Putting older posts here. Going to try to keep the novice forum pruned about 90 days work. The 'good' old stuff is going to be put into appropriate forums.
Hi, I just collected about 5 bags full of white grapes....was hoping to make some grappa with it....after searching the forum as well as the yahoo groups...im still a little confused
Some say to add equal parts of grapes and water with some sugar...
some say to distill the fermented liquid....etc...
Does anyone have a simple recipe......do i need to use some yeast and mostly...after fermentation....do I put the pommace and liquid in the distiller or simply the liquid??...thanks for any help.....
If your just in it to make grappa then crush the white grapes, ferment on the skins and distill everything, juice and skins.
To make a brandy press the juice, leave the skins and ferment the juice then distill the resulting wine to make a brandy. This is all explained on the home distiller main site. I would definitely use a cultured strain of yeast, what grapes are they?
Brandy=wine (more elegant)
Grappa=skins (rougher, more of a peasant drink)
The big question is what kind of grapes,and how many pounds of them.
If there seeded grapes they will make a pretty good wine if you have enough of them.Distill the wine.
Crush the grapes, and make wine for either drinking or distilling into brandy.
Save the pomace (the solids left after crushing for the juice), add some water, check the SG, add sugar if you think you need it, pitch some yeast, ferment, then distill the whole thing and get grappa.
Thanks for the replies...
Well...i've been reading the mother site for the last 2 weeks and believe me....I have searched on the site as well as the yahoo groups before posting my question...
The grapes have seeds in them and as to the kind...I have no clue....they are growing on my vine in the backyard so I was thinking of doing something with them instead of throwing them out.....I have no need to make wine as we just finished doing 75 cases in October...
I will have to weigh what I have and all I am looking for is a simple recipe...do I add sugar and do I add some yeast?? and if so...how do I calculate the quantity.....I have some turbo 48 if needed..... ....Thanks again..
P.S: I did find a recipe on the Yahoo groups but it is pretty vague as to the quantities...all it says is add some water....some sugar and let ferment....so should I put 4-8 kg of sugar??
I made a heavy brandy/grappa style spirit with white grapes this year.
I learned some things I did not know about grapes in the process.
I had a lot of broken grapes and not much juice in the fermenter. Once I pitched the champagne yeast, the pulp from the grapes completely dissolved. This left the skins and the most of the seeds floating on top in a cap in just one day. I punched the cap down once and after two days removed it after a total of 4 days. I don't know if this was correct or not but it worked well. The juice finished fermenting in another two days and was very dry.
When I racked the juice off the sediment it had turned a deep, rich reddish brown. I expected the brown from the air and the skins but the red stumped me. After inspecting the sediment, I discovered that a lot of the seeds had went to the bottom and the tannin from their shell had leached into the wine. This gave the white wine a very rich flavor and was reminiscent of a red wine in flavor. After racking 20 liters off for additional clearing, I distilled the rest twice through my pot stills. The result was very grape wine flavored. It is very good. I have a couple gallons aging on oak and it is coming along excellent.
The seeds give tannins to the wine,and are a good thing but be careful not to crush the seeds,or ferment on them for too long or you will get too much tannins and the wine will taste bitter.About 4-5 days,no more.DONT USE THE TURBO YEAST!! If you do,you will be sorry because it will taste like crap no matter what you do with it.Use a wine yeast.Start it at 1080-1090SG and let it ferment dry.When you remove the grape pulp after 4-5 days,make grappa out of it,and when the wine gets dry distill it.It is best to run the grappa in a double boiler.If you dont have one,run it really slow with as little heat as possable or it might scortch.
goose eye wrote:aidas all them crushed seeds dont make your wine biter?
Well, one shouldn't use a blender to crush the grapes, now should one?
Crushing grapes by hand, by foot WILL NOT crush the seeds (one can also gently crush with a wooden or metal implement, but you need to take care not to grind to the bottom of whatever vessel you're using)
firefly wrote: man....just got moved into the Novice section.....anyone gonna find me in here.....
Of course you'll be found. The whole idea of the forum is to help one another out, and people who are feeling kind, generous and charitable (especially with Christmas nearing) will certainly amble over to the novice section to lend a helping hand. In all seriousness, I'm sure the very best distillers on this forum are actually interested in helping new people. Now that there's a novice section, it'll be less frustrating, because the newbie questions will be in their proper section. I think it's great.
All I used was fresh crushed grapes and yeast. The grapes made their own liquid from the pulp and juice. All I had left was skins and seeds. I only put the racked fermented wine into the boiler. I didn't even allow it to clear.
I see.....
well i've been thinking about this recipe since last night and all day today and im not getting any work done...
So this is what I think I will do from what I have read....
I will throw the white grapes in my grape crusher and collect it in a barrel...pour in some water so it is almost all covered.....throw in some champagne yeast...or similar.....will let it ferment 4-5 days then toss the whole thing in the distiller....stems, skins and juice.....and see what happens.....
Just not sure if I gotta put a lid on the fermenter with airlock or just leave it without the lid.....
Does that seem like a good experiment or is it a recipe for disaster...
If you can distill it without scortching it,It will be ok.If you distill the whole batch,and not just the wine,your going to end up with something inbetween brandy and grappa.Run it with no reflux cooling,and no packing so it will be more like you potstilled it.
firefly,
i think you should definately put a lid and an airlock on it..
then you will not have it contaminated, and your airlock will tell you when it's done fermenting... i'm not as good as some on here, but i'm sure this should help you...
good luck..
pintoshine wrote:I didn't have any stems available. These grapes had already been destemmed before I got them. I don't know if it would make that much difference.
It might. Stems do add tannin and certainly woody bitterness to the wine, so that should, in some way, affect the end product.
That said, fermenting and distilling on the SKINS is what defines grappa, at least to what I've seen in Italy.
So, as far as I'm concerned, what Pinto mentioned IS grappa.
I think the REAL main difference is that you're not going to age grappa in the same way that you would age a brandy, i.e. on oak. Grappa is traditionally a white drink, though the market is now dictating new trends, so some grappa makers are ageing their grappas, and producing what can be refferred to as a rough brandy (that's what it tastes like). WHile the long-aged grappas are indistinguishable from brandy.
I cannot see stems contributing positively to the grappa. I have a feeling that it would produce woody, tannic rough flavours in the grappa. In winemaking we avoid stems as they impart bitter tannins. A technique some winemakers use it to add 3-5% stems back into the wine while its fermenting to get some of these tannins. Adding complexity I guess. I would steer clear in grappa, but hey maybe someone here has done stems with great success.
.will let it ferment 4-5 days then toss the whole thing in the distiller....stems, skins and juice.....and see what happen
Sounds like you have a plan, only thing i would add, is to let it ferment till it's finnished fermenting, not for a set time. Once the bubbles in the airlock become one every 30 secs or so, it's pretty much done. Check with a hydrometer and if it's within a few points of 1000 sg, you're right to go.
punkin.....
sounds good to me....makes more sense....I actually have a hydrometer, but still didn't have a chance to test it....i just prepared a sugar wash last night and will be distilling on the weekend
After that...i will try and experiment with the grappa recipe...
I racked off a bottle of the wine made from the white grape pulp, skins and seeds. The color and clarity is astounding. The flavor is very strong with a lot of tannin. It tastes like a fruity white wine with a light black tea accent.
Here is a photo.
whitewine.jpg (6.93 KiB) Viewed 3357 times
The second photo is of the grappa aged on a lot of oak sticks since 10/06/07.
folks round here is set in there ways.
hard to get it gone if it aint clear
some ole boys wished theyd of noed that it was a style of wine leavein sticks stems vines leafs an crushin seeds cause they got there tails tore up moren once for bein in a hurry.
I got crushed used grapes (lees) from local winery-seems they cant make second wines. They are free to the taking. I have 75 gal of wine going now waiting to still. The lees have yeast in with them already so all i have to do is add suger water to grapes and let set for couple weeks. You can even make third or more wines. I built a fruit prees to help out the with the process. The amont of time saved is amaising!
firefly wrote:did you try the grappa with the oak sticks....seems pretty tasty....
seems interesting.....does it have a sweet taste???
Yes I did. It is great just over a bit of ice. It is very white wine flavored and has little sweetness. It is more tannic and has a nice dry taste. That jug in the picture is only 6 weeks old, sitting behind the television in the bedroom. I had some shelf space and it was a good place to keep an eye on it. I like it a lot even though it is still a bit immature.
In all seriousness, I'm sure the very best distillers on this forum are actually interested in helping new people. Now that there's a novice section, it'll be less frustrating, because the newbie questions will be in their proper section. I think it's great.
