Red Grape Wine Recipe??

[Scarlet]

Last year I made some wine, half the bottles blew up - The second half (tasted a few weeks ago) just too sweet. Some of it was still fizzy so I've obviously messed up some!
I have picked loads of grapes off my vine this year and made a ton of jelly but the frost has taken most of the leaves off the vine and there were so many grapes left I just had to pick them - 26lb and still more left! Any dryish recipes anyone?? Or does the sweetness of the fruit dictate the taste?

[zazen999]

I think it might not have finished fermenting before bottling.....did you make sure it had fermented out?

What were your SG readings at the start and at the end?

[Two_Sheds]

Exactly as Zaz says: your ferment wasn't finished before you bottled, and you added too much sugar.

Get yourself a hydrometer so you can guage exactly how much sugar you need, and to show you when fermentation has ceased.
They're about £3 on eBay

[rustylady]

As the other two said, and make sure you use a good wine yeast.

[shirlthegirl43]

you definately, as said, hadn't waited long enough for fermentation to be complete.

As to this year's batch. Juice the grapes and measure the SG - you want a starting gravity of 1.08 or 1.09. You can either add grape concentrate (from a brew shop or Willkinsons) to raise SG or sugar syrup (dissolve sugar in water and add to the juice). You will need to add yeast nutrient and yeast as you know, then wait for the ferment to finish SG should be around 0.98 (measure SG every day for 2-3 days once you think it is done) and rack off the lees. Allow to settle till clear then bottle. It is up to you if you want to test for acid and tannin content in your grape juice (google is your pal here) before you start as this will affect the finished wine. Or you could visit Wines at Home which is a nice home-brewing forum which a few of us grapes are members of.

[Coastie]

Dry Red Table Wine
Ingredients

•18 lbs. ripe red grapes
•1 campden tablet (or 0.33g of potassium metabisulfite powder)
•Tartaric acid, if necessary
•Table sugar, if necessary
•1 packet wine yeast (like Prise de Mousse or Montrachet)
1.Harvest grapes once they have reached 22 to 24 percent sugar (22° to 24° Brix).
2.Sanitize all equipment. Place the grape clusters into the nylon straining bag and deposit the bag into the bottom of the food-grade pail. Using very clean hands or a sanitized tool like a potato masher, firmly crush the grapes inside the bag. Crush the campden tablet (or measure out 1 teaspoon of sulfite crystals) and sprinkle over the must in the nylon bag. Cover pail with cheesecloth and let sit for one hour.
3.Measure the temperature of the must. It should be between 70° and 75° F. Take a sample of the juice in the pail and measure the acid with your titration kit. If it's not between 6 to 7 grams per liter then adjust with tartaric acid.
4.Check the degrees Brix or specific gravity of the must. If it isn't around 22° Brix (1.0982 SG), add a little bit of sugar dissolved in water.
5.Dissolve the yeast in 1 pint warm (80° to 90° F) water and let stand until bubbly (it should take no more than 10 minutes). When it's bubbling, pour yeast solution directly on must inside the nylon bag. Agitate bag up and down a few times to mix yeast. Cover pail with cheesecloth, set in a warm (65° to 75° F) area and check that fermentation has begun in at least 24 hours. Monitor fermentation progression and temperature regularly. Keep the skins under the juice at all times and mix twice daily.
6.Once the must has reached "dryness" (at least 0.5° Brix or 0.998 SG), lift the nylon straining bag out of the pail and squeeze any remaining liquid into the pail.
7.Cover the pail loosely and let the wine settle for 24 hours. Rack off the sediment into a sanitized one-gallon jug, topping up with a little boiled, cooled water to entirely fill the container. Fit with a sanitized bung and fermentation lock. Keep the container topped with grape juice or any dry red wine of a similar style. After 10 days, rack the wine into another sanitized one-gallon jug. Top up with dry red wine of a similar style.
8.After six months, siphon the clarified, settled wine off the sediment and into clean, sanitized bottles. Cork with the hand-corker.
9.Store bottles in cool, dark place and wait at least six months before drinking.
Red wine is fermented with the pulp and skins. This "cap" will rise to the top, so you need to "punch it down" frequently with a sanitized utensil

EQUIPMENT NEEDED TO MAKE ONE GALLON (6 BOTTLES) OF RED OR WHITE GRAPE WINE

Approximately between 14/16lbs (7/8 kilos) of Grapes per Gallon of Wine

1 Gallon/5 Litre Fermentation bin with lid
Standard coarse nylon straining bag
1 gallon demijohn or 5 Litre PET plastic demijohn
Holed Bung & Airlock
Steriliser
Yeast
Campden Tablets
Hydrometer/Jar
Syphon

EQUIPMENT NEEDED TO MAKE 5 GALLONS (30 BOTTLES) OF RED OR WHITE GRAPE WINE

Same as Above except:
5 Gallon Fermentation bin with Lid
5 Gallon Wine Fermenter, Holed Bung and Airlock
Large Coarse Nylon Straining Bag

OPTIONAL EQUIPMENT

Wine Press (this will extract juice easily)
Granulated Sugar
Acid Testing Kit
Grape Crusher
For more in depth reading First Steps in Wine Making by C.J. Berry

RED AND WHITE GRAPE WINE RECIPE

Firstly, make sure the grapes are ripe to ensure a high natural sugar content. Rinse the grapes in a campden tablet solution (2 campden tablets to one pint of water) this will sterilise the must.

For white wine, squeeze, strain or press the grapes immediately to get the pure juice. The juice can be syphoned into an enclosed vessel and left under cork and airlock.
For red grape wine, crush the grapes and leave in a covered bin, this will ensure a good depth of colour. (For every one gallon of juice pressed, this will make approximately one gallon of wine.) If using a hydrometer test the juice to determine how much extra sugar has to be added if any. A good starting specific gravity for a white wine is 1.080 and for red 1.095. Do not worry if your reading is much lower, this will be corrected by adding white granulated sugar.

Depending on the variety of grape and the weather, the natural sugar content of your juice will vary from year to year. At a guess if you do not use a hydrometer but it is strongly advised you do, the addition of approximately 450 grams (1lb) of granulated sugar to each gallon of white juice and 670 grams (1 1/4lb) of sugar to each gallon of red juice is required.
Once in the demijohn/fermenter for white wine or covered bin for red wine, add a good quality yeast and leave in a warm place (75of). After 7 days, strain the red juice off the skins/pulp and put the juice into an enclosed vessel under cork and airlock. The white wine can be racked off any heavy sediment

Depending on temperatures your wine should finish fermenting within approximately 4/6 weeks. Rack off any sediment, the wine is finished fermenting when the hydrometer reads in between 1.000 to 0.996. Add one campden tablet to each gallon on red wine and two campden tablets to each gallon of white wine. (This is in all commercial wines and preserves and reduces oxidation. Make sure the finished wine is kept in an enclosed container which is topped up to the neck preventing the wine spoiling.

Maturing time varies. White Wines can be drinkable within 3/6 months, red wines 6/12 months.

coastie

[Don Vincenzo]

Hello Coastie
thankyou for your post. I found it is interesting, maturing times varies according to the tannin content and can take up to three years before the finishing wine can be drinkable. I usual keep my wines for a year in demijohns before bottling them but some can be highly drinkable in a couple of months from start to finish....just now I am drinking this year own grown red grape wine 14% vol. I don't think it will see next year. Regarding hygiene I came across this video on you tube YouTube - Adriano Celentano - La Pigiatura enjoy!!
Regards
Don Vincenzo

[Scarlet]

Thanks everyone for your info.
Shirlthegirl - the wine forum is great, will spend a few hours on there having a good read!
Coastie - many thanks for the recipe, nice 'n easy too for a beginner like me. Hopefully I will have better luck this time