Adding weight to mesh bag question

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BigDaveK

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Apparently wine making, like so many of my other endeavors, has evolved into a science fair project.
Wow, those mesh bags float to the top fast! Seems to me all those bubbles would "insulate" the fruit a little. Yeah, I know the bags get mooshed at least once a day but I was wondering if there would be a benefit to keeping it submerged all the time. I have glass weights, sauer stones, that I use for my vegetable ferments that are a little over 6 ounces each. Does anyone have any experience with keeping the bag submerged?
I realize that in the start to finish wine making timeline that primary fermentation is a blink of the eye, but I was just wondering...
 
I haven’t done a mesh bag like you are suggesting. What I do is have a hard to crush fruit like gooseberry floating to the surface. My mixing is as much trying to squash/ extract flavor out of the berry as wetting surfaces to prevent mold growth.
If you are using a chopped pulp like hibiscus or ginger adding weight should work. If you have residual unpopped berry skins I would keep doing it the old way.
 
I haven’t done a mesh bag like you are suggesting. What I do is have a hard to crush fruit like gooseberry floating to the surface. My mixing is as much trying to squash/ extract flavor out of the berry as wetting surfaces to prevent mold growth.
If you are using a chopped pulp like hibiscus or ginger adding weight should work. If you have residual unpopped berry skins I would keep doing it the old way.
Thanks!
New at this so I'm still playing to find what I like. I've done batches with and without the bag and am still undecided but leaning towards with.
I'll probably do one with the weights to see if there's an obvious benefit. If there is, cool. If there isn't, that's cool too.
 
Yes, I've added glass weights to my mesh bags. Helps keep them submerged. I found I had to shorten the bag by knotting closer to the bottom to keep the fruit submerged. Now I just dump chopped fruit, grape skins, whatever in the bucket and separate at first transfer.
 

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