Boiling the grape skins and juice?

[electrolight]

Hello all,

I would like to try my hand at a small batch of wine made from grapes. I've read up on it and see everywhere people adding campden tablets to the crushed grapes and grape juice and letting that sit 12 - 24 hours before pitching the yeast. But my fiance is allergic to sulfites so i'd really like an alternative solution. I know I could just give it a shot without it and cross my fingers, but I'm wondering if there is a better alternative.

I'm wondering If I can boil the grapes and grape juice for a bit or if I should perhaps bring the temp up to 161 for a few minutes. But I'm not sure if either of those are ok/allowed for wine making. I am worried about the sugar changing form and causing undesirable effects on the finished product.

Thanks for the foresight!

 

[WVMJ]

Allowed? No real rules for homewinemakers so if you want to cook your grapes go ahead. Do you have your own grapes or are you going to go to the store to buy them? If you are just going to buy storebought grapes it would be much simpler to use Welches concentrates and then you shouldnt have to worry about the grapes being contaminated. Some people also have steam juiced grapes with a steam juicer like is used for making grape jelly so cooking some grapes isnt that crazy of an idea. WVMJ

 

[Yooper]

Remember that sulfites are a natural product of fermentation, so even if you don't add sulfites that the wine will never be sulfite free. If she's truly allergic to sulfites, she should never eat raisins or drink any fermented beverages, as it's very difficult to remove all sulfites from a fermented product (and raisins and things like that have more sulfites than wine so they are do be avoided). I assume you know all that, but for people on the forum who don't it's important to note that things like olives, dried fruit, shredded coconut, etc all contain more sulfites than homemade wine (at less than 50 ppm). Anyway, sometimes people on the forum thing a sulfite allergy is simply being sensitive to high levels and I wanted to mention that. A true sulfite allergy is extraordinarily rare, but can be deadly so it's important to note that.

If you boil the juice, that would work except for a "cooked juice" taste (like grape jelly).