you leave the mash. In the back of my head is a figure of 18lb of grapes to the gallon, but I wouldn't swear to that being correct.
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James
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| cab wrote: | | In the back of my head is a figure of 18lb of grapes to the gallon, but I wouldn't swear to that being correct. |
that's a figure that I'd read also.
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cab
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Of course whether you get that much juice from that many grapes depends on the grapes... The ones I picked wild from the Team Valley in Gateshead never produced anything like that much juice!
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