Must volume

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Follow up question:

When estimating amount of additives (nutrients, enzymes, etc.) per liter/gallon, do you think in terms of the volmume of finished wine or the volume of must?
 
Follow up question:

When estimating amount of additives (nutrients, enzymes, etc.) per liter/gallon, do you think in terms of the volmume of finished wine or the volume of must?

I think it can vary but the additions that I make (yeast nutrients, acid adjustments) are in terms of finished wine. The numbers I use are:

100lb grapes = 10.65 gal must, of which 3.75 gal = must solids
100lb grapes = 6.4 gal finished wine
 
That’s a good question I’ve never found a good answer. Prior to fermentation I use the total amount of must to make my calculation, how ever I think it’s a bad idea to use must volume for adding sugar. With so2 and pectinase I think it’s good to use total must volume, same for tannin. I would like to see some. more experienced winemakers chip in on this.
 
That’s a good question I’ve never found a good answer. Prior to fermentation I use the total amount of must to make my calculation, how ever I think it’s a bad idea to use must volume for adding sugar. With so2 and pectinase I think it’s good to use total must volume, same for tannin. I would like to see some. more experienced winemakers chip in on this.

when using the morewine guide to red winemaking (my bible) it explains all the different nutrient/yeast/acid additions possible. It specifically says whether to use must total or finished wine total for each thing.

The guide is pretty great and well written. It’s not just a step by step. It also explains all the “why’s” in a way that really helps to understand everything you’re doing.

(So you don’t have to dig thru for the answer the manual says:
yeast, nutrients, so2, enzymes(I think)- by must volume.
acid, sugar - by wine vol.
And offers suggested % of solids depending on varietal of grape)

Edit* screenshot from page 10D0B8586A-1B21-45D5-A486-0349D6BE368A.jpeg

and @distancerunner I do just as @CDrew said. I take my pounds of grape-drop the last digit— & that’s my gal of just. 250lbs=25gal. (Aka divide by 10). I assume 60% yield but often get 70%.
 
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In the past I've made the addtions by estimating finished wine volume. This could explain a few things, like why tannin and color extraction are not as strong as we'd like.
 
In the past I've made the addtions by estimating finished wine volume. This could explain a few things, like why tannin and color extraction are not as strong as we'd like.

Me too - particularly nutrient additions. It makes sense to me that you'd use the volume of liquid rather than solid + liquid, but it seems like the morewine guide quoted by @Ajmassa uses total must volume?
 
For nutrients I use the estimated juice volume. It's just my opinion, but it makes the most sense to me. The typical nutrient analysis is conducted on a filtered juice sample, and any nutrient additions to the must will be exposed and dissolved in the fermenting juice during punching, mixing, pumping over etc.
 
So... I asked Scott Labs for their recommendation, and the suggestion was to base it on pressed juice volume, but using a relatively high volume of 175 gal/ton. (Commercial winemakers use 150gal/ton, and home wine presses are probably closer to 130gal/ton).

Hope this helps!
 
To estimate based on finished wine one would have to know how much wine is lost in each racking because lost wine will contain an equal percentage of all solubles/ alcohol/ flavor. , ,,,, good answer.
For nutrients I use the estimated juice volume. It's just my opinion, but it makes the most sense to me. The typical nutrient analysis is conducted on a filtered juice sample, and any nutrient additions to the must will be exposed and dissolved in the fermenting juice during punching, mixing, pumping over etc.
 

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