Spiders
 

We are making our first attempt at making wine from fruit on our grape vine.
The grapes are small (about the size of a large cranberry) and purple. We
were told to make sure all of the stems are removed and to crush the grapes
and go through the first fermenting process with the skins and pulp in the
mixture. We have many little white spiders and webs in the grapes. Do we
need to take care to remove all of these (hard to do) or are they taken care
of in the striation step?

Roy with purple feet.

Roy,
In commercial wineries there is a term for that; MOG. It means
'material other than grapes'. It sounds crazy, but you get rid of what
you see and don't worry about the rest, it will come out when you rack
the first time.

Do not rinse or wash the grapes, just do the best you can to keep
things relatively clean and let the grapes take over.

Joe



Roy boy wrote:
> We are making our first attempt at making wine from fruit on our grape vine.
> The grapes are small (about the size of a large cranberry) and purple. We
> were told to make sure all of the stems are removed and to crush the grapes
> and go through the first fermenting process with the skins and pulp in the
> mixture. We have many little white spiders and webs in the grapes. Do we
> need to take care to remove all of these (hard to do) or are they taken care
> of in the striation step?
>
> Roy with purple feet.

I have made several batches of mulberry wine with MOG in them (and a
few without). When I first started I would pick mulberries by
hand.....300 hours later I would have enough for 6 gallons of wine.

I finally got tired of that, now I just throw out a dropcloth and shake
the branches...then later I pick out all the stems and leaves that come
down. But there is all manner of other stuff int here from bugs to
tree frogs. Well I let the frogs go...but the bug end up staying.
They add body.

I have not been able to tell the difference between the handpicked wine
and the buggy ones.

I made my first batch of blackberry wine a few years ago.
I washed the berries quite carefully. That year I also made
a small batch of grape wine with grapes carefully hand-washed.
Some time later, I read (on this forum) about MOG.

This year I'm planning to make another batch of blackberry.
I've been picking and freezing a pound or two every few days.
The first couple of times I just froze them without washing,
but then I read some old posts here about washing blackberries and
I sorta got spooked and started giving the berries a good rinse
before freezing. Who knows, I thought ... maybe something in
grapes makes grape must/wine able to tolerate MOG.

So I was happy to read of your mulberry-and-MOG wine!
Can anyone tell me for sure that blackberries are okay too?

Thanks,

Jeff Hay-Roe
Sechelt, British Columbia

jeff wrote:
> I made my first batch of blackberry wine a few years ago.
> I washed the berries quite carefully. That year I also made
> a small batch of grape wine with grapes carefully hand-washed.
> Some time later, I read (on this forum) about MOG.
>
> This year I'm planning to make another batch of blackberry.
> I've been picking and freezing a pound or two every few days.
> The first couple of times I just froze them without washing,
> but then I read some old posts here about washing blackberries and
> I sorta got spooked and started giving the berries a good rinse
> before freezing. Who knows, I thought ... maybe something in
> grapes makes grape must/wine able to tolerate MOG.
>
> So I was happy to read of your mulberry-and-MOG wine!
> Can anyone tell me for sure that blackberries are okay too?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff Hay-Roe
> Sechelt, British Columbia
>
I picked about 6 gals of wild blackberries this year and only visually
screened for MOG. During ferment I could see extraneous matter at first
and then it gradually got absorbed.

haven't bottled yet, but early tastings (its only two months old) show
great promise.

washing takes off the protective layer as well as watering down the must
(more critical with grapes than fruit) so its considererd a no-no. Also
provides breeding conditions for molds/fungis if not used immediately or
frozen.

Jeff,
It's the acid and alcohol that protect the wine, any fruit is ok if you
are staying at =/> 10% alcohol and enough acid to balance that.

Joe