Cellar Craft dare not to squeeze

[ejiang]

This is my 4th day of primary. As others said, the grape bag is floating on top. Everyday when I get home, I stire the must and use the spoon to push the bag here and there to get more liquid out of it and hoping at the same time, to release some co2, so the bag will not float as high.

I read from the forum that I am supposed to squeeze it daily, which I didn't. I looked at my hand, thinking sanitize it would not be a possible job. The nail part may hide some stuff. How am I suppose to sanitize them properlly?

What do you guys do? just dip your hands on the K-Meta solution for xx minutes and then go ahead?

I also wear a face mask to prevent the breath from contaminating the must.

Am I over done?

 

[robie]

The face mask might be over doing it a little. Remember, we are sanitizing, not sterilizing. We are trying to cut down on the critters we allow into the wine. The alcohol takes care of most of them.

I have a spray bottle of StarSan (a contact sanitizer) and one of Kmeta (primarily a fumes sanitizer). I just spray my hands with the StarSan, rub them against each other; then rinse them in plain, clean water. If you don't use StarSan, you can do pretty much the same thing with a Kmeta solution.

 

[bob1]

thats just part of it push it down 2 x a day getting it rinsed well with fresh wine to keep mold from growing. I do squeeze mine with fresh cleaned hands when it comes time to pull it. I have heard of winemakers rinsing their hands in alcohol to take care of nails and other cracks in your hands.

yep lose the face mask.

 

[Boatboy24]

I stir 1-3 times daily and when I do, I gently press the bag against the side of the fermenter with the spoon. When it comes time to rack out of primary, I give my hands a quick spritz with kMeta and give the bag a good squeeze. Like others have said, you can do without the mask.

 

[dralarms]

Rubber gloves.

 

[cpfan]

I stir 1-3 times daily and when I do, I gently press the bag against the side of the fermenter with the spoon. When it comes time to rack out of primary, I give my hands a quick spritz with kMeta and give the bag a good squeeze. Like others have said, you can do without the mask.

When stirring, I squeeze with the spoon. I sanitize a strainer, and scoop the bag out of the wine, then allow to drain while pressing the bag with a sanitized spoon.

Of course I cheat a little bit. I have a large stainless steel gizmo that will sit across the top of the primary.

Steve

 

[Rocky]

Hey Guys and Gals, I just racked my Zinfandel Royal to secondary today and I had two different processes. One fermenter had the bag of grape skins in it so it was just a matter of giving it a good squeeze. The other (because I ran out of bags) had the skns in loose. I love raiding my wife's kitchen for tools! I got her SS steamer pot which has two inserts, a deep on and a shallow one. I scooped out the skins with a large strainer and dumped them in to the shallow insert and then pressed them by hand. I really got a lot of juice out of them, not as much as a press but more than squeezing the bag. Just wanted to pass along my "field expediency" to you all.