My grandma gave me 4 pounds of her homegrown green grapes so that I could make some wine. I had been waiting for them to ripen and these are some of the first ripe ones she was able to pick. They sat in the fridge for about a week before I was able to brew with them; a simple one-gallon batch of white wine.
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Process:
Removed the stems from all of the grapes and then washed them in cold water. I added the grapes to my steam juicer and juiced them for 60 minutes. This yielded about half a gallon of juice at 1.046. The juice was actually a pink color, not as clear as I was expecting for a white wine, but it could clear out as it ages. I let the juice cool a bit, then added water and sugar to bring the volume up to just over 1 gallon and the gravity to 1.094.
I tested the initial acidity of the juice and it was 0.30% TA. I added one tablespoon of acid blend to achieve a TA of 0.75%, a good acidity for white wines.
When the must cooled to about 85 F, I added in the pectic enzyme, grape tannin, yeast nutrient, and yeast. I mixed the must well to aerate it, and then sealed the bucket with an airlock to start primary fermentation.
10-9-10: Put into primary bucket, OG measured at 1.094.
10-17-10: Racked to 1-gallon carboy, SG measured at 1.018. The wine is a much paler pink now, almost clear.
4-14-11: Bottled into 10 12-ounce bottles.
Tags: brewing, grape, steam juicer, white wine, wine