How did you mash the Muscadine grapes ? The only fruit I have made wine out of was the tomatoe wine. The rest was made out of concentrate. All I done for the tomatoe was to run it through a blender. I guess some people use a grape press but unless your going to make alot of wine a press is exspensive.
Wine
- Thread starter 504RP
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greybeard
Well-known member
You can make a fruit juice press in 'about 11 minutes' if you work really fast....
Your right about that. What are scuppernongs ? Arround here most of the wild Muscadines are on National forest land and are illegal to pick. They say it takes away food for wild life.
There are two winerys here Post winery and Wederiker winery. May have spelled Wederiker wrong. But both are big well known winerys.
I can buy Muscadies and wine grapes from them. They are seasonal though. So if i was to try and make wine using real fruit. I would have to do it during season. Which usually is during hay season when i already have more irons in the fire than i can take care of.
They have alot of different varieties of grapes to choose from. Both red and white Muscadines but when i was considering trying to make Muscadine wine i backed out because it is a little harder to make. Cant remember off hand what it was, but remember it's nothing like the concentrate you mix up and let ferment.
I was at the horse races in Hot Springs Arkansas killing time sight seeing in the old part of town when i came up on this little wine tasting shop. That's where i found the tomatoe wine and tried. It really didn't taste much like tomatoe juice.
wbvs58
Well-known member
The old Italians around here all made their own wine but they are all dying out now, their offspring prefer to just go to the bottle shop. A lot of wine presses and other gear come up in auctions from deceased estates and can be bought quite reasonable.
Ken
Ken
greybeard
Well-known member
It's one type of about 150 different cultivars of muscadine. Seeded, extremely sweet.
First discovered here in the US in the 1500s. They are relatively difficult to get started but handle heat and drought well, and temps down to just above 0°F.
(Also the state fruit of North Carolina and what is thought to be the world's oldest cultivated grapevine is a 400 year old scuppernong "Mother Vine' on Roanoke Island N.C.)
I don't know why, but both birds and the squirrels seem to leave mine alone and the vine is growing along a rail fence within 40 ft of the national Forest that begins right outside my yard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuppernong#History
Cowsout
Active member
The recipe recommended freezing them first. That helps break down that tough skin and the grapes are much easier to mash. I use a large slotted spoon to squash them, but obviously I'm working with small volumes, usually around 1 gallon of grapes which is what I get from the vines during a good year.
Greybeard i am glad you posted that !!! I will diffinately be making real wine now instead of using the concentrates.
I bet a 10 ton hydraulic press wouldn't be too exspenseive at harbor freight.
That idea would work on alot things. I think it would work for canning tomatoe juice.Probably better than a colander does.
Got to admit I feel pretty stupid not thinking of something like that myself. I haven't put much research into wine presses but what few pictures of them I have seen don't look as if they would work near as good as that vedio of the 10 ton hydraulic press.
I can probably buy a 10 ton
press at harbor freight fairly reasonable. I don't know why i didn't think of something like that to begin with.
