David Rance wrote:
On Sat, 16 Sep 2006 BoyPete wrote:
There is a very old vine in my mums garden, laden with masses of
grapes. They are too tart to eat, so I thought 'wine' 
Some are ripe to the point of being soft, others are still green. I
have all the equipment to make wine from concentrates, but don't
know how to process the grapes. Can I mix the less ripe with the
ripe. That'll do for a start
If they are too tart then they are not good enough for making wine.
Your best bet is to pick them at different times as they ripen.
However, be aware that grapes are seldom as ripe as they look. Leave
them all as long as you possibly can and, to be any good for
wine-making, they should taste fairly sweet.
To be more scientific you need to measure the sugar content. Either a
hydrometer (which you can buy quite cheaply from any shop that sells
wine-making equipment) or a refractometer (much more expensive) will
help you determine the specific gravity.
To use a hydrometer you would need to crush a bunch or two of grapes
in order to extract enough juice to immerse the hydrometer. The
reading should be at least 1.060 to be able to make wine. Any less
and you will have to add sugar, but the resulting wine will be very
sharp.
I have a refractometer. This can measure the sugar content in a single
grape. If you lived near to me you could bring a few grapes over and I
could measure them for you.
You don't say whether they are black or green grapes.
Anyway, give a bit more information and I can probably give you more
help. I have about a hundred vines at the moment and will be
harvesting my grapes the week after next. At the moment the specific
gravity varies between 1.055 and 1.070. Hopefully by the end of the
month the average will be around 1.065 to 1.075 and that will give me
a pleasant table wine to last me for most of the year.
David
Thanks for your comments David. I think the ripening problem is due to the
fact that most of the grapes are tucked away under foliage. I remember
tasting the grapes many years ago...........yuk! (the vine has been there at
least 40 years)
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ßôyþëtë