Wine from Just plain grapes?

[mennyg19]

There are no seeds or skins in my sample but the problem persists

 

[Rhetoric]

Thanks! That helps a great deal. It's often the practical details that confound me when reading instructions -- I just started winemaking a few weeks ago, and it's going well, but many nagging questions. Two of the musts I've got going, one strawberry-kiwi, one blueberry, are too pulpy for fingers to work, I think. But a piece of cheesecloth with a rubber band might do the trick. Do you put the liquid back into the fermenting container after you've taken the reading?

 

[Scooter68]

How about a big stainless steel strainer - push it down the dip a cup inside the strainer area to get the juice? Might have to bend the handle on the strainer to get it in the bucket but...

Cheese cloth is going to be hard to work and will clog up quickly. Found a set of three I use on amazon for $15.00 or less.

 

[Johnd]

Thanks, JohnT, but that begs the question of how to strain a sample. Do you use a big ladle, a funnel, and cheesecloth? (My thought.) A lot of work. How do you sterilize everything? Do you return the liquid to the fermenting container? Do you return the stained pulp to the fermenting container? It seems like it would be quite difficult to extract. I've got about 8 - 10 inches of pulp to go through to get to liquid.

Push a strainer down into the must, it will fill with liquid, scoop out with a cup and pour it into a vessel, take your SG reading. Dump it all back in, assuming you sanitized everything properly.

 

[Kraffty]

Couple of thoughts to offer. You can build your own press pretty inexpensively, mine is made from a couple of 4x4's and the screw for a woodworkers bench vise and a drilled plastic bucket. Works great for the small amount of grapes I process. Secondly taking you SG from thick must. I've mixed half water and half juice when it's too thick, taken the reading (which is now half) and then doubled it to get a more accurate reading. I've never seen this discussed here but It's worked for me in the past. I also pour the samples back into the bucket. Best of Luck, sounds like you're on track.
Mike

 

[mennyg19]

So, I just checked both musts again...
Both had all the skins on the top so I pushed them down, and... FERMENTATION!!
I didn't try to take an SG reading, will try again tomorrow, but its exciting, especially for my natural one. Natural must smells a little different than the regular one. Maybe it did go bad, but I'll wait until the end and see. I ordered another 45 pounds of Petit Syrah as my regular must is a bit small. I want to fill up my 30 liter bucket and only have 15 liters in there.
I also am trying to order 220 pounds of Cabernet Sauvignon from a very famous winery around here for when these finish in the primary...

 

[Scooter68]

"So, I just checked both musts again...
Both had all the skins on the top so I pushed them down, and... FERMENTATION!!"

Way to go!!!! Success! Let the waiting begin.....


OR AS THE OLD VULTURES SAID:

 

[Rhetoric]

Thanks, John T and Scooter 68. Pushing a strainer down in there and scooping up the liquid with a ladle will work with the fermenters I'm using, an 8 Liter glass jar commonly used here in Japan for making plum wine infusions.

 

[mennyg19]

So i tried getting another reading today and it worked. Same situation like yesterday so I guess the must thinned out a bit. Anyway, the SG dropped beautifully.
Starting SG was 1.092 for the natural and 1.094 for the additive one.
Now its at 1.077 for the natural and 1.074 for the additive...

 

[mennyg19]

The SG on my regular batch is flying down. Its all the way diwn to 1.062, that means in a day it dropped .020, is that normal?
My natural must stayed basically the same at about 1.076

 

[Scooter68]

What's the temp of the must and/or the room? Higher temps will push the speed of the ferment but with darker wines that's OK.
Had a blueberry batch go from start to finish in 5 days with an ABV of 13% Temp was in the lower to mid 70s.

 

[mennyg19]

Its in the mid 70s. Temp of the must is 26C

 

[Johnd]

The SG on my regular batch is flying down. Its all the way diwn to 1.062, that means in a day it dropped .020, is that normal?
My natural must stayed basically the same at about 1.076

It is. I've had them drop .04 in a day.

 

[mennyg19]

So I just got my new order of another 45 pounds of grapes. My regular must was a bit small and I wanted more, so ordered more. I am getting another bucket. Will destem, crush, add k-meta and 24 hours later, add that to my already fermenting must. Does that sound good?

 

[mennyg19]

Regular must: SG 1.038
Natural Must: SG 1.055

 

[mennyg19]

Regular Must: 1.026
Natural Must: 1.039

I took the skins out of the natural must. I wanted them in there for a week and I crushed that must last Thursday. I basically used my hands to press. Took a strainer and took out all the skins. Then I took handfuls of skins and squeezed as hard as I can until no juice came out when I squeezed. The skins were pretty dry when I finished with them.
I plan on keeping the two must exactly the same besides for the fact that one will have additives and the other wont. So since I crushed the additive must this past Sunday, I plan on taking out the skins on Sunday, one week later.

I also plan on crushing my new grapes later today. Got some kids to help me out.
Any comments, suggestions, advice or constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Thanks y'all!!

 

[stickman]

I understand that you are using time as the gauge, but the natural must is fermenting slower as expected. The additive must will be nearly complete with the sugar fermentation by the time you remove the skins, which means it will have a higher tannin content than the natural wine, due to the ability of alcohol to aid in tannin extraction. There is no real right or wrong here, it will still be a revealing experiment, but just wanted you to understand the difference with skin removal timing.

 

[NorCal]

How do each of them smell? Any signs of h2s?

 

[mennyg19]

I understand that you are using time as the gauge, but the natural must is fermenting slower as expected. The additive must will be nearly complete with the sugar fermentation by the time you remove the skins, which means it will have a higher tannin content than the natural wine, due to the ability of alcohol to aid in tannin extraction. There is no real right or wrong here, it will still be a revealing experiment, but just wanted you to understand the difference with skin removal timing.

So you thinkI should press already the additive must?

 

[mennyg19]

How do each of them smell? Any signs of h2s?

So im not sure how to tell for H2S. I googled and it said a rotten egg smell.
So to be honest, when the skins were still in there, the natural one smelled interesting. The closest thing my memory came up with, is that it smelled like this:

Anyway, after I took out the skins, it doesnt smell like that anymore. It smells way cleaner and closer to wine. Yeasty, alcohol smell.

The regular one smells much better (still on the skins)