I picked 2 bushels of Buffalo grapes (home grown by me, color blue
black)last Tues and my daughter and I hand stemmed and hand crushed the
lot on Wed.
My daughter wanted to attempt a fruity sweet pink/blush product so we
put the crushed grapes in a cheesecloth bag and squeezed the juice
right into a 7 gallon bucket before any modifications for acid, sugar
etc.
So much for pink/blush, juice turned red before we finished squeezing.
No problem we are just going with it. We bought all the gadgets,
carboys, fermenting buckets, chemicals etc. from a local vendor. We ran
the sugar up to SG 1.112(not on purpose) and after the sugar/water add
the TA came up at 6.0.(again, not on purpose) Don't have a ph gadget so
we don't know the ph.
Per the recipe (5 gallon) we then did the 5 Campden tablets, pectin
stuff, yeast nutrient and let the whole batch sit covered for 12 hours.
After the 12 hour wait I added 1 packet of yeast (Red Star)to 104
degree water and let it sit 10 minutes. It foamed a little and turned
the water cloudy. I then dumped it into the 7 gallon bucket and waited.
Temp was right at 72 degrees.
There was no bubbles, no foam, nothing for 48 hours.
I re-did the yeast thing. Still nothing after 24 hours. In desperation
I threw in a pack of dry yeast right into the must. Bingo ! Big time
bubbles and foam. Looks like the stuff is boiling.
My question(s).
Have I ruined the wine with all the yeast ?
Do you treat squeezed juice different in recipes that are written for
crushed grapes ?
Thanks in advance for any guidance.
No matter the outcome we had a lovely day together outside.