Picking up my grapes in the morning

[Boatboy24]

Scoop the cap off with a strainer or colander and put the skins into your 'press'. After a few rounds, you should be left with a must with relatively low/no skins. Then you can vacuum rack from there. There will still be a lot of seeds and stuff in the bottom. Then you can strain them off. Don't squeeze the seeds.

 

[ibglowin]

Good luck with that……

Trade the Z for a real press!

 

[geek]

Just checked...SG ~1.000
We are pressing in a few with our home made press

Punched down one last time.

Wish me luck....


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[geek]

UPDATE:
Home made press worked well, yup.
We pressed the heck out of the skins.

After pressing everything (even all grapes in the bottom of brute with all the goop) we just got merely 15 gallon of wine.....

I was expecting around 17 gallons with 7 cases...hmmmm
We placed all the wine into a 15gal stainless steel beer keg container and basically had nothing leftover.

I am scratching my head now because my plan is to rack off the lees maybe tonight (24 hours after pressing) and put wine in my glass demi john for MLF, no way I'll be able to fill my demi john; very sure the lees will be at least a gallon to toss, or maybe put into the other batch going through the 2nd run.

Wondering if ok to use a gallon of a Merlot that went though partially MLF completion (low PH issue) to top off this one?

.

 

[ibglowin]

I get 8 gallons of wine out of (3) 36lb lugs from the Lodi AVA. That is after usually adding close to a gallon of acidulated water to bring the Brix down to planet earth. I lose a gallon of that 8 at racking off the gross lees. I let my wine rest and compact for 7 days. You will lose more if you only rack at 24-48 hours as they have not had time to settle and compact. Doing the math I calculate you should have gotten around ~18 gallons of wine out of that 252lbs of grapes and extra water added. I would say the difference was your home made press was not as efficient as a basket press. Thats all I can come up with. Let it rest for a week while you figure out what to do next. You may need to switch to a couple of 6 gallon carboys and and 3 gallon carboy.

 

[geek]

Thanks Mike, so it is better to let it rest under airlock for a few days THEN pitch the MLB?

 

[ibglowin]

Better to wait a week, rack off the gross lees and see what you got volume wise. Rack into appropriate sized carboys, add that Merlot only if it will help you pH wise, not hurt. Add Opti-Malo and MLB, stir well and keep it warm. 68-72 degrees and looks for signs of pin prick gas bubbles.

 

[geek]

Roger that...
I usually start MLF right away but will wait this time and see where I am by weekend. Most likely will start MLF Saturday.

Thanks again.

 

[geek]

After sitting in 15gal stainless steel keg container, racked wine, then back into keg.
Added Opti Malo Plus to wine, stirred well.

Hydrated like a bit more than a 1/4 of VP41 package with 15gr of Acti-ML, waited 10 minutes or so.

Pitched MLB.

Added 2 American oak medium plus toast spirals.

Let's see how it goes.....

..

 

[sdelli]

6% yield is on the low side of normal.... But still normal. 7% would be a good press!
7X36X6%=15 gallons


Sam

 

[geek]

6% yield is on the low side of normal.... But still normal. 7% would be a good press!
7X36X6%=15 gallons


Sam

Yeah, low, the good news is that I got around 11 gallons of 2nd run wine after adding 8 gallons of water to the skins