Chileans, Finally!

[JohnT]

Cab was down to 1.002 this evening, pressed and racked and was pleasantly surprised at the smell, taste, and yield. I have a little over 8 gallons of wine from two 5 gallon buckets of must. Froze the pomace cake for an upcoming wine kit project.

BTW, used my new press for the first time and loved it! One press, dry cake, great yield and easy cleanup. Malbec will be ready tomorrow for sure.

Got any pictures?

 

[Johnd]

Got any pictures?

Didn't take any pics during the racking or pressing, guess I should have. Picture of a carboy and a half of wine is kinda mundane.......... I'll take some photos tonight when I do the Malbec.

I'm looking for some best practices to try out. Here's my struggle. Big fermenter full of must, do you "wine from grapes" folks siphon your wine out to a carboy and then put the skins in the press? How do you keep it from clogging if so?

Currently, I scoop skins with a stainless strainer into the press, get as much as I can, then pour the liquid through a bag into a second fermenter and add the skins to press. It's time consuming.

I was thinking of making a cylinder, open on top, out of stainless mesh. to push down into the must and insert my racking cane into, to transfer the bulk of liquid without too much gunk. Thoughts? Ideas?

 

[ibglowin]

I "Keep it Simple". I don't worry about strainer bags etc. I have a #30 press and make 10G batches each Fall. Come press time I use a 1G bucket and scoop out a gallon at a time and pour right into the press. No strainer bags or stainless mesh, just the wood slats. Let the free run pour right back out into the waiting bucket below. When the 10G bucket it light enough it gets picked up and into the press the rest of the must goes. Then I swap out the full 6G bucket with an empty and begin my press. I usually get 2-3 gallons of press that I keep separated. A few skins and seeds make it through but this is just step (1) in the process of clearing. Future rackings will get those few seeds or skins and all those lees that would have plugged up a strainer will be on the bottom of the carboy or jug in a few days. Press is just that, press to get those skins off that is job one. The rest happens "naturally" without need for any fancy stuff or extra work. I end up after settling and racking with a 6G Carboy and 1-2 G jugs for each Primary.

 

[Boatboy24]

I have a 2ft piece of 4 inch PVC with a cap on one end. I drilled 'a gazillion' small holes in it. I stick that into the must (sometimes with a paint strainer bag around it) and then put a racking cane into the open end of the pipe. With the AllInOne, I rack the juice and while that's going, I scoop the skins into the press using a mesh strainer.

 

[Johnd]

I "Keep it Simple". I don't worry about strainer bags etc. I have a #30 press and make 10G batches each Fall. Come press time I use a 1G bucket and scoop out a gallon at a time and pour right into the press. No strainer bags or stainless mesh, just the wood slats. Let the free run pour right back out into the waiting bucket below. When the 10G bucket it light enough it gets picked up and into the press the rest of the must goes. Then I swap out the full 6G bucket with an empty and begin my press. I usually get 2-3 gallons of press that I keep separated. A few skins and seeds make it through but this is just step (1) in the process of clearing. Future rackings will get those few seeds or skins and all those lees that would have plugged up a strainer will be on the bottom of the carboy or jug in a few days. Press is just that, press to get those skins off that is job one. The rest happens "naturally" without need for any fancy stuff or extra work. I end up after settling and racking with a 6G Carboy and 1-2 G jugs for each Primary.

That sounds like a good plan for me too. My press is a stainless basket with holes and I used a bag in it which worked really well. I considered doing it the way you suggest, but the bottom discharge tube from my press tray is too low to get a bucket under it. I thought about elevating the press for the initial pouring of must through, but backed off on it. Tonight, I'll go that route with the Malbec, elevate the press til I get all of the must through it and then put it back on the floor to press the skins.

Mike, I know some keep the free run and press juice separate, and currently I have a whole carboy of free run, and 3 gallons of a mixture of free and press juice. Please share with me your thoughts on keeping them separate. Do they eventually get mixed back together in subsequent rackings and topping up?

 

[JohnT]

I do the exact same thing as Boatboy (except my PVC tube is about 4 feet long). I first scoop out the "Cap" of skins using a ss strainer into the press, the pump the free run juice into my fermentor.

 

[Johnd]

I have a 2ft piece of 4 inch PVC with a cap on one end. I drilled 'a gazillion' small holes in it. I stick that into the must (sometimes with a paint strainer bag around it) and then put a racking cane into the open end of the pipe. With the AllInOne, I rack the juice and while that's going, I scoop the skins into the press using a mesh strainer.

Mike, I like that idea too, very similar to my idea about a stainless mesh cylinder. How does it do in terms of clogging up with particles from the must??

Thanks for the great ideas @johnt , @ibglowin , and @boatboy24, tonight will be a better night than last. I know I'd have ended up developing a good technique, but the learning curve just got shortened. I'll need to have a pretty good process in place by fall, plan to seriously hop up the grape wine making.

 

[ibglowin]

I end up using the press run to feed the angels share in my barrels usually.

My Press goes on a table so that it is high enough off the ground for the 6G bucket to go underneath.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=579804&postcount=250

 

[Boatboy24]

I do the exact same thing as Boatboy...

That's because I copied the idea from you.

 

[Johnd]

If you don't have pictures it didn't happen, so here's the Malbec pressing and racking. The setup in the kitchen, in the A/C.

 

[Johnd]

And my little helper moving the skins.

 

[Johnd]

.....and the must

 

[Johnd]

A beautiful little disk of pomace for a future project.

 

[Johnd]

And the must, between 8 and 9 gallons bubbling away. Pretty good taste, little sweet yet, but fruity with medium tannins, and still a bit sour. Fairly pleased so far.

 

[ibglowin]

Looks like you need a 3G Carboy ASAP!

And the must, between 8 and 9 gallons bubbling away. Pretty good taste, little sweet yet, but fruity with medium tannins, and still a bit sour. Fairly pleased so far.

 

[Johnd]

Looks like you need a 3G Carboy ASAP!

Still fermenting pretty steadily at the moment. Tomorrow I'll rack and top up a full carboy of Cab and one of Malbec, and rack the remainders down to smaller glass, maybe even blend them together, and kick off MLF.

 

[ColemanM]

I'd wait to blend the rest. You will need pure varietal to top off carboys eventually. Your call.

 

[Tnuscan]

The more I see that press, the more I like it. Might have to get one of those.

 

[Johnd]

The more I see that press, the more I like it. Might have to get one of those.

I like it a lot. First press I did with no straining bag was quicker, but more particulates, so it went through a fine strainer before the bucket. Last several I used the bag, a bit slower, but really clean discharge. It's quite powerful, heavy duty and I expect a long life from it. Setup and cleanup is quick and easy. I give it a good rating, but I've nothing to compare it to other than my little one gallon fruit press.

 

[Johnd]

All racked off the gross lees, little bit of AF still active, about to kick off MLF. 6 gallons of cab, 6 gallons of malbec, 3 gallons of 75/25 cab/malbec blend, two one gallon jugs of malbec. Pretty strong yield for four 5 gallon pails. Both are very fruity and very sour at this point, but seem to have potential down the road. Time will tell.