Finer Wine Kit Skins pack and seed content

[Huba Huba]

Just finished primary fermentation of FWK Zinfandel. When I started I noticed there were quite a few seeds and stems in the skins pack. I put the skins in the bag with a glass fermentation weight to help keep them submerged. Today when I opened the bags to recover the weights I noticed that there were a lot of seeds. I would estimate well over 1 cup of seeds, this seems to make the small seed pack that was included redundant.
I did a short EM, racking 4 weeks after pitching the yeast. At this point it is pretty harsh, SG went from 1.110 to 0.996 so ABV is about 14.8% and it’s very tannic. I assume it will improve with age, and the high ABV may support the tannin, but it may take a while. Initial pH was 3.5 but I did not test at racking, from what I read increasing pH later (after aging, if needed) might help.
Last year I did a FWK Super Tuscan that tasted much better immediately after fermentation and I don’t remember all the seeds and stems in the skins pack.

Is it normal to have that many seeds (and stems) in the skins pack? If so, why include a seeds pack?

 

[Gilmango]

Just finished primary fermentation of FWK Zinfandel. When I started I noticed there were quite a few seeds and stems in the skins pack. I put the skins in the bag with a glass fermentation weight to help keep them submerged. Today when I opened the bags to recover the weights I noticed that there were a lot of seeds. I would estimate well over 1 cup of seeds, this seems to make the small seed pack that was included redundant.
I did a short EM, racking 4 weeks after pitching the yeast. At this point it is pretty harsh, SG went from 1.110 to 0.996 so ABV is about 14.8% and it’s very tannic. I assume it will improve with age, and the high ABV may support the tannin, but it may take a while. Initial pH was 3.5 but I did not test at racking, from what I read increasing pH later (after aging, if needed) might help.
Last year I did a FWK Super Tuscan that tasted much better immediately after fermentation and I don’t remember all the seeds and stems in the skins pack.

Is it normal to have that many seeds (and stems) in the skins pack? If so, why include a seeds pack?

Seed-wise, Matteo Lahm, the founder of FWK, said in a video that he realized that there was not the right ratio of seeds to skins in the skin packs. Basically, that some of the seeds were tossed along with almost all of the stems when the skins were gathered. He admitted to actually counting all the seeds vs. skins in a skin pack and comparing that to the number of seeds which should be there (the average wine grape has about two seeds). So the seed pack was designed to restore the balance, to have the exact number of seeds for the given number of grape skins in a skin pack.

Stem-wise, I think a few stems in the skins pack is normal and not a terrible thing, but I do remove the bigger ones I see when putting the skins in the muslin sack. Some wine makers do whole cluster fermentations with some or all of their grapes, or otherwise let some of the stems in to add extra tannins. I know the old Ravenswood winemaker, Joel Peterson, would do that. Stems like seeds will add some tannins/body/mouthfeel.

EDITED to fix reference to "seed packs" in 2nd line, fixed to say "skin packs."

 

[Huba Huba]

Good to know! Thank you for responding

 

[jgmann67]

Now, tell me about your glass fermentation weight...

 

[Huba Huba]

they are used for lacto-fermenting vegetables, fit inside a wide mouth mason jar to hold the vegetables below the surface. A couple of them will keep the fruit bag mostly ( not entirely and less with more vigorous fermentations) submerged. I have used them a couple of times but I am questioning myself as to how much benefit there is.
They work great for their intended purpose.

 

[jgmann67]

they are used for lacto-fermenting vegetables, fit inside a wide mouth mason jar to hold the vegetables below the surface. A couple of them will keep the fruit bag mostly ( not entirely and less with more vigorous fermentations) submerged. I have used them a couple of times but I am questioning myself as to how much benefit there is.
They work great for their intended purpose.

The real benefit to me is not having to worry about whether I forgot to punch down the wine before bed.