When to Harvest Grapes September 09 2014, 0 Comments

If you have backyard grapes and are wondering if they indeed are ready to be harvested, there are a couple ways to tell.

  1. Crush up enough grapes to fill a test jar with juice. Then use your hydrometer to read the brix* (sugar) in your sample.
  2. Use a refractometer, an instrument that refracts light in order to read brix*. The advantage being that you only need a grape or two to fill the refractometer slide with enough of a juice sample.

*Typically, a normal brix range for white wine varietals is 17-20; for reds 20-25.