Mosti Mondiale Raisin "Extended Maceration"

[Travisty]

I've got the All-Juice Amarone with raisins in primary fermentation right now. It's been fermenting for almost 4 days now. I haven't checked the SG yet, but I'm guessing I will be just about in range to rack (according to the instructions) tonight since I've had this fermenting right at about 80 degrees or so. However, I'm wondering if there would be any advantage in keeping the raisins in longer. Sort of an "extended-maceration" of sorts. I've been stirring once a day the last few days and I could continue doing so until you would normally rack to the secondary then add the yeast nutrient and snap the lid down and fit the air-lock and let the fermentation finish up under air-lock in the primary. I would think there should be enough of a CO2 blanket produced to protect the wine until I rack to glass.


What do you guys think? Would I gain anything by keeping the raisins in longer or is four days or so long enough?

 

[grapeman]

Others have checked the raisins after leaving in for a few days and say there isn't much left in them after that. After four days at 80 degrees you are probably pretty well fermented out already.

 

[Travisty]

Fair enough, I guess it's not like one would be extracting any more tannins or anything from raisins huh?

 

[Wade E]

I agree with Appleman but will say that you could stray from the directions and do it like the RJS kits have you do and finish fermentation in the primary cause like you said there is so much C02 in there but I wouldnt go opening the primary bucket up too much once fermentation is actually complete. When I do the RJS kits with grape skins I usually have that in primary for 2 weeks but stop opening it around day 10m or 11 and just give it a good shake with lid and airlock attached.

 

[PeterZ]

I did the AJ Amarone last year and after 4 days I fished out one of the raisins and tasted it. It had no sweetness, and no perceptible tannin. BTW - at one year it is awesome. Only 9 bottles left. I'm going to do the Meglioli Amarone in January.

 

[fiat84]

Agree yes you can keep the raisins in longer. Most of the time we follow the RJS process of completing fermentation in the pail for Mosti kits. Then we follow George's/Mosti's new bulk aging process.

FYI, my local wine store told me it takes about seven days for the Mosti oak chips to completely release their flavor into a wine kit when I bought them for the Fresh Juice kits.

 

[Travisty]

I went ahead and racked yesterday. It was already at 1.000 anyways! I knew I should have been checking the SG earlier. D'oh! Oh well, no harm done I'm sure. Transferred to a 6.5 gallon carboy since I knew that Mosti tends to give us a little more juice than 6 gallons and with the oak chips I didn't want to have to use two containers. It's been a while since I've done a larger red kit. I had forgotten how many more solids there are in the juice! I'm looking forward to tasting this one, but I'm going to try and wait at least a year before I do. I've heard so many great things about this kit!