Crushing / Solids to Juice ratio

[SteveLT]

Hi everyone,
I’ve been making wine from juice for years. This year, I decided to make the move to grapes. I ordered 6 lugs (3 Barbara, 3 Merlot) from the local homebrew store, which offers use of its destemmer-crusher for free. I took them up on this (they even operate it for you). I have two concerns:

1. While the destemmer removed some stems, the buckets of crushed grapes still contain a considerable number of smaller stems and leaves. Should I be concerned about this? Is it better to destem and crush manually?

2. The solids to juice ratio seems really weighted toward the solids. I’m using 6.5 gallon buckets for primary fermentation. There are four of them and they’re all about 75% full. In the online videos I’ve seen, the cap seem to float on the juice post crush. In my case, the skins go from top to bottom in the bucket, making it pretty difficult to stir, at least compared to some of the videos I’ve seen online. Should I manually crush them a bit more? Because of the leaves and stems, I’m afraid additional crushing will make the wine too tannic.


I could very well be over thinking all of this…
Thanks in advance for any advice!

Steve

 

[ibglowin]

Have you added any yeast? You don't get a cap on top until fermentation starts so you would have crushed grapes from top to bottom until then. You need a punchdown tool of sorts, better find one and have one handy. Just pull the little bits of leaves and stems and toss them as you come upon them in your punch downs, this is completely normal.

 

[SteveLT]

Okay. Makes sense. I did add the yeast, but just a few hours ago. Hasn't been enough time for fermentation to start yet.

As for a punchdown tool, I ordered a 32" long steel potato masher. Arrives tomorrow. Seemed like a better option than the long plastic spoon I've been using for the juice buckets. Thanks for the suggestion.

And I'll pick the leaves and stems out as I see them.

Thanks so much!

 

[Boatboy24]

As for a punchdown tool, I ordered a 32" long steel potato masher. Arrives tomorrow. Seemed like a better option than the long plastic spoon I've been using for the juice buckets.

Good call. For my first all-grape wine, I did punchdowns with that white plastic spoon. They took FOREVER. So much easier with the proper tool.

I've found there's a higher % of solids in the must at the beginning stages. As the yeast and enzymes go to work, more liquid miraculously shows up. Still a lot of solids, but in the end, I think I usually end up with 60-70% of the total volume in wine.

 

[cmason1957]

I just pressed the 450 or so lbs of Chambourcin I picked up last weekend. We ended up with about 35 gallons of wine. If you say a gallon weighs 8 lbs, then from that 450 I had 280 lbs of juice and about 170 lbs of solid.

 

[SteveLT]

Good call. For my first all-grape wine, I did punchdowns with that white plastic spoon. They took FOREVER. So much easier with the proper tool.

I've found there's a higher % of solids in the must at the beginning stages. As the yeast and enzymes go to work, more liquid miraculously shows up. Still a lot of solids, but in the end, I think I usually end up with 60-70% of the total volume in wine.

I hear you. After a few minutes of dragging the white plastic spoon through the must, I realized it was probably time for an upgrade.

And you're all right on the money regarding the solids to liquids ratio. I woke up this morning to what seems like the beginnings of a strong fermentation, and there is already more juice in the buckets compared to yesterday. Thanks again for the reassurance!

 

[SteveLT]

I just pressed the 450 or so lbs of Chambourcin I picked up last weekend. We ended up with about 35 gallons of wine. If you say a gallon weighs 8 lbs, then from that 450 I had 280 lbs of juice and about 170 lbs of solid.

Great to know. 35 gallons of wine is exactly the batch size I want to work my way up to, as I've done this before from juice. I thought it best to start a bit smaller this year since this is my first time from fresh grapes. So far, so good. Keeping my fingers crossed!