Yesterday I picked some wild grapes near Corsicana. I filled up a 120 quart cooler. Tonight and tomorrow I will make 30-40 pints of preserves, but would like to make wine with the rest. I have a few 5 gallon glass jugs that have been in the family for many years, but no other equipment.

I have searched the internet for 'recipes' and procedures, but could use some practical advice as I have found a very wide range of approaches.

1.) Do I have enough grapes to make a 5 gallon jug of wine?
2.) What equipment do I need?
3.) I could use a step-by-step guide, including what additives I will need?

As always, I appreciate the input and advice.

I would call this "country wine" or old fashioned method, but it works...

De-stem grapes and put them in a clean plastic bucket. It would be best to sterilize with a dilute bleach solution or visit a home brew shop for some potassium metabisulfide. You realistically need 10 gallons of grapes to make a full bodied wine, but there is plenty of acid to make five gallons with less than that. Cover the grapes in the bucket with tap water and let sit for a week, covered with a towel.

After a week, you should see some bubbles moving up between the grapesthis indicates that the natural yeast has started working. Sterilize your glass carboy same as you did the buckets. Crush down the fruit and pour the liquid into the carboy. Once the carboy is about 2/3 full, start moving your juice to a pot big enough to hold 15 pounds of sugar. Heat and dissolve the sugar, let it cool so that adding to the carboy won't raise the temp above 90 or so.

You will know you are on the right path when adding the sugar solution makes the carboy bubble and churn like crazy. Add a sterilized airlock to the carboy and let set somewhere that a grape juice explosion won't make a huge mess.

Over 7-14 days you will see lots of bubbling and churning. The crud that floats to the top will clog your airlock which allows pressure to build which leads to blowouts. I would use a teaspoon to scoop this out for the first few days. After a couple of weeks the bubbles will slow and you can top it up with water. You'll need to add more sugar if you want a sweeter wine.

Wild grapes are highly acidic. You can use a lower amount of grapes and more water to cut the acidity, you can keep adding sugar (many old timers make something akin to syrup in this way), or use some baking soda to raise the pH.

After the bubbles stop entirely, likely about 30 days, you can sterilize a bunch of bottles and bottle it up.

I've probably left a few steps out, but that'll get you started.

Look up Jack Keller's recipes. I have used a couple of them and they turn out very good.

I've used a couple of Keller's recipes to very good effect, but never tried grape.

GottaRide said:

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Look up Jack Keller's recipes. I have used a couple of them and they turn out very good.

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This. His website is old, but contains everything you need to know.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/nativew1.asp