Add Juice Bucket to pressed skins?

[jsbeckton]

Co-inoculated some merlot grapes about a week ago and will likely be ready to press this weekend. In another thread it was mentioned that sometimes people save the skins and add to a wine kit.

Has anyone here instead added a new juice bucket to the presses skins? I would keep both batches separate rather than mix. Was also wondering if the MLB in the skins would kickoff MLF in the new batch or if I would need to add more?

 

[sdelli]

Yes
I have de-stemmed and crushed some Cab then pulled some of the must before fermentation and added it to my Zin juice and the to my Sangiovese juice. Added good body.
I have also pulled some fermented must before press then bag it and freeze it for the use in a kit or juice. Also worked fine. Never used the pressed skins though,.. They loose too much in the press.

 

[jsbeckton]

Well I am going to give it a try. Picked up a bucket of Merlot (same as current all grape batch).

I plan to add the presses skins to the juice bucket and then keep both batches separate. Should be interesting to see how they compare in a few years.

 

[jsbeckton]

Pressed today and then immediately reconstituted the pomace with a juice bucket. I pitched new yeast but was prob unnecessary as fermentation was going almost immediately.

 

[jsbeckton]

Wow, fermented to 0 Brix in about 30hrs. Was worried so little time on the skins would not have made a bit impact but was pleasantly surprised. This is already significantly more complex than the straight juice bucket that I made last year!

 

[sdelli]

Wow
In all my years I have never performed a fermentation in 2 1/2 days. Not much skin contact and must have been real hot.

 

[jsbeckton]

Actually I monitored the temp and it was only 75ish. I’m thinking that the freshly pressed skins were already saturated with yeast but I pitched new yeast anyways so it didn’t take long to do. There was zero lag time.

Oh well, like I said I am happy with the results so far but only time will tell.

 

[sdelli]

2 1/2 day fermentation is crazy fast!

 

[sdelli]

Sorry... I mis-read this post.
30 hours is 1 1/2 days!
I am going to go out on a limb and say it is impossible to take approx 20 brix to 0 in a day and half. More to your story then showing... Probably almost done before you started.

 

[jsbeckton]

There is a little bit more. When I measured OG of bucket it was 19Brix which I thought was low and I called the vendor. They said all buckets start at a standard 21.5Brix so it must have started. I wanted 22.5Brix OG so added 9oz of table sugar and pitched new yeast. So on late on Friday afternoon it was reading 20Brix and by Sunday morning it was 0Brix.

I have a finishing (narrow range) hydrometer so it’s very easy to read. I couldn’t believe it myself but it dropped about 20Brix in under 48hrs!

I expected it to take at least 4 days and only checked the gravity on Sunday on a whim to see how it was doing.