protection while fruit drains

[pmdbama]

planning on racking my strawberry wine to secondary today. i know i've got to let the pulp bag drain for a couple hours, but we've got tons of fruit flies here in so cal. any ideas for keeping them at bay while the bag drips?

 

[djrockinsteve]

Two ideas. Buy a pack of those fly strips that you hang from a beem, they are real sticky and sweet. They will attract the flies. Hang em near not over your wine.

Second use your vacuume cleaner. Suck 'em up.

 

[ThousandJulys]

I wouldn't use a vacuum cleaner, as it will certainly agitate and spread dust and particles all around and into your wine, which is probably even worse. Do you have a room that doesn't have bugs flying around? Even a bathtub would work in the meantime, just close the shower curtain.

 

[pmdbama]

i think what i'll do is hang the bag, cover the fruit with plastic wrap, and put the towel over it all and secure with a bungee cord

 

[Goodfella]

That is a great idea pmdbama.

Personally... I would just give the bag a soft squeeze and call it good.

 

[ThousandJulys]

Do you all really drain your muslin straining bags for this long? I usually just wait a couple minutes until it's just a slow drip.

 

[deboard]

I just squeeze the bag a bit and go, maybe I'm working with much smaller bags than you though.

 

[Minnesotamaker]

For the bugs in Minnesota, we use shotguns and fishing nets.

 

[pmdbama]

For the bugs in Minnesota, we use shotguns and fishing nets.

well, when i was back in 'bama, we made sure the shotguns were semi-auto so we could double tap and make sure the b*stard was dead.

 

[pmdbama]

for those following this thread...

i had originally juiced the strawberries, but realized that the pulp left behind still had plenty of goodness left behind (would have been different if the strawberries had been fresh when i juiced), so I put the pulp in the strainer bag along with the extracted juice.

turns out the bag fit fine in the collander, just placed the primary lid on top and wrapped a towel around for good measure.

 

[St Allie]

pmdbama,

sounds like common sense won out..

you can also pop the whole lot over the bowl and shove it in the fridge.

it will drip away happily in there and no fruit flies can get at it.

Allie

 

[Luc]

Make a fruitfly trap:

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2009/08/fruitvliegjesval-fruitfly-trap.html

That will catch a lot of these critters.

I would just press the bag over a primary by hand.
Remember the longer you expose it to air the longer it is vulnerable or fungi, bacteria and wild yeast that float in the air.
So make sure the must is sulphited at the right level.

Luc

 

[St Allie]

sending you a big hug Luc, in the netherlands..it's been ages..you still getting lots of free fruit?

Allie

 

[myakkagldwngr]

I squeeze the bag pretty good until I just cant get any more out of it. It's amazing how a five gallon paint bag so full it can hardly be tied shut will end up with only a small melon sized ball left in the end.
Shows how much water is in fruit.

 

[Roatan_Mark]

I was going to say that I use a 5 gallon bucket with a lid, hang just a bit of the bag out over the edge for the lid to catch hold off and just set a small weight on top. Bag drains as long as you want (don't forget it tho) and drains. o bugs invovled...

 

[ThousandJulys]

From the two books I've read on winemaking so far, both said be sure to NOT SQUEEZE the straining bags and just let them drain. Is there any logic behind this? I'm using muslin straining bags at the moment, not the fine mesh nylon fermentation bags I sometimes use from the wine shop.

 

[Wade E]

I have read that also but cant for the life of me figure why except for possibly squeezing to hard and getting pulp through the bag. The only other reason I can think of is that if it were something like grapes you dont want to press to hard as youll actually start breaking the seeds and extract to much tannin but this wont happen with many of these fruits that we're talking about!

 

[Goodfella]

I have read that it is "hard, and sometimes impossible to clear the wine" if you squeeze it to much. (on pear's, ect)

I have never had a problem yet.

 

[ThousandJulys]

That all sounds right to me Wade, thanks for chiming in. I am currently using 15 pounds of blueberries for a five gallon batch of wine. I'll let the straining bags drain longer than usual this time, and maybe give her a gentle squeeze

Oh, and I always use 1/2 teaspoon of gelatin finings per gallon to clear the wine. I actually have a tomato wine right now that I have racked twice and it's only a few weeks old and the P.A. went from 12% alcohol to 0% already, and thanks to the gelatin finings it is already a clear golden color.

Is there any need to let it sit for any longer before finishing and stabilizing it before I bottle? I'm just curious what the advantage of letting it age in the secondary for longer than once it it clarified?