djrockinsteve
Senior Member
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- Jan 2, 2010
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I rather let my fruit roam free in my primary as opposed to a mesh bag. The only problem is when it comes time to transfer there is so much pulp inter-mixed with the wine it's difficult to separate the two.
Here's what I wound up doing with my muscadines and it worked really slick.
Buy a mesh bag for steeping grains at your wine/beer supply store. They are only a few cents each. Then after you have poured/siphoned off what wine you can from your primary spread the mesh sock over the top of the primary bucket.
Then snap on a lid but leave 1 snap undone. Then invert the bucket and place it ontop of another bucket. The mesh sock will hold much of the sediment and with the lid unsnapped on one, it will allow the wine to work it's way out and drip into the 2nd bucket.
After 15 minutes you can siphon or pour off what wine has dripprd into the bucket, replace and allow it to continue. Repeat pouring off as needed.
After several hours you should have the majority if not all the wine separated from the pulp. I was concerned about getting the gross lees with the wine but that has seemed to remain behind stuck in the pulp and misc. grape skins.
If you like you can then take the remaining sediment and place all of that into a gallon carboy and place it in the refrigerator with an airlock on it. After 2 days you may see additional wine on top of the sediment/pulp. Simply siphon off.
Here's what I wound up doing with my muscadines and it worked really slick.
Buy a mesh bag for steeping grains at your wine/beer supply store. They are only a few cents each. Then after you have poured/siphoned off what wine you can from your primary spread the mesh sock over the top of the primary bucket.
Then snap on a lid but leave 1 snap undone. Then invert the bucket and place it ontop of another bucket. The mesh sock will hold much of the sediment and with the lid unsnapped on one, it will allow the wine to work it's way out and drip into the 2nd bucket.
After 15 minutes you can siphon or pour off what wine has dripprd into the bucket, replace and allow it to continue. Repeat pouring off as needed.
After several hours you should have the majority if not all the wine separated from the pulp. I was concerned about getting the gross lees with the wine but that has seemed to remain behind stuck in the pulp and misc. grape skins.
If you like you can then take the remaining sediment and place all of that into a gallon carboy and place it in the refrigerator with an airlock on it. After 2 days you may see additional wine on top of the sediment/pulp. Simply siphon off.