I've made a few red wines now and have been frustrated by pressing too early. I punch the cap a couple of times a day. When the cap gets a little slow I panic and press. I would like to leave it on the skins longer with the help of CO2 or N2 or something.
The way I press is by ladeling the fermented wine into a bladder press, juice and skins alike. I can't help but think that this would be risky when the wine has been left on the skins for an extended time. Lots of oxidation and exposure.
I was thinking of putting a spigot on my plastic primary fermenter and draining off the free run before pressing. Then I can press the skins alone. I bought a couple of add on spigots. They have a gasket and threaded connections along with a tap that you lift to open the spigot.
A couple of questions. Does this sound like a good idea? And do these add on spigots make a good seal or would they leak. If they leak, I can see that that would be a real problem during the fermentation.
Any experience with these?
I would like to improve my wine and I think this is a simple method to add some body and structure to the wine, as long as I don't dump it on the floor.
Dan Emerson wrote "I would like to improve my wine and I think this is a simple method to
Best way is to add a spigot and test with water. If it leaks go to the hardware store and buy some rubber gasket material, cut to fit and play around with it till it's water and wine tight.
With respect to added body...Crush your grapes, remove 10% of the free-run juice and ferment the remaining juice with all the skins. You will make a more intense wine this way with more color. Drink the remaining juice as is...I think wine grapes make the best tasting grape juice possible.
My advice is "don't panic"! I commend you for your desire to improve your winemaking efforts. I've gone through many of the same issues as I've developed my methods as well. First off, I wouldn't worry too much about oxidation with your red wines. I think most home winemakers make the mistake of overprotecting their reds and end up with reductive fermentation and sulfide problems. If you want to do an extended maceration, you may want to try the large saran-wrap bowl covers that have the elastic edge (available at the grocery store, WalMart, etc.). I use these on my fermentors and they work just fine. If you want to blanket with CO2 or Argon during extended maceration it is easy to blow it in under the saran cover. I rarely use inert gas in my red winemaking unless doing a long extended skin contact. For whites, however, I am very carefull about air after fermentation (Aeration of white juice prior to fermentation is actually a good thing since it helps to prevent browing after fermentation. If you aerate the white juice to make it a bit brown before fermentation, the resulting wine will be much less prone to oxidative browning after fermentation.) so I use Argon to fill the headspace whenever sampling, stirring, or moving my wine.
I have four 14 gallon polyethylene primary fermentors mounted on heavy duty Home Depot shelving unit. I put bulkhead fittings in the bottom of each tank with a ball valve so I can drain out the bottom. This lets me do Rack-and-Return fermentation. I am adding a temperature controller and heaters this year so I can get the fermentation temp up around 80F+ or so. We home-winemakers often have the opposite problem of the big boys in that we don't get our ferments hot enough while they struggle to keep the temperature down. Its just a volume thing, very large tanks generate a lot of heat during fermentation and have to be cooled. Small tanks (like mine!) on the other hand, need help just to get much above ambient temp. Since my tanks are in the basement, my ferments would rarely go above 70F, hence my decision to add the heaters. This should add a lot to the color and body of my red wines.
I think the best way for most home winemakers to improve the quality (color, extraction and mouthfeel) of their reds is to 1) buy the best fruit possible and 2) increase the peak fermentation temperature to around 85F, and 3) aerate the wine during fermentation by using rack and return or delestage type fermentation methods.
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