Pressing

[Rocco]

If my fermentation ends on wed, but I don't have time to press until Friday, is it a major issue if the wine is in the fermentation buckets w the skins for a day or two? I realize pressing should occurring immediately, but realistically I'm not sure I can do this. Do you guys all quit for ferm to be complete and then clear your schedule and stay up all night to press? Or do you relaxingly wait until saturday and make a good time of it with friends/family? Or something in between.

I do not have a argon or CO@ gas system and was hoping I wouldn't need it. Also, if the SG is 0.90 and the cap hasn't fallen, is theta protecting it somewhat??

 

[richmke]

A few extra days won't hurt. I just started a CC Showcase Malbec, and it has the skins in for 10 days.

 

[Rocco]

I'm not as much worried about time w skin as much as the wine isn't protected by a CO2 blanket

 

[Runningwolf]

When you say finished and ready for pressing, do you mean completely dry or 1-2 brix? What are you doing with the wine after pressing? If you're going to just press and age with a few rackings, get some k-meta on it as soon as it's finished in a closed container with air lock (if it is truly finished). If you are close to being finished but not all the way get a lid on the pail now with an airlock. If you're going to do a secondary fermentation, inoculated it now with a bacterial culture.

 

[Kraffty]

You should be fine, I had the same thing last October and took the extra precaution of laying a couple of layers of plastic wrap over the skins then floating dinner plates over that (fit in primary about perfectly) to keep the cap submerged and keep air out. Might have been overkill but the wine is just fine. I think it was for an extra 4 days.
Mike

 

[acorn]

I'm not as much worried about time w skin as much as the wine isn't protected by a CO2 blanket

At this point the wine is very resilient to oxidation, as it has a lot of CO2 dissolved in it, and it will be gradually releasing it even after fermentation stops. As richmke said, several days won't hurt it.

 

[Rocco]

When you say finished and ready for pressing, do you mean completely dry or 1-2 brix? What are you doing with the wine after pressing? If you're going to just press and age with a few rackings, get some k-meta on it as soon as it's finished in a closed container with air lock (if it is truly finished). If you are close to being finished but not all the way get a lid on the pail now with an airlock. If you're going to do a secondary fermentation, inoculated it now with a bacterial culture.

Thank you-- appreciate it. I mean completely dry as I don't want to press sooner than that.

After pressing, I plan to rack off gross lees 24 hours later and add mlf culture and oak.

Putting a lid before pressing won't help much--I have 32G bucket only half full so lots of headspace. I don't want to add k-meta yet due to mlf. So I'm worried because those options aren't ideal for me

 

[Rocco]

You should be fine, I had the same thing last October and took the extra precaution of laying a couple of layers of plastic wrap over the skins then floating dinner plates over that (fit in primary about perfectly) to keep the cap submerged and keep air out. Might have been overkill but the wine is just fine. I think it was for an extra 4 days.
Mike

Clever!!! I'm not that handy.

 

[Rocco]

At this point the wine is very resilient to oxidation, as it has a lot of CO2 dissolved in it, and it will be gradually releasing it even after fermentation stops. As richmke said, several days won't hurt it.

So the co2 bubble hopefully will protect it. Appreciate the help

 

[Runningwolf]

Rocco, that was my concern also whether you add the k-meta or not. I like what Krafty did when he was in the same situation.

 

[Rocco]

Rocco, that was my concern also whether you add the k-meta or not. I like what Krafty did when he was in the same situation.

Thank you very much. I may try to do something like that if I can. It's nice to know I'm not alone with this predicament. Just curious if others press immediately upon it being dry each time. I couldn't imagine everyone pulls all nighters during the week when they come home from work and the wine is dry. Thank you all

 

[ibglowin]

The down side to doing small batches and picking different yeast is that they all ferment at different rates. I do 8 different batches each year and use 4-5 different yeast varieties. They all seem to finish up at different times. I usually have to set up and cleanup 2-3 times each season....

If you have a cap still forming with some amount of firmness your good. If the cap has fallen and sinking on itself its time to press, your starting to run on borrowed time as CO2 is not being produced anymore and pushing up the cap so your wine is basically starting to degas. Time to press and rack to a properly sized vessel of sorts with an airlock.

 

[JohnT]

agree with all the above...

Your wine should be ok for a day or two, but If the cap has "fallen", it would be best to press as soon as you can.

 

[Rocco]

SG is 1.000, brix 0. Cap still intact and strong. Hoping to hit negative 2-- may be tommorow but I'm hoping for Thursday so I can press Friday when I have a chance. Good plan?

 

[ibglowin]

Remove and additional heat.