Muscadines

Information about fruit/vegetable type washes.

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Bavis54
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Muscadines

Post by Bavis54 »

Hey friends- this yr my vines did much better than last yr, and I have lot more grapes, so far I’ve got 11 gal of ripe black muscadines and bronze scuppernongs. I wanna distill them and try my hand at a grape brandy. I’ve done peach and pear but never tried grapes before n I wanted ask some of you guys that have worked with grapes before- Can I get away with adding any sugar? I have no idea how many lbs or gallons I need to make 20 gal of wash, I was jus gna wash n press everything I can get n see how much juice n pulp I have. I wanted find out if grapes have enough flavor carry over so I could add some sugar n maybe cpl gal of water if need to til I hit the 20 gal mark. Any help here be appreciated. I only got enough grapes to try it once so I wanna do good job.
I use a simple 15 gal copper boiler. I have a 8 gal copper thumper n worm but I think I jus gna use boiler n condenser n run twice.
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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Muscadines

Post by Oldvine Zin »

Do you have a refracto or any other way to read the sugar content of the grape Juice? Remember adding sugar will dilute the grape flavors.

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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Muscadines

Post by Oldvine Zin »

Also if you are around 24 brix you will be fine without adding sugar

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Bavis54
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Re: Muscadines

Post by Bavis54 »

I don’t have a brix refractometer but I do have a simple sg beer hydrometer . I’m not real sure where to be far as starting sugar content, I figured maybe 1.08 or 1.09. I think I see where your going with this- crush n press grapes, see what my sg reading is and then decide how much sugar n water if any can be added. Is that right?
I’ve read several recipes using grapes n they all vary. Does anyone know round about how many lbs of gallons of grapes per gal of wash? Just a good estimate?
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Bavis54
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Re: Muscadines

Post by Bavis54 »

Meant to type lbs or gal- sorry
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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Muscadines

Post by Oldvine Zin »

From my experience working at a winery we estimate 15 to 20 lbs for each gal of finished product, this includes spillage and waste. We are also processing many tons of fruit so our wastes are a bit higher than someone processing fruit on a small scale.
I think that at home on a small scale and only fermenting to still I think that you can figure on 13 lbs to a gal of juice. Grape with tough skins ( cab sav and ...) you might get a little less.

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Bavis54
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Re: Muscadines

Post by Bavis54 »

Hey that’s a good reference and help, thank you ovz
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