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dan1

Wine using Juicer??

I've got a big centrifugal juicer which I used to make 50l of fairly nice cider last year. I have a grape vine with 12 or so bunches of seedy small white grapes which do get quite sweet in a good year

My question is, can I use the juicer to make wine? I'm concerned that the juicer's mechanical grating action will pulverise the pips + skins too much + taint the juice.

Any thoughts people?
gil

For grape wine, don't you want something with more of a pressing than a grating action ?
dan1

Yes but I have a juicer + dont want to buy a presser!
sean

I don't think that the skins would be that much of a problem. The seeds are going to be an issue if you use a juicer though, especially with white grapes/wine.
If you've only got a few bunches of grapes you'd be better off bashing them up in a bucket using a rolling pin or something.
Bebo

I tried grapes in a juicer a couple of years back. What came out was cloudy and pretty unpleasant looking.
gil

I'd suggest pressing them by hand with a potato masher (or your hands), and fermenting on the pulp rather than the juice. And adding extra sugar to bring the wine up to a reasonable SG to start.
Andrea

A few pips won't matter but too many is going to make your wine bitter. Better off, particularly for a small quantity, to smash them up manually some other way. Primary fermentation with the pulp, skins, pips, then separate juice.
dan1

OK, that sounds like a plan. So how do you spearate the pulp from juice after primary fermentation? Pour it through a pair of tights?
Andrea

OK, that sounds like a plan. So how do you spearate the pulp from juice after primary fermentation? Pour it through a pair of tights?


Small scale, why not? A fine kitchen sieve should do the trick.
jamanda

My great grandpop apocryphally used to strain his wines though a pair of old long johns.
gil

OK, that sounds like a plan. So how do you spearate the pulp from juice after primary fermentation? Pour it through a pair of tights?


Or use a jelly bag (available from general hardware.kitchenware stores) and a funnel. fatbloke

if you don't have a way of seperating the juice/flesh/skins/seeds, then don't grind or process them at all.

Freeze the whole fruit, after it's been taken off the stalk, for a week or so, then defrost and either squidge them with your hands or with a potato masher.

Once you've got the pulp/juice, you can add some pectic enzyme and sulphite (crushed campden tablet) according the the quantity. Then, and it depends on whether they're white or black grapes, it's either strain it through muslin/cheese cloth/sanitised nylon (for white) or just pitch the yeast straight onto the pulp/skins etc and let it ferment.

If it's white grape, you can pitch the yeast into the strained juice etc. If black grape, then you let it ferment on the pulp/skins etc until it get's to the colour that you like.

You will need a hydrometer anyhow, as you will need to know the gravity reading at various points. If you want something of about 12 to 14% ABV, then you will want a starting gravity of between 1.090 and 1.105, you can achieve that with the addition of either sugar, or what the hell, honey (honey and grape juice makes a mead known as "Pyment" - it's nice, especially if it's medium when finished).

If there's any skins/seed/pulp in the batch, when it gets to about 1.020, it should be racked off the sediment into a closed fermenter to finish
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