First time with real grapes 200 lbs of them....

[LeChat]

I recently came into possession of 216 lbs of fresh grapes, half of merlot and half of cabernet sauvignon.

All of these are from Uva di Collina grapes.

I am attempting to turn these into wine. Hopefully the wine will be tasty.

So far, I have hand destemmed and crushed the merlot. I am using two 23L pails to ferment on the skins. The skins are in several nylon bags. I am loosely following Jack Keller's Merlot recipe.

The must SG is around 1.090-1.096 and acidity has been titrated and found to be around 0.2% (is this normal for merlot?).

Now I have a few Qs:

- I ran out of acid mix (did not expect I needed this much), can I adjust the must after fermentation? I know that I will have to drive off CO2 before measuring.

- Would you recommend adding sugar to the must to get the wine into the 13-13.5% ABV range?

- Is it ok to hand crush the grapes (using my cleaned hands) in the nylon bags?

-After adding pectin enzyme 3 tsp per pail and KMETA 1/4 tsp per pail, the must turned a greenish brown color, is this ok?

-Everywhere I see, they are recommending to go through MLF. Can I do it after I run the wine through my oak barrel? I don't want to contaminate it since I run kits through it as well.

- Any suggestions for pressing? Again I was thinking of using my hands (which will be quite strong from all the crushing).

- Other considerations before I start on the cabernet sauvignon?

Sorry for all the Qs

 

[Boatboy24]

Now I have a few Qs:

- I ran out of acid mix (did not expect I needed this much), can I adjust the must after fermentation? I know that I will have to drive off CO2 before measuring.
I think it's preferred that adjustments are made prior to fermentation, but minor adjustments can be made after

- Would you recommend adding sugar to the must to get the wine into the 13-13.5% ABV range?

If you are at 1.096, you should be right around 13% when finished.

- Is it ok to hand crush the grapes (using my cleaned hands) in the nylon bags?
Yes. A potato masher helps, if you have one.

-After adding pectin enzyme 3 tsp per pail and KMETA 1/4 tsp per pail, the must turned a greenish brown color, is this ok?
I'll have to defer to someone else on this

-Everywhere I see, they are recommending to go through MLF. Can I do it after I run the wine through my oak barrel? I don't want to contaminate it since I run kits through it as well.
You need to keep sulfite levels up in the barrel. Doing so will make MLF difficult, if not impossible. If the budget allows, get a separate barrel for your kits. Do your MLF during secondary or immediately after fermentation is finished

- Any suggestions for pressing? Again I was thinking of using my hands (which will be quite strong from all the crushing).

I wouldn't want to press that much by hand. Look around the forums, there are some good suggestions for cheap, homemade presses - one simply using two plastic buckets.

- Other considerations before I start on the cabernet sauvignon?

Order more acid adjustment items. Do you have a pH meter?

 

[salcoco]

the green on the skins could be from the k-meta. just stir and it should go away.
I would release skins into the liquid, outside of bags, punch down twice daily to get maximum color extraction. your acid number seems very low. how did you measure? best get a ph meter.

 

[LeChat]

Thanks for the quick reply and useful info!

- Would you recommend adding sugar to the must to get the wine into the 13-13.5% ABV range?
If you are at 1.096, you should be right around 13% when finished.

When I use a beer ABV calculator and plug those numbers in, I get around 11.3% ABV with 1.096 SG. Is it because it ferments lower than 1.000?


-Everywhere I see, they are recommending to go through MLF. Can I do it after I run the wine through my oak barrel? I don't want to contaminate it since I run kits through it as well.
You need to keep sulfite levels up in the barrel. Doing so will make MLF difficult, if not impossible. If the budget allows, get a separate barrel for your kits. Do your MLF during secondary or immediately after fermentation is finished

Good point about the sulfites. My birthday is coming up this October, I may just get a second barrel!


- Any suggestions for pressing? Again I was thinking of using my hands (which will be quite strong from all the crushing).
I wouldn't want to press that much by hand. Look around the forums, there are some good suggestions for cheap, homemade presses - one simply using two plastic buckets.

Splendid! I can't believe I did not think of usng two pails, this should work!



- Other considerations before I start on the cabernet sauvignon?
Order more acid adjustment items. Do you have a pH meter?

I don't have a PH meter unfortunately, it is in the plans, but not this year I think.

 

[LeChat]

the green on the skins could be from the k-meta. just stir and it should go away.
I would release skins into the liquid, outside of bags, punch down twice daily to get maximum color extraction. your acid number seems very low. how did you measure? best get a ph meter.

I would release the skins if I had a good way of racking off the skins comes racking time.... Can I pour from bucket to carboy instead of racking? Will that expose the must to too much O2?

Any suggestions for something that won't plug my racking hose?

Maybe a circle made of screen mesh with weights?

 

[wood1954]

when the skins float to the top after 12 hours or so just scoop them into a paint strainer bag and then press them. i just did a hundred lbs that way and got a lot of juice. then strain the remaining must thru a bag and you will degas as well asclean it up.

 

[Boatboy24]

When I use a beer ABV calculator and plug those numbers in, I get around 11.3% ABV with 1.096 SG. Is it because it ferments lower than 1.000?
Most of my wines finish between .994 and .998, so I usually use 0.996 as an estimate for final ABV


Good point about the sulfites. My birthday is coming up this October, I may just get a second barrel!
Good thinking. That's what I did for my birthday back in May.

 

[LeChat]

your acid number seems very low. how did you measure? best get a ph meter.

I measured with an acidity titration kit. I would tend to believe the 0.2% reading that I got since the must was very sweet with no "zing" whatsoever.

 

[winemaker_3352]

I have seen where they take a piece of schedule 40 drain pipe and drill holes in it then put that in the wine and the racking goes inside that. It allow the juice to flow through it and keeping the skins out

 

[LeChat]

I ended up leaving the merlot in the bags and I made the carbernet leaving the skins free floating.

I pressed yesterday using Luc's bucket design and ended up with just shy of 6 gallon of merlot and 6 gallons of cabernet. Both wines taste insanely good coming out of primary fermentation. I can tell the cabernet will have very nice body while the merlot will be easier drinking. The Cab really has an awesome deep purple color.

I think the green color in my first post was related to the pectin enzyme, after 48 hours, the must had taken a more normal color.

One question about MLF and topping up, is it bad to top up a wine that has undergone MLF with a wine containing sorbate? I am assuming the answer is yes, therefore, what do I use to top it up?