Many of you are preparing for winemaking and jelly making. Right now, Reliance is at 24-25 brix. That means the sugar level should produce a wine with at least 12% alc./vol AND have some residual sugar, or let it completely ferment for even higher potential alcohol. I have never made jelly, but some of our customers make a delightful pink jelly with Reliance. Has that great labrusca, or "Welch's Concord" flavor, with a light pink color. Very interesting.
So since I mentioned "Concord", we just released Concord for table grape, "eating" clamshells. A couple of weeks from now, we will be picking these in bulk into 5 gallon white plastic food-safe bucket with lid. You get aproximately 25 lbs of grapes in each bucket.
Ok, so how do you prepare the grapes? Here is a link which describes how to destemm the grapes and crush them using regular kitchen tools:
Here is a recipie to make grape jelly. The author takes 3 lbs of Concord grapes to make 20 jars of grape jelly. I think they are 1/2 pint jars. The recipie is not clear about that. Perhaps someone can add to this blog about making jelly? Our small clamshell holds roughly 2 lbs and our large clamshell holds roughly 4 lbs of Concord grapes.
A couple of videos how to convert bucket into a wine fermenter. Either way works. You will need some yeast and a quiet spot for the fermentation to take place. Sometimes the fermentation will "boil over", so locate in an area which you can clean up easily.
Winemakers, please pre-order ahead of time. We will be filling only new buckets for pre-orders only, so please plan ahead. You will need to order before Sunday, September 20th for Concord.
Want to try a wine grape variety? Contact Paul (paul@weymouthfarms.com) and ask what is available. We will try to accomodate your needs after we have filled our own winemaking requirements.