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I have a mini-vineyard with several kinds of scuppernongs, muscadines, along with concord, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon grapes but haven't tried making wine yet. It doesn't help that my neighbor has a real vineyard and winery doing all the work for me. I just graze....

If you are thinking about growing, I'd stick to muscadines which are less trouble but similar to concord grapes. I have about half of these varieties but most are only a couple years old so not much yield yet, but this should be a good year:

http://isons.com/pdfs/Muscadine_Chart.pdf

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360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
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VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

"I'd stick to muscadines which are less trouble but similar to concord grapes."

Where are you located? Here in Indiana, nothing is less trouble than Concord grapes, unless the muscadines are self-picking.

Bill

I'm down in Charleston, SC. Nothing grape related grows very well here. We get too hot and too humid late in the growing season, so I'll always be buying juice concentrate.

Scuppernongs, Muscadines, and Concord all grow extremely well back in my hometown and surrounding area, so I may be able to sucker a sister into putting in a row of vines.

Anyway, back to the experiment
Yesterday was Day 4. I pulled a sample with the wine thief and checked the specific gravity. Right on track at 1.045, so time to add the yeast nutrient packet and stir to de-gas.

This time around a very fast bloom of foam that quickly deflated. foam went away so fast that I didn't have time to get a pic.
Small bubbles are floating to the top continuously and the airlock is gurgling away.

Tonight, tomorrow, or Friday, depending on the SG, it will get racked into the second carboy with the oak chips for the second ferment.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

I believe the concord was developed from muscadines. The clear pulp is very similar.

http://www.concordgrape.org/bodyhistory.html

I found growing them side by side with native species in hot, humid GA (zone 7b/8a) that the concord requires spraying for pests when the natives do not. I prefer not to spray anything, Further off the off-topic, as a result of not wanting to spray, I have figs, jujube, native and Asian persimmons, blueberries, autumn olive, elderberries, pear, mayhaw, mulberry, che, pecan, chickasaw plum, crab apples, thornless black berries, raspberries, and pawpaw. Early on I planted peach, cherry, apricot, granny smith apples, and the wine grapes but would not do it again due to the regular spraying requirements. If you don't eat the skin, spraying is less of an issue but a lot of what's good for you is in the skin.

I also have a few types of bananas but the season is too short to flower, much less fruit. Dies back then comes back. I'm just too far North for that.

_________________
Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

MV8
Where are you in Georgia? I roam through the state a bit for work and spend some time in Savannah, Atlanta and LaGrange visit with suppliers.

Report for last night (Day 5)
Did the daily routine, sanitize the stir spoon, wine thief, hydrometer, and test cylinder
Stir for 2 minutes to degas and get everything well mixed in the fermenter
Pull a test sample - SG 1.030 so current alcohol content is 8.15%
Based on the rate at which the SG is falling I expect to rack it into the second fermenter either this afternoon or tomorrow.
I'll get some pics of the process

I took a taste and it's a sweet after dinner wine right now; not at all what I want the finished product to be. However, the taste is really quite good at this point.

Once finished with the wine duties it was time to bottle off this week's batch of kombucha (fermented tea). We've had the booch going on a weekly basis for almost a year now and we've experimented a couple of times with added flavors for the second ferment. We've done ginger, blueberry, and sour apple with decent results. Last night I did two bottles with black cherries that I juiced in the Vitamix. One is 4 oz per liter and the other is 8 oz per liter. I'll let you know how those turn out as well.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

I've been thinking of wine names for this batch and future versions.
This batch is going to come in somewhere between 12.5 and 15% alcohol.

I'm thinking Happy Mom Merlot or 1,2,3 Floor

Then a white wine Rough Day Chardonnay

Got ideas, post em up.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

I like this one. Wifey Dearest and I met over a glass of wine. I saw her in a club, thought she was cute and paid attention to what she was drinking.
On her next trip to the bar, I beat her there, ordered for both of us and introduced myself. The rest as they say is History.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

Report for last night (Day 6)
I had a few errands to run after work, so it was late when I finally got home and I was ready for bed. I took a SG reading expecting it to be about 1.02, instead it was 1.012... time to transfer to the second fermenter. Looks like it's going to another hour until bed time.

Current alcohol content 10.59%

I mixed up a gallon of 1 step cleaner sanitizer and started washing stuff. siphon, siphon tube, big glass carboy, bung, and air lock.
Once it was all "clean" I mixed up a gallon of sodium metabisulphite sanitizer... sort of a belt and suspenders thing. At this step the sanitize part is critical for a good tasting wine.

Once all the equipment was ready it was time to rack


When I racked it , the wine went from not foaming for the past couple of days to foaming like a rabid dog for about 10 minutes.

I let it settle, then cleaned up the mess. Probably lost about 2 ounces of wine to foaming over.

Now it is happily working away on the second ferment and steadily gurgling through the air lock.

oh, and you can see the cherry booch bottles hanging out on the table in case they decide to go BOOM from too much sugar content in second ferment. I'd rather clean up the breakfast nook than everything in the pantry.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

Report for last night (day 10)
The bubbling has slowed down considerably, but is still continuous, so no real point in taking an SG measurement. Temperature is a little bit cool as we had a cool front come through for the past several days. Wine temp is at 67 degrees.

I'll continue to monitor, but as long as it continues to produce CO2 with the air lock venting continuously I'll let the yeast keep doing it's thing. The oak chips aren't waterlogged yet. They should get saturated and sink to the bottom over the next few days.

Next step is to rack again and add the clarifier and stabilizer then let is sit for a few weeks prior to bottling.

Stay tuned

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

Report (day 11)
Bubbling has slowed to 1 bubble every 30 seconds or so. The yeast is nearly done. Wood chips are saturated and have sunk to the bottom of the fermenter.

Per instructions, I gave it a good stir to degas and get everything moving again. After the stir the bubbling rate increased to a bubble every 5 seconds for a few hours. I checked on it before bed time and it was back to 1/ 30.

Tomorrow I'll take an SG reading. 0.998 or lower it gets racked back into the big mouth fermenter, stabilizer and clarifier added, then a serious degassing.
SG higher than 0.998, do nothing other than wait a couple of days.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

Report for last night (Day 12)

Wifey Dearest and I were puppy sitting, so I didn't do squat on the wine.
I checked the temp - 70 degrees
Checked the airlock - VERY VERY slow bubbling from the airlock. About 1 bubble every five minutes.
Fermentation is done

The thought of trying to sterilize hardware and rack while entertaining Blue was a bit too much. We took the dog for a walk and played Frisbee.

Tonight I rack and add clarifier and stabilizer. I'll report back with the SG and alcohol content. it should be 12.5 or higher.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

New lot ready for the cork A month in the fermenter and then left for another to settle.

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Mancave http://s1116.photobucket.com/user/mypic ... ow/mancave

Nice clarity on that. I hope my Merlot looks that good 6 weeks from now

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

I purchased a used medical vacuum pump on ebay and used it to degas my wines. worked very well and was inexpensive!

John

(Day 13) tonight
Came home and took a sample SG is 0.994 That works out to 13.05% alcohol. Not too shabby
I racked into the primary fermenter and added the chemicals. Metabisulfite to kill any remaining yeast, then the clarifiers and stabilizers. Stir, stir, stir to degas

I washed the carboy and racked the wine back into it. The airlock went back on and it's sitting in the coolest closet in the house.

Let the waiting begin.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216