Do I want to break up my cap during primary only once per day? Or multiple times?

[abefroman]

Do I want to break up my cap during primary only once per day? Or multiple times?

The kit instructions say once, however I've read up to 3-4 times per day other places.

 

[xanxer82]

Punch it down as much as you feel you need to. I've aqlways done it twice a day.. more depending on how dry it gets.

 

[RedNeckWino]

Ditto.....what he said

 

[Wade E]

Just make sure you sanitize anything touching your wine each time and feel free to do it a few times a day.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Yup - agree with all the above .

 

[JohnT]

I agree as well.

You need to decide exactly what you are tring to acchieve. Frequent punchdowns can give the wine more body and color. Frequent punchdowns can also give wine TOO MUCH body and color.

Puch downs provide more O2 during fermentation, which I beleive can help to prevent a "stuck" fermentation

Punch downs can also aide in allowing any pesky hydorgen sulfide gas to escape.

In short, Let your situation and wine you are making decide how often to punch down.

 

[surlees]

I like to punch down every couple of hours during the day. Since I'm now retired, I'm home during the day and have time to do this. I think it helps to keep the grapes hydrated and contributes to body and color which in my case is not a problem because I like big reds. On YouTube there's a video showing a winery (I think it's CrushPad) that uses a plate the size of the fermentation tank to keep their grapes submerged throughout the entire fermentation.

Fred

 

[JohnT]

I like to punch down every couple of hours during the day. Since I'm now retired, I'm home during the day and have time to do this. I think it helps to keep the grapes hydrated and contributes to body and color which in my case is not a problem because I like big reds. On YouTube there's a video showing a winery (I think it's CrushPad) that uses a plate the size of the fermentation tank to keep their grapes submerged throughout the entire fermentation.

Fred

hmmmmmm... interesting. 100% skin exposure (keep your mind out of the gutter, please)

I wonder if the wine isn't too horribly tanic.

Do you know specifics? Variatal? Length of maceration?
Have you taseted it?

 

[surlees]

Go here:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY5Ne8WDERY&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY5Ne8WDERY&feature=related[/ame]

And here:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n94uiigUqLc&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n94uiigUqLc&feature=related[/ame]

Fred

 

[Sirs]

I used keep the skins on my grapes till almost completely fermented, now I take my skins off the whites after a day or so found out it takes forever to clear if I don't LOL