Skin Packs

I'm curious if anyone has ever reused the skin pack into a similar wine without one? I.E. would it hurt to remove it from an eclipse pack and put into a world vineyard kit at the right time of course? Would seem that it couldn't hurt a cab to cab or a zin to zin.

Thanks for the info.

I haven't ever reused one, but I see no reason why you couldn't, as you say with similar wine and same yeast. I just doubt it would do much good, most everything gets used up if you've done a good job with the pack during fermentation. Be much better off to spend 20 bucks on a new one........just my opinion.

Ain't much left after the first use. Don't think it would be bad, though.

toneill said:

I'm curious if anyone has ever reused the skin pack into a similar wine without one? I.E. would it hurt to remove it from an eclipse pack and put into a world vineyard kit at the right time of course? Would seem that it couldn't hurt a cab to cab or a zin to zin.

Thanks for the info.

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I have used leftover grape packs with the gross lees of the previous batch with VERY good results. I add a new, low end kit, to the gross lees and spent grape pack from the previous batch. I am VERY pleased with the result. I tend to do it with Italian style kits, such as Chianti following Barolo, or low end Amarone following a high end Amarone. They have turned out outstanding. I wouldn't do it with a higher end kit as a second kit. But for a low end kit, it makes it a great wine.

Thanks Roger, my thoughts exactly. When I pull them from high end kits, they still seem to have plenty of juice/pulp in them that couldn't hurt a low end kit.

I have an experiment like that going now with an Eclipse Merlot and a VR. Used the skins from the Eclipse in the VR but I didn't think about reusing the gross lees. It's too soon yet to know how it will turn out. I have an Eclipse cab sav and a VR cab sav that I haven't started yet. I'll try try repurposing the gross lees as well on the VR.

Dhaynes said:

I have an experiment like that going now with an Eclipse Merlot and a VR. Used the skins from the Eclipse in the VR but I didn't think about reusing the gross lees. It's too soon yet to know how it will turn out. I have an Eclipse cab sav and a VR cab sav that I haven't started yet. I'll try try repurposing the gross lees as well on the VR.

Click to expand...

One thing I didn't mention is that I have also added the new yeast and added some nutrient to the batch. I usually have fermentation within 90 minutes and it goes pretty fast. Also, I don't squeeze the bag for the second run.

As follow up to this thread, I tried this 6 months ago, used the skin pack from an Eclipse Lodi Cab, added it to the World Vineyard French Cabernet. Bottled it about 60 days ago after 3 months aging. I was very impressed with how it improved the low end wine. I generally don't make much of the low end kits, but in this case it greatly helped. It was the 2nd French Cab kit I had made so I have 2 kits of the same to compare back to back. Will do it again with my next High to low kits.

I save the pressed skins all the time. I pressed my Cab grapes over a week ago, froze the skins & used them yesterday to enhance a Elderberry made from Home Winery concentrate. Have done this before & it really helps with flavor & body. Roy