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Bacchus Society holds 2nd grape crush

A community member pours his grapes into the "crusher/destemmer," know as "The Beast."

The MCCC Bacchus Society held its second annual "Community Crush" Sept. 20 in the West Technology building.

Area grape growers were invited to bring their own grapes to be crushed while they waited. The Culinary Club provided refreshments and food available for purchase, including hotdogs, hamburgers, and chips.

The Bacchus society crushed and de-stemmed the grapes and even checked the sugar levels, using a refractometer. The refractometer measures the degree of sweetness in the wine, using a system that measures in levels of brix.

Culinary Arts Instructor Kevin Thomas explained how winemakers use refractometers to pick their grapes at the optimum time. He said brix levels can predict the percent of alcohol the juice will produce if it’s made into wine.

“Generally, the amount of brix in your juice, if you take half of that quantity, that’s how much alcohol by volume you'll end up with when the wine is produced,” Thomas said.

People arrived with buckets of grapes and left with buckets of must, or very thick grape juice, they could use for jelly, juice, or wine.

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