From grapes to wine 从葡萄变成酒（图）

Fall means harvest. Our grapes are getting sweeter day by day. However, weather didn't cooperate this year at all. I wish we could have few more warm days before we picked.
秋天是收获的季节. 我们家的葡萄也一天一天地成熟了. 但是,今年的天气很不合作, 天气晾得很快, 秋雨好象来得比以往早. 我真希望我们能多几天暖和的天气. Oh well, that's life. Can't have everything.

Grapes are getting mature but still need few more days to get good sugar contents.
葡萄就要成熟了, 不过还要等两天糖分才会高.


They were really getting there. 这些看颜色很接近了




This type has been sugared up really good. They are ready. 这种已经成熟, 糖分已经达到了


Rain was coming. It left us no choice...... 天气预报说明天要下雨. 没办法, 一定要摘了.


There was no way that we could pick all with limited boxes. Got to find something...所有的盒子都装满了, 还剩那么多没有摘, 哪里装得下, 得想办法...



See, I had to use this baby. Pretty convenience. It was getting dark and I was tired. My hands were shaking from the grape picking; you can tell the pictures are not too clear.... We picked all before the rain came. That was a good thing.
看, 还得用这个家伙, 黄昏来临,摘完葡萄,不光腿抖, 手也抖了, 照的片子模糊不清. 当天晚上下雨了, .好在大多数的葡萄都抢在雨前摘了.



Can you image how long it would take to crush all these grapes by hands? No way. Next day, we rent a crusher. $30 some dollar helped me a lot. It took 10 minutes.
能想象得到这么多葡萄如果用手压碎要多久吗? 用脚踩, 有音乐拌奏,跳舞要跳到什么时候吗? 花30几元租个 crusher, 10分钟解决问题.


Guess what these are: They were crushed grapes and were in the process of fermentation. I had a 8 gallon fermentation bucket. But it was too small. I used big glass jars (see below), big crock, all the big containers I can find in the house. Finally, I bought a 24-galon fermentation container. It made a lot easy for me to manage.
猜猜这是什么东东... 这是压碎的葡萄正在发酵. 发酵的时候,体积增加30%以上, 我家原有一个8加仑的发酵桶,显然不够大, 我用了家里所有的大玻璃容器, 大坛子,还是不够大,最后还是买了一个24加仑的发酵桶, 这下可解决了发酵的大问题.


I measured sugar level before started fermentation. It was 22 degree. Our grapes didn't get high sugar contain this year. Probably because of the weather impact this summer. So, I added a little sugar to booth up the sugar level to ~25 degree. 7 days later, I measured again. It was ~0 degree for sugar level, ~11% alcohol. That told me the fermentation was done. Then we squeezed the juice out and kept them in the warm place for about 4 to 5 weeks. We did first rack and put them in our vegetable storage room, nice and cool. They will be ready to be bottled in May or June.
发酵前测糖度, 大约22 度, 我加了些糖,最后达到了25度. 当糖度降至0,发酵大致结束, 就可以过滤了, 放在温暖的地方4-5星期,防止氧化, 再过滤(萃取),然后放在温度低的地方age. 蔬菜储藏室是最好的地方了. 左图是过滤(萃取)前, 你可以看到瓶子底下有沉淀, 右图是过滤(萃取)后, 4到5个月后就可以装瓶了.


We only made 1 gallon of white wine this year. I ate most of them. They were so good for fresh eating. Normally it said (the book said) 100 lb of grape would make ~5 gallon of wine. Our ~150 lb grapes made ~9 gallon wine. The grapes we had this year were quiet juicy.
白葡萄酒只做了1加仑, 大多当水果吃了,通常来说(书上说的)100磅的葡萄出5加仑酒. 我家用了150磅左右的葡萄发酵后做成葡萄酒大约9 加仑多一点,今年的葡萄汁比较多.

欢迎朋友指教啊!