Fermenting whole grapes...

[fahdoul]

Jusat stumbled over some pretty scruffy concord grapes from a untended vine, so I figured it would be fun to try and make a grappa/brandy sort of thing, and if that didn't work out, use it for grape alcohol base for other projects.

Got about 17 lbs, so I boiled and crushed them, then added 5 lbs sugar and added water to make it 4 gallons and added yeast and nutrient. It is foaming along merrily now with the pulp all in a plug which floats at the top of the fermenter with a layer of foam between it and the liquid.

Reading accounts of similar brews here, there seems to be a wide range of methods for proceeding. Some people remove the pulp aftera week or less, others remove it after fermentation slows and put the liquid in a carboy with a lock, and others leave it in right to the end. distilling the pulp along with the rest.

I am leaning towards the latter, since it seems it would get the most yield, but would be curious to know what the advantages of the other methods might be.

[pothead]

SOme people don't like the pulp on top because it could get moldy, I used to scrape a little off the top every day after the first week. Now, I let it all go and just stir it lightly to circulate the floaters a bit, and the strain it off the pulp before running it.

[Watershed]

Just posted what I do on the other 'crust' thread. Typicaly I'll leave the crust for just over a week before collecting it for a separate run. I don't use an airlock which is why don't want it dropping back in.

I wouldn't have boiled the grapes though - I'm sure that'll affect the flavour as you'll be driving off volatile that otherwise would have come over in the distillation run. The most I do is pour boiling water over the top.