The Wrath of Grapes
I picked all our grapes a few days ago, all eight pounds of them.
They were, as you can see, not really ripe. With it being October, they seemed unlikely to ripen further, and various beasties were beginning to attack them. It seemed merely a matter of time before the local blackbirds had a go.
I didn’t wash them. I didn’t want to remove any wild yeast that might be there, waiting to help me make wine. I removed one small snail, four ladybirds, two earwigs, and numerous spiders. More spiders left of their own accord when I started squishing the grapes to get the juice.
I didn’t do the time honoured thing of treading the grapes with my feet, partly because the container wasn’t big and strong enough, but also to prevent any possibility of the wine, if any resulted, giving drinkers a nasty case of Athlete’s Mouth.
Here they are, squished up. I left all the bits in for a couple of days, so the juice could take some of the colour of the ones that ripened. When I removed as much solid matter as I could, I ended up with this…
As you can see, it looks as if it has decided to ferment. I wish I hadn’t disposed of all the demi-johns I used to use for home brewing.
More follows, maybe…
In case anyone wondered, the resulting liquid is a very good wine vinegar, which will get used on salads and the like.