I'm rethinking the virtues of the AllGrape Pack - this Merlot kit was unlike any I have done, and even more difficult than fresh grapes. It was *very* difficult to rack from the primary through the tap and hose because the shredded grape mixture (along with quite a few stems and seeds) that is the AllGrape Pack, kept plugging it up! Almost from the start, with a very full primary bucket, I had to stick my hand down in it to unplug the tap from the inside. A cheesecloth/muslin bag would have been very helpful with this kit/addition; the Red Mt. cabernet kits kept coming to mind as I struggled/cursed for over an hour with this batch. Unless you have a small-ish grape press handy to press out the must, this AllGrape Pack idea needs some fine-tunin'.
After manually unplugging the tap 5-6 times while trying to hold the fermenter up higher to increase the pull of gravity through the hose, I had the carboy about half full, but the primary still looked almost 3/4 full! Feeling in the bucket, there was a lot of pulp, seeds and skins floating around, so I decided to scoop that out but my hands were not effective at grabbing the pulp. So I dug out a sieve from the kitchen (like this one:
and started scooping. Each time I filled the sieve, it took a minute or so to drain the juice out, and then I would press it a little by hand and squeeze out a bunch more juice. Did that about 12 times, each time getting a little less pulp, but it filled my wife's biggest mixing bowl, probably about 1 gallon of semi-pressed pulp, seeds and stems. But that was when I stopped scooping it out, and started racking the last half or so of the primary to the carboy. The tap plugged a couple more times, but as I got close to the bottom of the carboy (last 15% or so), it was basically very soggy, soup-y pulp. So then I stacked the sieve and two funnels (first, wide-mouth to catch the juice from the sieve and second standard size) and poured it from the primary into the sieve and then into the carboy. (I needed at least two more hands - and another one hand to take photos, so I'm afraid I have no 'proof' of this adventure.)
After filling the carboy, which was relatively easy because the bucket was now much lighter, I still had about 2 inches of juice and pulp and sediment (no bentonite used this time so it's all good must) at the bottom and thought I would need a 1.5 liter bottle for overflow/topping-up. Got the bottle ready, and started to pour through the sieve and funnels - but only got about 500 mL before the sieve was totally backed up and draining very slowly. Swapped out the 1.5 L bottle with a big salad dressing bottle that fits a bung and airlock and filled that, with about a glass of murky Merlot left over. The primary bucket had another gallon of pulp seeds and stems when I washed it out in the yard, at least I didn't waste that pulp as it will make good fertilizer/mulch. My wife and I drank the glass (tasty, with *lots* of structure
) and I cleaned up this mess of equipment and myself, and was exhausted.
Next time - AllGrape Pack goes in a cheesecloth/muslin bag and this would have been MUCH easier. But that's what keeps it interesting and makes you want to do it all over again, right?
Here's hoping it adds the structure, mouthfeel and tannins that are expected.
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