Some skins in secondary carboy???

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DrJayman

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I know some like Wade ferment to dry in the barrel to great success to get more time on the skins. I am a little paranoid of the o2 exposure, so tried another idea. I recently tried an experiment and was curious if others had tried after racking to secondary, instead of topping up, I opened the skin bag and topped up with skins to complete secondary fermentation. After a week or so when they sank to bottom, I racked off the skins, and added enzyme pack and let that go for about 10 days.

Initial reaction is it added more tannins but will monitor futurer progress....
 
When you mentioned "skin bag", I assume you are meaning a red "kit" wine that is fermenting with a grape pack.

I haven't read the exact post by Wade, but I know he and others of us many times ferment to dry in the primary, without ever racking to start a secondary in a carboy. In this case we often will leave the skins in the wine until it is dry. However, one thing to mention is that after the SG gets to the point where one would normally rack to secondary, most of us also will snap seal the lid and install an air lock. For all practical purposes, we are doing a secondary, just in the same container, while still on the gross lees and skins.

There is but a little difference in what you purpose by putting skins in the secondary carboy from just leaving the wine and skins in the primary bucket, sealed with an air lock. The big difference, and it might be an important difference, is that your proposed method would remove the gunk that accumulates at the bottom of the bucket during primary. It is that gunk and sometimes the skins themselves, that can cause off flavors in a wine.

So, what you propose is OK as long as you understand what can happen to a wine potentially left too long on the gross lees and skins. In my case, when fermenting in a single container, if I thought the tannin level is high enough or I suspected rotting or off flavors, I would go ahead and take the skins off before I snap down the lid or I might go ahead and rack off both the gross lees and skins to a carboy.
 
You have to rack off the gross lees before you add the enzyme pack on a CC kit. Bentonite will deactivate the enzyme.
 
You have to rack off the gross lees before you add the enzyme pack on a CC kit. Bentonite will deactivate the enzyme.

Oops! I didn't bother to look at his list of what he has fermenting. That would have told me it was a CC kit.

Ibglowin is not kidding about the bentonite and the enzyme packet... ask me how "I" know. I ended up having to order another enzyme packet from George to correct my mistake.

Also, make sure you stir the enzyme in really well.
 

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