Wine pressing

[ktmdatman]

Hello all!

New to the wine making thing. I am meeting the grape grower this week to pick my grapes (Riesling) and all he has available is a press. From what I have read I think this will be ok.

My question is this. I plan to ferment in a carboy, but for picking up the juice after pressing I was planning on a standard food grade bucket. I was planning on letting it settle over night (possibly in the fridge) before putting into the carboy. When should I add the sulfite? At the time of the pressing or when I get home?

Thanks! -Pete

 

[Rocky]

Hi Ktmdatman, welcome to the forum.

I have not heard of pressing the grapes without crushing them first, but I suppose it could work if you apply enough pressure. Adding the sulfite is to kill the wild yeast so I would add it as soom as possible. The food grade container is fine. Not sure why you plan to ferment in a carboy but make sure to leave enough head space or you could lose a lot of wine. Why not ferment in the bucket until the SG is around 1.020 and then move to a carboy?

 

[Runningwolf]

Pete, first off welcome to the forum. I'm glad to here you're going to let it settle at least a day and then racking off that settlement. If possible I personally prefer to rack into another pail and let the primary fermentation happen there then rack to a carboy when your sg is down to about 1.01 and put it under an airlock. Pails are far easier to clean then a carboy and you have less of a chance of it fermenting over the sides if you leave enough head space.

 

[Deezil]

Hello all!

New to the wine making thing. I am meeting the grape grower this week to pick my grapes (Riesling) and all he has available is a press. From what I have read I think this will be ok.

My question is this. I plan to ferment in a carboy, but for picking up the juice after pressing I was planning on a standard food grade bucket. I was planning on letting it settle over night (possibly in the fridge) before putting into the carboy. When should I add the sulfite? At the time of the pressing or when I get home?

Thanks! -Pete

That's called "whole cluster pressing", and is done sometimes with white wines when a little extraction of tannins from the stems isnt a bad thing.. But the stems also provide pathways for the juice to seep out instead of the grapes turning into one big glob

Sulfite upon pressing, or shortly after to stave off oxidation

Add pectic enzymes 10-12 hours after you add the k-meta, but before you "call it a night" so that in the morning, it will be settled.. Then you can rack to carboy & ferment

 

[ktmdatman]

Thank you all! I'll be taking your advice and adding the sulfite upon pressing. I understand I would rather crush and press, but it's not working out that way. Since this is my first shot at wine making I'm not going to worry about that particular issue. Next time I'll make sure I have a crusher available.

I'm sure I'll be searching the forums for additional info.. I'm excited to get started and we'll see how the process goes.

Thanks again! -Pete

 

[robie]

As mentioned already, that settling overnight is very important for this type of wine.
Pressing with the stems still attached is not too bad if you don't over-press. If you press too hard, the wine will become more tannic and bitter.
AS you add pressure, taste the juice. When it starts tasting too biter, don't press anymore.