A gallon of "sugar wine"
 

How much sugar would one use to make a gallon (3.8 litres) of water
with a S.G. of about 1.090 (P.A. of about 12%)?

Yesterday someone gave me about 7 pounds of some tiny pruple grapes.
(They're about the size of smallish blueberries. If anyone has a guess
as to what they are, I'd be interested. They were grown here on the
west coast, near Vancouver BC.) I squeezed them and got a little more
than half a gallon of juice, and added about 3 cups of sugar, and
water. (I'm not planning to ferment on the skins. The must is quite
red.) The S.G. is about 1.100. The must is obviously sweet, but
there's something not right about it ... I'm not sure if it's sour or
bitter. It sort of sets the teeth on edge.

So my plan is to lessen the influence of this not-great grape flavour
on the wine by diluting it into 2 gallons. Three-and-a-half pounds of
fruit per gallon seems to me acceptable for a country wine. So how
much sugar would I use to make a gallon of "sugar wine"? Or, if anyone
thinks this is a bad idea, I'd be happy to hear of alternative
suggestions.

Thanks,

Jeff Hay-Roe
Sechelt, B.C.

That sounds like a river grape, but those are generally found tward the
eastern half to the continent. If it is not those, they are soem other
wild grape most likey.

As far as sugar, a lb of sugar in one gallon of water will give you an
SG of 1.046. Of course, if you dump a lb of sugar in 1 gallon of water
you will ntop get a SG of 1.046, becasue the sugar will increase the
volume of solution. If you want 1 gallon of 1.090 sugar water you need
jsut shy of 2 lbs of sugar in 1 gallon of water.

Jack Keller has a recipe and information for river grape wine (as long
as other native grapes).

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/riparia.asp and
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/nativew1.asp

Good luck. I am sure the wine will be different at least.

let nature take its course

--
billb
"jeff" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> How much sugar would one use to make a gallon (3.8 litres) of water
> with a S.G. of about 1.090 (P.A. of about 12%)?
>
> Yesterday someone gave me about 7 pounds of some tiny pruple grapes.
> (They're about the size of smallish blueberries. If anyone has a guess
> as to what they are, I'd be interested. They were grown here on the
> west coast, near Vancouver BC.) I squeezed them and got a little more
> than half a gallon of juice, and added about 3 cups of sugar, and
> water. (I'm not planning to ferment on the skins. The must is quite
> red.) The S.G. is about 1.100. The must is obviously sweet, but
> there's something not right about it ... I'm not sure if it's sour or
> bitter. It sort of sets the teeth on edge.
>
> So my plan is to lessen the influence of this not-great grape flavour
> on the wine by diluting it into 2 gallons. Three-and-a-half pounds of
> fruit per gallon seems to me acceptable for a country wine. So how
> much sugar would I use to make a gallon of "sugar wine"? Or, if anyone
> thinks this is a bad idea, I'd be happy to hear of alternative
> suggestions.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff Hay-Roe
> Sechelt, B.C.
>

"jeff" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> How much sugar would one use to make a gallon (3.8 litres) of water
> with a S.G. of about 1.090 (P.A. of about 12%)?
>
> Yesterday someone gave me about 7 pounds of some tiny pruple grapes.
> (They're about the size of smallish blueberries. If anyone has a guess
> as to what they are, I'd be interested. They were grown here on the
> west coast, near Vancouver BC.)

They sound like black currants. See:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...3Den%26lr% 3D

Paul

Pavel314 wrote:
>
> They sound like black currants. See:
>

Thanks, but I don't think so.
I'm quite sure they were grapes.
Mostly they were in very tight clusters.
Seemed just like grapes, except that I've never seen such small ones.

Jeff

Ipicked a bunch of wild american grapes this year, they were about the
size of a pinkie fingernail. Tiny little things, flavorfull and TART.
I did not get enough for a batch of wine, I will make jam out of them.

jeff wrote:

> How much sugar would one use to make a gallon (3.8 litres) of water
> with a S.G. of about 1.090 (P.A. of about 12%)?
>
> Yesterday someone gave me about 7 pounds of some tiny pruple grapes.
> (They're about the size of smallish blueberries. If anyone has a guess
> as to what they are, I'd be interested. They were grown here on the
> west coast, near Vancouver BC.) I squeezed them and got a little more
> than half a gallon of juice, and added about 3 cups of sugar, and
> water. (I'm not planning to ferment on the skins. The must is quite
> red.) The S.G. is about 1.100. The must is obviously sweet, but
> there's something not right about it ... I'm not sure if it's sour or
> bitter. It sort of sets the teeth on edge.
>
> So my plan is to lessen the influence of this not-great grape flavour
> on the wine by diluting it into 2 gallons. Three-and-a-half pounds of
> fruit per gallon seems to me acceptable for a country wine. So how
> much sugar would I use to make a gallon of "sugar wine"? Or, if anyone
> thinks this is a bad idea, I'd be happy to hear of alternative
> suggestions.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff Hay-Roe
> Sechelt, B.C.

Saskatoons maybe?