Fall Bright, The Winemakers Shoppe, 10110 Hyatt Hill, Dundee, NY 14837
Getting Started
READ ON, use back arrows on the top left of the book to get back to Getting Started from links on this
page.
Marcy is checking the Brix or sugar percentage. Tom is crushing and destemming a grape order. Grapes will be crushed into your open top container, never a carboy. Juice, if ordered, is ready to pump into your container. We will NOT press your grape order while you wait. You may, however, use one of our small presses on premise if you want to press your grape order or make a return trip to do so. To start winemaking you'll need…
- Juice: 5 1/2 to 6 gallons of juice for 5 gallons finished wine. OR
- Juice: 5 gallons, topping up with finished wine from your cellar. Five (5) gallons of finished wine will yield 2 dozen 750 ml bottles.
- Order red grapes at the rate of 12-13 pounds per gallon if fermenting on the skins.
- If cold pressing red grapes prior to fermentation, you’ll need 15 pounds per gallon.
- Order your white grapes at the rate of 15 pounds per gallon. They usually will be cold pressed. White grapes are not fermented on the skins. They oxidize too rapidly.
- 1 full bushel is about 40 pounds of whole grapes. Our picking boxes hold ~30 pounds level full.
PLUS:
- PATIENCE
- Books, information.
- Containers: Carboys and white food grade pails. A carboy is a glass container.
Popular sizes are 3,5,6 gallons. You’ll always need an empty one for racking.
- Pails, White or
food grade plastic or Stainless Steel: Our 7.9 gallon pails will hold about 70 crushed grapes. They come with a lid that has a very tight fit. If transporting whole grapes
in bushel baskets or cardboard boxes, plastic liners are a must. Plastic liners (clear liners or our fermenting bags) tied off at the top are advisable to aid in the transportation of
crushed must (crushed grapes). Even if in a container with a top, unless it is a tupper-ware tight seal, a tied bag will prevent sloshing.
- Bung, bored to fit the hole in your container and an airlock.
- Hydrometer (triple scale: potential alcohol, Brix, specific gravity) to test the
sugar level BEFORE fermentation.
- Corn sugar (Dextrose) to adjust the "Brix" or sugar percentage. Corn sugar is a simple sugar and is powdered. It goes into solution easily and is ready for metabolism by the yeast. You may use sucrose or table sugar. It is recommended that you heat sucrose in the juice to dissolve. This action will invert the sugar to simple sugar ready for fermentation. See Adding Sugar: adjustment page and chart links in the Table of Contents next after Getting Started.
- Yeast: Your pick, our recommendation. 1 pack per 5-7 gallons.
- Yeast
Nutrients: The use of a nutrient minimizes hydrogen sulfide
problems.
Diammonium phosphate or DAP is a major nutrient found in grapes and is well suited for grape yeast that needs to ferment grapes or grape juice. Some varieties of grapes such as Chardonnay and Seyval, as a rule, are lower in nutrients and benefit from the routine use of the addition of DAP.
DAP usage is 1/2 pounds per 1000 gallons
1.13 grams per 5 gallons
1.13 grams is about a heaping 1/4 teaspoon PER 5 gallons
Yeast "Energizer" is a term indicates a nutrient that is more complex and is recommended for fruit wines other than grapes and yet would be acceptable to use in grapes. We use Enovit which is a multiple ingredient nutrient of which each 1000 grams contains: 240 grams of DAP, 747 grams of ammonium sulphate, 2 grams of thiamine, 1 gram of potassium tartrate, 10 grams of bentonite.
Enovit usage is 3 to 4 grams per 5 gallons.
3 grams = 1 teaspoon PER 5 gallons
- Potassium Metabisulfite: an anti-oxidant and anti bacterial additive. The recommended rate is 20 to 40 ppm, the lesser
amount for red, as it has bleaching characteristics. “Meta” is added at racking. It can also be used for cleaning and chasing chlorine rinses.
Red wine is dosed with meta at the rate of 1/8 teaspoon per 5 gallons. White wine is dosed with ¼ teaspoon per 5 gallons.
Do NOT use if planning malolactic fermentation. The sulfur level must be 10-20 ppm or less for malolactic bacteria to survive.
If you are planning malolactic fermentation and are comfortable without its use, then go without.
- Campden Tablets are a tablet form of Sodium or Potassium Metabisulfite for use in small lots. One tablet is 75-120 ppm in
1 gallon. We have seen ratings using both numbers. It makes us wary.
- A +5 -5 hydrometer is used for reading at the end of the fermentation. A negative 2 reading is dry, dry, and dry. A
negative 1degree reading may have some sugar left and is not safe to bottle unless Sorbate (in combination with Potassium Metabisulfite) is going to be used. A 0 degree reading has some
residual sugar.
- Acid Testing is a must before start of fermentation.
- Clinitest Kit is a test for residual sugar in your finished
wine. Instructions are in the Test Chapter
- Vinometers give an alcohol reading in DRY wine. Pour a small amount of wine
into the funnel top until it runs out the bottom and invert to take the reading.
- Fining agents to aid in settling and clarification. See the fining page in the
problem chapter.
- Corks
- Corkers
- Siphon hose and racking wands for
racking. A racking tube or wand is rigid, clear plastic rod either straight or curved to attach the tubing to.
It has an attachment on the bottom to draw the wine from above and not below from the “lees” or sediment. A holder (spring clip or cone) for the wand is nice and saves
on slave labor.
- We recommend a bottle filler (gravity feed or spring loaded) for the process of filling bottles. It attaches to the end of
siphon tubing. This fills from the bottom up, displacing enough wine for the cork when removed. A bottle filler is a must have for brewers as
there is no foaming or bubbling during fill!
- Bottling
- Cleaning
- Bottles 2-dozen (750 ml) bottles per 5 gallons of wine
- Labels and Capsules optional. You can be creative or use masking
tape!
- Cane Sugar: Recommended for sweetening your finished wine to taste, instead of corn sugar. Cane sugar has twice the
taste of sweetness calorie for calorie of corn sugar.
- Luci, our shop manager, will be able to answer a lot of your winemaking questions if you stop by during the harvest. She won a silver medal with her 1999 Foch at the NYS Fair last year and a silver medal with her Maiden’s Blush from 2001, and a Bronze for her Baron's in 2002. Luci also won another Bronze for her Late Harvest Vignoles in 2004. Don’t hesitate to ask her your questions.