Grape and Fruit Calculator: Pounds of Grapes per Bottle

It takes about 2.6 pounds of grapes to make one 750 ml bottle of wine, or roughly 13 pounds for a gallon. That is the planning number from Cornell's enology extension, and the real figure moves with the grape and the press. Enter the grapes you have, or the wine you want, and the calculator does the arithmetic. Switch to fruit wine and it gives the pounds of fruit for any batch of the fruit wines on this site.

Grape and fruit calculator

What are you working out? Start from Grapes Juice yield

Cornell gives 150 gallons per ton as the planning number and 120 to 180 as the normal range. With a hand press, our advice is to plan on Low.

3.0 galof finished wine

11.4 Lthe same in liters

15 bottlesof 750 ml, rounded down

2.6 lbof grapes per 750 ml bottle at this yield

How Many Grapes Does It Take to Make a Bottle of Wine?

Chris Gerling of Cornell University's enology extension works it out in "Grapes 101: Conversion Factors" (2011). He uses 150 gallons of wine per ton of grapes, with a normal range of 120 to 180 gallons. A 750 ml bottle is about 0.2 gallons, so a ton makes about 756 bottles, which works out to roughly 2.6 pounds of grapes per bottle.

Clusters and berries

Gerling also counts it from the vine. With Cabernet Franc clusters of about 0.22 pounds, a bottle takes a little over 11 clusters, or about 13 once you allow for stems and seeds. At an average berry weight of 1.6 grams he arrives at around 736 berries. He is clear that these are estimates, since berry size, rain, ripeness and the press all change the answer.

Pounds per vine

The same article suggests a vine might carry about seven pounds of fruit, which is two to three bottles of dry wine per vine. If you are planning a harvest, our guide to when to harvest grapes for wine covers the timing.

Grapes to Wine: What a Batch Makes

The table uses the same formula as the calculator, gallons = pounds of grapes x gallons per ton / 2,000, at the three yields in the menu. Bottles are 750 ml and rounded down, because a part bottle is not one you can cork.

Grapes	Low (120)	Typical (150)	High (180)	Bottles, Low / Typical / High
10 lb (4.5 kg)	0.6 gal	0.75 gal	0.9 gal	3 / 3 / 4
20 lb (9.1 kg)	1.2 gal	1.5 gal	1.8 gal	6 / 7 / 9
40 lb (18 kg)	2.4 gal	3.0 gal	3.6 gal	12 / 15 / 18
67 lb (30 kg)	4.0 gal	5.0 gal	6.0 gal	20 / 25 / 30
80 lb (36 kg)	4.8 gal	6.0 gal	7.2 gal	24 / 30 / 36

Why we say plan on Low with a hand press

Cornell's range is for normal conditions. A basket press or a small hand press leaves more juice in the pomace, so the low end is the safer bet when you buy fruit. That is our recommendation, not a measured figure. If you end up with extra juice, it tops up the carboy as you rack. A crusher and a press both move you toward the high end.

Grapes Needed for the Wine You Want

Run it the other way to decide how much to buy. Pounds of grapes = gallons x 2,000 / gallons per ton.

Wine wanted	Low yield	Typical	High yield	Typical, kg
One 750 ml bottle	3.3 lb	2.6 lb	2.2 lb	1.2 kg
1 gallon	16.7 lb	13.3 lb	11.1 lb	6.0 kg
3 gallons	50.0 lb	40.0 lb	33.3 lb	18.1 kg
5 gallons	83.3 lb	66.7 lb	55.6 lb	30.2 kg
6 gallons	100.0 lb	80.0 lb	66.7 lb	36.3 kg

How many bottles you really get

These are the grapes for the wine in the fermenter. You lose some to the lees when you rack, so check the wine bottle calculator for the count after sediment. Our guide to making wine at home takes the whole process from crush to bottle.

How Many Pounds of Fruit per Gallon of Wine?

The fruit wines work differently, because the flavor comes from the fruit and water makes up the rest of the gallon. The amounts below are the fruit weights in the 1 gallon recipes on this site. Mulberry, mango, pumpkin, tomato and Concord grape come from Jack Keller's Requested Recipes Collection. Where a recipe gives a range, the table shows it, and the Concord range runs from his lighter dry recipe (6 lb) to the fuller sweet one (12 lb).

Fruit	Per gallon	Per gallon, kg	For 5 gallons
Apple	10 to 12 lb	4.5 to 5.4 kg	50 to 60 lb
Banana	4.5 lb	2.0 kg	22.5 lb
Blackberry	4 lb	1.8 kg	20 lb
Blueberry	2 to 3 lb	0.9 to 1.4 kg	10 to 15 lb
Cherry	3 lb	1.4 kg	15 lb
Concord grape	6 to 12 lb	2.7 to 5.4 kg	30 to 60 lb
Cranberry	3 lb	1.4 kg	15 lb
Elderberry	3 lb	1.4 kg	15 lb
Mango	3 to 4 lb	1.4 to 1.8 kg	15 to 20 lb
Muscadine grape	6 to 8 lb	2.7 to 3.6 kg	30 to 40 lb
Mulberry	6 lb	2.7 kg	30 lb
Peach	3 lb	1.4 kg	15 lb
Pear	4 to 6 lb	1.8 to 2.7 kg	20 to 30 lb
Pineapple	4 lb	1.8 kg	20 lb
Plum	4 lb	1.8 kg	20 lb
Pumpkin	5 lb	2.3 kg	25 lb
Raspberry	3 to 4 lb	1.4 to 1.8 kg	15 to 20 lb
Rhubarb	3 lb	1.4 kg	15 lb
Strawberry	3 to 5 lb	1.4 to 2.3 kg	15 to 25 lb
Tomato	4 lb	1.8 kg	20 lb
Watermelon	6 lb	2.7 kg	30 lb

Read the prep before you buy

The weights are for prepared fruit: bananas peeled, pineapple cored, watermelon with the rind removed, pumpkin as grated flesh, pears cored. Buy more to allow for the trimming. Some recipes also add raisins or grape juice for body, as the mulberry recipe does, so follow the full ingredient list on each recipe page.

Pomegranate, lemon and grapefruit

These are counted by the fruit, not by the pound, so they are not in the calculator. The recipes give the count.

Planning the Buy

Buy a little more fruit than the calculator says, so you have some for topping up the carboy. Check the bottle count in the bottle calculator, then pick a recipe from the fruit wine recipes and scale it. Crushing and pressing are the slow part at volume, and the items in the box below are the ones this job calls for.

What you need to crush and press

A crusher and a press take the work out of turning pounds of fruit into juice.

1Fruit crusher

EJWOX Fruit and Apple Crusher, 7L Manual Juicer Grinder

A 1.8 gallon stainless steel manual crusher for home brewing and cider pressing, per the listing.

Check price on Amazon
2Fruit press

EJWOX 4.75 Gallon Fruit and Wine Press

A 4.75 gallon manual press with a solid beech wood basket, listed for apples, grapes and berries, per the listing.

Check price on Amazon

How many grapes are in a bottle of red wine?

Cornell's enology extension puts it at about 2.6 pounds of grapes per 750 ml bottle, at 150 gallons of wine per ton. Counted by the bunch, that is a little over 11 clusters of Cabernet Franc, or about 13 with stems and seeds. Gerling stresses that the real figure varies with the grape and how it is pressed.

How much wine will a 5 gallon bucket of grapes make?

A bucket measures volume and grapes are sold by weight, so weigh the fruit instead. At Cornell's 150 gallons per ton, 40 pounds of grapes makes about 3 gallons and 67 pounds about 5 gallons. With a hand press we suggest planning on the low yield of 120 gallons per ton.

How many pounds of fruit per gallon of wine?

It depends on the fruit. The recipes on this site use 2 to 5 pounds per gallon for most berries and stone fruit, 4 to 6 pounds for pears, 6 to 8 for muscadine grapes and 10 to 12 for apples. Pick your fruit in the calculator above to scale the weight to your batch.

All MyHomeWine tools, including the ABV, sugar and bottle calculators.
How to make wine at home, from crush to bottle.
Fruit wine recipes to scale with the calculator.
How to rack wine, where the sediment loss comes from.

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