Skins to juice ratio

[Ajmassa]

Ok I’ve got a technical question for the chemistry/biology guys.
I bought a juice pail of Syrah for the hell of it. Freezing it for a week and racking off excess water/slush and all the fun stuff. It’s only a 6 gal pail. When I inoculate I’m just gonna toss in active skins fresh from pressing containing active yeast and malo.
But will adding 288lbs worth of Malbec skins to only 6gal of juice starve the yeast and stress the ferment? Even with standard nutrient dosages I fear that’s way too much yeast for 6 gal. (Note- half the yeast will die out since the skins will be from 2 separate ferments. Logic tells me either the D-80 or the D-254 will take over)
Would it just ferment quicker? Or am I just overthinking this?

 

[Johnd]

Ok I’ve got a technical question for the chemistry/biology guys.
I bought a juice pail of Syrah for the hell of it. Freezing it for a week and racking off excess water/slush and all the fun stuff. It’s only a 6 gal pail. When I inoculate I’m just gonna toss in active skins fresh from pressing containing active yeast and malo.
But will adding 288lbs worth of Malbec skins to only 6gal of juice starve the yeast and stress the ferment? Even with standard nutrient dosages I fear that’s way too much yeast for 6 gal. (Note- half the yeast will die out since the skins will be from 2 separate ferments. Logic tells me either the D-80 or the D-254 will take over)
Would it just ferment quicker? Or am I just overthinking this?

Overthinking, I think. There’s little fermentable sugar left in your leftover skins, so if you’ve used enough nutrients for the juice you have, you should be just fine. If you pull water out of the frozen juice, you could have a high Brix, I’d be cautious of it being too high for the yeast to handle the high alcohol content.

 

[stickman]

Also, if you rack and leave the acid crystals behind, you will be increasing the ratio of malic acid left in the juice, which will be consumed if it goes through ML, leaving the wine with low acid and high pH conditions.

 

[Ajmassa]

Thanks for the responses. Sounds like siphoning for concentration would just complicate things more than they need to be.
The only reason I figured to do that was because it is in the freezer regardless. I really don’t want to create more work for myself if I don’t have to. I’ll probably skip the concentrating rack and just ride with it as is.
I didn’t pull any numbers yet but I don’t think that’s gonna matter at this point. The original question of “too many skins to juice?” was my main concern.
I’m pencilling this in as “no racking” right now. If the numbers are out of wack I’ll have to weigh the options to see if ‘the juice is worth the squeeze’ for that step. Much obliged kind sirs.

 

[pgentile]

Ok I’ve got a technical question for the chemistry/biology guys.
I bought a juice pail of Syrah for the hell of it. Freezing it for a week and racking off excess water/slush and all the fun stuff. It’s only a 6 gal pail. When I inoculate I’m just gonna toss in active skins fresh from pressing containing active yeast and malo.
But will adding 288lbs worth of Malbec skins to only 6gal of juice starve the yeast and stress the ferment? Even with standard nutrient dosages I fear that’s way too much yeast for 6 gal. (Note- half the yeast will die out since the skins will be from 2 separate ferments. Logic tells me either the D-80 or the D-254 will take over)
Would it just ferment quicker? Or am I just overthinking this?

I agree with the others. But why not freeze half your skins(save for future buckets) and then use half with the bucket? Either way it's going to be a fast ferment. Both my batches in the fall took about 3 days each once the skins hit the juice.