2nd Run Recipe? The more Pumice the better?

NorCal · Aug 19, 2015

I'm making way more wine than I need this year, but also know I get one shot per year to ferment fresh grapes. I'm planning on doing a carboy of second run off of a ton of Zin. My thought was to load up a 20g brute half way with pumice, add 6 gallons of water, aciduate to 3.5, fermaidK, sugar to 22 brix and let it fly.

Is there any ratio of pumice to finished wine that gives you better results? The goal is a drinkable, not too tannic, lighter wine.

JohnT · Aug 20, 2015

What I have done in the past was to add as much pumice as possible.
I do not really measure the proportions, but here is what I do..

-Press grapes until bone dry (first run). It is pointless to leave any juice behind at this point. Trust me, get the max first run you can.

-"fork" the pumice so that it is loose (hands can go right through it.

-Make up the acidulated, sugar water (with nutrient) in a separate bin.

-Fill the brute with loose pumice to within 10 inches of the top.

-add your fluid over the pumice until the level rises 4 inches or so.

I know this seems a rather high proportion, but the goal is to obtain as much body/color extraction as possible. The above result is very, very, tannic but will age to something resembling a drinkable wine in a year or two.

vacuumpumpman · Aug 20, 2015

I personally like doing 2nd pressings - I do not press very hard or at all on the first run. I take the initial first run volume and divide by 2 and that is how much water I use to start the 2nd batch,and add sugar,and pectic enzyme . I will typically make this a little more sweeter as the wife enjoys it more - it is also a great topper for next years first run

jsiddall · Aug 21, 2015

Wait, won't the pomace from a ton of grapes be something like 500 lbs? I agree with @JohnT that you get the maximum possible benefit by just submerging the pomace with liquid. I would guess that perhaps 15 lb pomace per gallon would be the most you could realistically use. After that the excess pomace would sit above the liquid line and do no good at all. So to submerge 500 lb pomace might require 33 gallons of liquid!

Again, this is just my best guess as I have never tried to see how little liquid I could add to pomace. Maybe someone else has.

NorCal · Aug 24, 2015

Yea, I'll have a pumice problem; how to get rid of it! I had a 20g brute that I have reserved for a second pressing experiment. I want to limit my output to 5 gallons, with 1 gallon for racking. I suppose I could add 6.5 gallons of water to the 20 g brute, add the pumice until I get 2/3 full or so. My preference would be to have an earlier drinker; I'm going to add some juice from a friends table grapes they have growing in their yard. I'll probably back sweeten just a tad, because I know that's what they like.