Lot of solids

[Charlietuna]

Hey guys. This is my first batch of wine from grapes that I'm leaving skins in the primary. About 400 lb of chamborcin. I've made a lot of wine, but nothing like this.
Is this normal to have this much solid material in the primary?
I'm ready to add some sulfite & yeast. Does it look right?

Thanks. Brian.

 

[Charlietuna]

Another question.
How much stem is ok to leave in the primary? Most of it came out, but a lot of little pieces fell thru. You may be able to see from the above pic.

 

[ceeaton]

I think you are good to go. Other than the color of your trash can, my batch looks the same. I tend to pick out the larger stems, but I believe there are some tannins in the stems that will end up in the finished wine. I haven't made that varietal yet, so not sure if you should be limiting tannins or not. If I add any sulfite I usually do it right after crush, about 12 to 24 hours before adding the yeast. If you decide to add pectic enzyme of some sort (I usually add Lallzyme EX) to get some extra color out of those skins, you want to hold off adding the yeast for another 24 hours (and any additional tannins as well, such as Tannin FT Rouge, as they will bind with the enzyme and precipitate out). Hope your are having as much fun as I am with your batch of grapes.

Edit: Now that I think of it, do you have a way to test the pH and maybe the TA (titratable acid) in the wine? Always nice to know these things as too high or two low of a pH might be easier to address now verses later down the road. They can be addressed after fermentation, but sometimes the options to change those values are more limited. Just a thought.

 

[Charlietuna]

Hey ceeaton. Thanks!!! I greatly appreciate the info.
Here's my numbers. :
Chambourcin; Brix-24; pH-3.48; % Tartaric Acid-0.72%

 

[GreginND]

The numbers look great. Don't worry about the solids. As it ferments, the grapes will break down some. Just keep punching it down. Looks completely normal. Also, don't worry about the little bit of stems left. They won't hurt anything. Looks like you have a great start with a lot of potential for a great wine!

 

[Charlietuna]

Added pectic enzyme & sulfate. Will yeast tomorrow. Keeping the AC on in the winery. 68° now. I'll set the temp up tomorrow.

 

[Boatboy24]

You're looking good and I like the numbers. You'll notice changes over the next few days - a lot more liquid, darker color, and greater separation between solids and liquid.

 

[Luse_Cellar]

In general, the more solid in the must the more intense the wine will be. I used to work at a winery who had a custom crush client that was obsessed with making huge wines. After crushing, he would have us pump all of the liquid out of the must and just leave skins and some whole berries behind. The cap would end up being thicker than the liquid at the bottom. These were some very intense, small production wines which I haven't actually tried as a finished wine but I imagine to be very big. He also used heavy toast American barrels which smelled of a campfire and looked like charcoal on the inside. It's a stylistic thing to have more skin or less in the fermenter. Rose is generally made because people pump juice out of a red must a couple days after crush and rather than dumping hundreds of gallons of juice, they ferment it and sell it. This is done to increase the skin to juice ratio. At any rate, that looks like a great ratio and I would suspect this will make some good wine!

 

[Charlietuna]

Thanks guys. I greatly appreciate all the info.