wild grape wine

[Cuba]

OK so I'm big into harvesting wild berries and fruits for the winter months. I plan on harvesting lots of the only native grape species in NB, riverbank grape (Vitis riparia)

Anyways I'm not sure if I want to make juice, wine or both. I know very little about wine as I am a beer drinker so I'm looking for any input from you guys.

I found this recipe, let me know what you think...I'm not huge on the idea of using extra sucrose, there should be enough in the grape juice right?


-about 10 lbs of grapes (I used V. Riparia)
-1.5kg sugar
-1 tsp pectin enzyme
-1 tsp yeast nutrient
-1 camden tablet
-1 packet yeast (I used Lalvin EC-1118)
-water to make 1 gallon

Wash, de-stem, and crush the grapes. Place in primary. Add sugar and water; stir well. Take SG reading - it should be at or near 1.090. Add the camden tablet and pectin enzyme, stir. Wait 12 hours, then add the yeast nutrient and yeast. Stir daily for 5 days, or until vigorous fermentation has ended. Strain juice into secondary, making sure to squeeze any juice out of the skins. Put airlock on and stash away for a month. Rack into fresh carboy, and again every 2-3 months. Ready to be bottled after 1 year.

[Roger]

What a great experiment. A year's a long time to wait though. Hopefully it's worth waiting for. If I were you I'd check the gravity before adding sugar if your concerned about adding it. I think it'll dry it out more and increase alcohol%. When I try something for the first time I usually follow the recipe then tweek it thereafter.     

[paulmaybee]

OK so I'm big into harvesting wild berries and fruits for the winter months. I plan on harvesting lots of the only native grape species in NB, riverbank grape (Vitis riparia)

Anyways I'm not sure if I want to make juice, wine or both. I know very little about wine as I am a beer drinker so I'm looking for any input from you guys.

I found this recipe, let me know what you think...I'm not huge on the idea of using extra sucrose, there should be enough in the grape juice right?


-about 10 lbs of grapes (I used V. Riparia)
-1.5kg sugar
-1 tsp pectin enzyme
-1 tsp yeast nutrient
-1 camden tablet
-1 packet yeast (I used Lalvin EC-1118)
-water to make 1 gallon

Wash, de-stem, and crush the grapes. Place in primary. Add sugar and water; stir well. Take SG reading - it should be at or near 1.090. Add the camden tablet and pectin enzyme, stir. Wait 12 hours, then add the yeast nutrient and yeast. Stir daily for 5 days, or until vigorous fermentation has ended. Strain juice into secondary, making sure to squeeze any juice out of the skins. Put airlock on and stash away for a month. Rack into fresh carboy, and again every 2-3 months. Ready to be bottled after 1 year.

Hi Cuba, I'm also a fan of using local ingredients and putting whatever I can find up for the winter.  When I moved in here, there were three good sized (probably 10 years or less) grape vines that produce a lot.  They're probably that type of grape, but I never had them identified.  The recipe sounds like what I did with them (the first year I made jelly, which was AWESOME).  The wine was horrible, but not so bad half and half with OJ and she's got a kick, that's for sure.  I would try the recipe you have, it ended up pretty dry and drinkable after you've had a few of something else, but most likely it'll be good for mimosas or mixing with something else, even sprite for spritzers.  I have almost all of it still in the basement in case I run out of beer.  Yeah.. right...

[Cuba]

Now I'm thinking that making some sort of sour ale with the grapes or grape juice.

I like beer a lot more than wine and I don't know if I will harvest enough grapes to make a decent batch of wine...they are very small grapes with relatively large seeds!

[jamie_savoie]

If you want to make a sour, you would need to have a sour beer ready before adding the fruits which would a minimum of one year to make a proper sour.

I've attached 2 documents I used when I made my concord wine in 2010 and 2011.  But what I basically did is harvest a shit load of grapes, pressed them until I had about 4.5 gallons of juice and then added sugar to bring me in the 1.080ish range.  I still have 6 bottles of the '10 and a dozen of the '11 and they're aging really well.  Mind you it's only concord grapes so don't expect a zinfandel lol  pretty much taste like welch's grape juice

[Cuba]

Awesome. Thanks Jamie!

I should have known sour ale needs to be plan out long before fruit harvest. I'm currently still harvesting whenever I can and have ~5lbs of grapes in the fridge.