Cellar Craft Keeping the muslin bag down

[FABulousWines]

I am on day 4 of the primary ferment of the CC Showcase Argentine Malbec.
Instructions state to stir at least once a day and make sure the crushed grapes are submerged for the first 10 days. Yesterday I had to push that darn bag down three times. This morning when I checked it before leaving for work it was blown up like a balloon and floating on top. I did manage to get some of the gas out, but no luck getting it to resubmerge.

How big a deal is this if I just leave it float? Should I take it out? Any tricks to keeping this thing on the bottom?

 

[Boatboy24]

What you are experiencing is exactly what should be happening. Leave it alone. But stir and punchdown at least once a day. I usually do two or three stirs/punchdowns a day to keep the bag somewhat submerged and extract those goodies from the skins.

 

[anthony]

Sanitize a heavy coffee mug and stick it in the bag. It will sink to the bottom....

 

[FABulousWines]

What you are experiencing is exactly what should be happening. Leave it alone. But stir and punchdown at least once a day. I usually do two or three stirs/punchdowns a day to keep the bag somewhat submerged and extract those goodies from the skins.

OK, but what is the point of punching it down when it immediately rises back to the top?

 

[rjb222]

The punching down serves two purposes. First the movement of the must through the bag with a gentle squeeze forces the goods in the bag through the muslin. Second this keeps the grapes or grape skins from going bad as you coat the bag and contents with fresh must and that contains SO2 sulphite this preserves the contents keeping them fresh. This also adds a bit of oxygen to the on going ferment that helps the yeast.

 

[Rocky]

FAB, I make a point of squeezing the bag at least twice per day during primary fermentation. The CO2 is trapped in the bag and causes it to float. Squeezing adds TDSs and more flavor IMHO. The bag never completely sinks to the bottom, but it does go under the surface. Be sure to sanitize your hands with K-meta sanitizing solution before handling the bag.

 

[FABulousWines]

Ok, that makes sense.

Rocky, I was thinking of giving that bag a good squeeze. I just mashed it up against the side of the bucket with the spoon this morning and it did release a bit of fizz, but not enough to let it sink, even a little.

I'll keep working with it. I appreciate everyone's assistance. I can't thank you all enough for your help and patience!

 

[FABulousWines]

I followed Rocky's advice and gave the bag a good degassing squeeze last night and again this morning. That allowed it to sink, for a while at least.

My only other concern is the rate of fermentation. The SG is 1.008 in only 4 days; temp has been around 74. I really want to leave this in the primary for at least 10 days and get those tannins and flavor from the skins and oak. If it gets to 1.000 I plan to snap the lid down and throw on the airlock. I am open to alternative opinions.

 

[Boatboy24]

That's a good plan. Any way you can move it to a cooler part of the house? That'll slow it down too.

I wouldn't let it go too long past 1.000. Maybe down to .998 or 996. The rate of fermentation should be slowing down though.

 

[rjb222]

Giving the muslin bag a hard squeeze adds a lot of solids to the wine. This will need to be aged quite a while to allow all the debris to drop out otherwise you will have a large amount of drop out and potential trouble clearing. In my case when we first started doing the skins myself and others had trouble getting the wines to clear in time for customers bottling we also went through many sets of filter pads and our bottle count also dropped because of this. At home not nearly the time line worry just a heads up to the potential time line being increased for a clear wine.

 

[FABulousWines]

Giving the muslin bag a hard squeeze adds a lot of solids to the wine. This will need to be aged quite a while to allow all the debris to drop out otherwise you will have a large amount of drop out and potential trouble clearing. In my case when we first started doing the skins myself and others had trouble getting the wines to clear in time for customers bottling we also went through many sets of filter pads and our bottle count also dropped because of this. At home not nearly the time line worry just a heads up to the potential time line being increased for a clear wine.

Understood. My current thoughts are to bulk age a minimum of 6 months racking every 3 months. I am in no hurry to bottle this one. And I want to give the Hungarian cubes a chance to get it just right.