"second wine"

[intoxicating]

I am looking for a second opinion or two. I have 6 gallons of skins and seeds from two or more batches of fresh grapes. I wanted to make a batch of "false wine" or second wine, so I brought home the pressings from someone elses batch. The recipes call for replacing the pressed off juice with an equal amount of a sugar/acid blend/yeast nutrient/tannin/grape concentratemix and water, and says the finished wine will be a little thinner than the first pressing.


I got twice as much of the skins and pulp the recipe called for. My bucked wouldn't fit the whole six gallon batchat once, so I put in three gallons for a week, and ladledit out of the solids.The secondthree gallons went in for five days and the yeast quit and the skins stayed at the bottom of the bucked, so I strained out the second three gallons of wine from the skins. I was planning to add the grape concentrate after I removed the "wine" from the skins, so I wouldn't lose any of my concentrate in the pulp. At this point there is no air lock activity. I am staying with my sisterwhile looking for an apartment so I have beenVERY sloppy about taking notes or measuring SG. I will combine the first and second 3-gallon batches at the next racking, so they are the same. (I can't lift a full 6-gallon carboy, so I only own the 3-gallon ones.)


Should I still add the concentrate and stir up the lees, and hope that fermentation restarts, or save the concentrate for another project? Thanks for your opinions.

 

[andy123]

Your yeast quit cause there were no more fermentables. any sugar source should get you more activity if you need it. Glass up a little sample and see if has a good look. A lot of folks at this forum love 'Fat BasXXXds' but not every wine needs to be so thick. I made a second run muscadine once. I reduced the second batch by 1 gal. and it turned out fine.

 

[Wade E]

I did this once and ht a waste of time and sugar IMO. was there flavor, yes but it barely would equal a mild table wine.

 

[intoxicating]

Thanks for the opinions. There are always folks on this forum that have already done what ever I am thinking of trying.


I tasted it andthe texturewas a little thin and weak on taste. I added the red grape concentrate to the 6 gal. must bucket, and siphoned both of the three-gallon carboys into it and stirred. Then siphoned back into the three-gallon carboys and they are both bubbling away quietly.


I expectthe wine's quality to beless than if I had paid for the grapes. Six gallons of table wine for the price of sugar and conc. not too bad a deal to me. I'm not going for awards on this, I save that time and effortfor the off-the-wall country fruit wines I make.

 

[Wade E]

It will make a good wine to top stuff up with thats for sure!

 

[intoxicating]

I recently racked and tasted both the "super Tuscan blend" and the Barbarra and they will be respectable. Not great, certainly, but not a waste of sugar and concentrate. I think the Tuscan style could benefit from a bit of oak. Not in any hurry. Since I started with twice the skins the recipe called for, it is only a little thin, and the taste is good enough to go with a meal.

 

[Milwood]

Hey Intoxicating. I have been making "Seconds" for the last few years. Some have beenvery good and some were pretty bad and ended up getting dumped. I have never made seconds from whites but I do seconds on almost all of my reds that are made from grapes. It's a great way to stretch your winemaking dollar and also gives you something to drink while you are waiting for the first run wines to have a little time in the bottle. I normally get my grapes in 100lb increments so I will tell you what I do to make them. If I have a 100lb batch (which normally gives 5-6 gallons of wine) I will make a 3 gallon carboy of seconds. If I have a 200lb batch I will make a 5 gallon carboy of seconds. I have found it works much better to mix up your water, sugar, tartaric acid and fermaid or yeast nutrient in a bucket and then add that to the pressed skins. If you try to mix the ingredients in with the skins and then measure the SG you will add way too much sugar. If you use the following recipe you should end up with pretty good seconds provided everything goes right. This is per gallon:


1 gallon water
2lb 9.6oz Sugar
7g Tartaric Acid
1g Fermaid-K or Yeast Nutrient


I always just let the yeast from the pressed skins restart the fermentation and I never add wine tannin but often use oak chips in the primary and then oak cubes during aging. Hope this helps!

 

[bzac]

I am not a fan of sugar water etc on pomace to make a second run wine but adding the skins to a juice pail or wine kit produces excellent results.

I've won medals with second run wines made this way.

the skins add tannin and aromatics that kits and juices tend to lack.