I'm making my first wine from actual grapes (Concord) from my garden. They have been in the primary for 6 days, the s.g. is 1.025, and the color of the must is fairly dark. The nylon bag now contains only seeds and skins. I don't want to get too much tannin so I want to rack to a carboy soon. When using concentrates, the lees were always very minimal. But this time, with actual grapes, the lees (mostly pulp?) are about 30% of the total volume of must. Is this normal? Should I transfer some or all of the lees to the carboy (probably has a lot of the yeast as well). Will the lees "compact" with time or will I just have to discard this 30% eventually? Any help, comments, opinions, etc would be very very welcome!
Help... Quickly !
Aug 22, 2005
3 Replies
Roger,
I am also a beginner, but I just did my first wine from grapes and after the crush I had about 2 gallons of juice to three gallons of pulp and skins. When I transferred into a carboy I was showing 3.5 gallons of liquid to the what was now mostly just skins. After I squeezed the solids through a net by hand I got about 4.75 gallons of liquid. I hope this helps.
Roy
They will compact. The first racking you should just get it off of the really heavy stuff and pulp/seeds/.
Thanks guys .... that really helps. It is comforting to know that I am not going to lose all that potential wine! I will rack into a carboy and let the lees settle down. Thanks again for the prompt responses! This is a really fun new hobby ... too bad I waited so long before trying it. With all the help from people on this group (along with Lum's book and Jack Keller's web site) a person really can make wine! ! !
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