Ideas for playing with a Pressed Pulp 2nd Batch

I am making some wine out of some Beta grapes my neighbor gave me. I followed a Jack Keller recipe for Riverbank grapes as Betas are a cross between Concord and Riverbank.

In reading through some other Jack Keller Recipes I noticed that he recommends making a 2nd batch of wine from the pressed pulp. I thought I might try this, but I also have some urge to "play" with it a bit.

I have some local honey (buckwheat) that we given to me as well as some fresh strawberries from the garden. Any thoughts or advice on throwing in the honey and seeing what the result is?

Buckweat is a stong flavored honey and some don't like it in large quantities once fully fermented. Some say you can get a kind of grassy taste with it. Some others rave about it. With the ingredients you have you may want to look up "Pyment". That is a Mead "Honey Wine" made with grapes. If you do an experimental Pyment/Strawberry Melomel type drink then I may suggest the following:

1gal

.5# Buckwheat Honey
2# light clover honey
2# Grape Pulp
1# Strawberries
Water to a gallon
Yeast & Yeast nutrients of your choice.

Good thought to add something to a second wine run, as I doubt there will be much color or flavor left in the pulp.

Some out there would take the second run then turn it into brandy.

Arpolis said:

Buckweat is a stong flavored honey and some don't like it in large quantities once fully fermented. Some say you can get a kind of grassy taste with it. Some others rave about it. With the ingredients you have you may want to look up "Pyment". That is a Mead "Honey Wine" made with grapes. If you do an experimental Pyment/Strawberry Melomel type drink then I may suggest the following:

1gal

.5# Buckwheat Honey
2# light clover honey
2# Grape Pulp
1# Strawberries
Water to a gallon
Yeast & Yeast nutrients of your choice.

Click to expand...

This is almost exactly what I had laying around and planned to throw in. I am a bit light on the clover honey, but I can pick some up. Thanks for the information.

I'd like to know more about the brandy route too.

I just started a batch of 2nd run with the combined pulp from blueberry and blackberry melomels. I initially used 3 lbs blueberries in 3 gal batch and 1 lb blackberry in 1 gal batch. I squeezed the juice out the best I could. I placed the pulp in a bucket along with 3 gallons apple juice and 3 lbs sugar. Probably would have started with the montrachet yeast embedded in the fruit but I threw in some washed US-05 I had in the fridge to be safe. This was just last night and it already has a nice bluish purple color, not quite as dark as the melomels.

Is this your first attempt? I am really excited about wine and mead (I have been primarily beer), but the lag time of tasting makes the learning curve pretty harsh. That is why I figured I might as well attempt a 2nd batch.

Arpolis said:

may suggest the following:

1gal

.5# Buckwheat Honey
2# light clover honey
2# Grape Pulp
1# Strawberries
Water to a gallon
Yeast & Yeast nutrients of your choice.

Click to expand...

Well i made a bit of a mess of it! Not the best effort, but it was worth the fun of messing around with it. Next time I am going to plan things out a bit better. This time I even had to run to the store for strawberries.

I really just wanted the wine off of my counter and into a fermenting jug before the in-laws showed up tomorrow. Once I started, I realized I had totally forgotten about my plan to give a go at a second run. It might not work out well, but here is what I did:

I cut up the strawberries and threw them in a liter sugar water to boil them. I wanted to sanitize as well as soften them up.

Then I threw the honey in with a liter of sugar water and warmed it up to evenly mix the honey in with the sugar water.

I then poured everything into a gallon jug.

Finally I remembered my pulp. Realizing i couldn't it the bag into the jug, I decided to just squeeze what juice and pulp I could down a funnel into the jug. I got about 1/3 of it, which should easily be about #2.

By then it was room temp and full, so I shook it up and put an airlock in it. I am hoping that the yeast from the grape pulp and the wine should be enough to kick start fermentation. After shaking, it looked like there was all ready some activity. I may just be hoping though.

If your grape pulp was pulled from your wine must after pitching yeast and the yeast had some time to multiply, then I am sure this will take off eventually. If you want to "Soften up" your fruit next time, just freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw your fruit. Especially when using honey it is desirable to not use any heat at all on the honey or fruit. If you really want to sterilize it just get camden tablets then use that in your must and wait 24 hours befor pitching yeast.

Overall this sounds fun and I wish you happy fermenting.

Making wines & meads from seconds can be very successful, and flavorful. I have 3gal of elderberry mead that was made from the fruit from my 5gal elderberry wine. Also have 3 gal of a seconds mead that was made from the pulp of a 5gal hibiscus-elderflower-rosehips wine, though I threw in a variety of blueberry-blackberry-raspberry-elderberry to the seconds because I was cleaning out my freezer at the time. The flower/light fruit mead is quite nice and was ready to drink as soon as it cleared. The elderberry mead won't go to bottle for another year & then the first bottle will be opened at year three.

I WILL MAKE THIS EVERY SINGLE YEAR--> I made some really nice wines from seconds, used the pressings (Oct 2011) from bin fermented Chambourcin and Cabernet Sauv. I obtained the pressings free of charge from an area winery, and took home one 5 gallon bucket of each packed with pressings(38# of Chambourcin and 44# of CS). By the time all was said and done I ended up with 8 gallons of Chocolate Raspberry Chambourcin and 7 gallons of Chocolate Cherry CS. Unfortunately I lost 5 gallons of the cherry due to airlock popping out just enough to ruin the wine (visual look at & airlock seemed fine, but when I touched it, well it was very evident it was very loose)--wine had turned, was quite sad, but I adore the remaining 2 gallons. . .one was backsweetened to my taste and then oaked and vanilla extract added while the other was backsweetened, fortified with 5.5oz brandy and a touch of vanilla!! The vanilla was a last minute addition and was the thing that turned the wine into total bliss. The raspberry is absolutely delicious, I have some dry and oaked, some unoaked + backsweetened and some unoaked + backsweetened + fortified with 5 oz brandy per gallon. They are getting bottled in late October.

Recipe (my adapted version, original version belongs to my friend, Wade):
38# Chambourcin pressed grapes
1 - 96 oz. can Vintners Harvest Raspberry Fruit Wine Base
48 ounces, by weight, dutch cocoa (unsweetened)
10 gallons water
22# sugar (Goal OG 1.090, actual 1.084)
10 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
6 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
Acid Blend & Tannin - as needed, if needed on the back end
No yeast was added because these were well innoculated already (I did have duplicate yeast available if necessary). Your yield will vary, dependent upon how wet your grape pressing were and if you hand press,which I did,or use a mechanical press,etc. For example, my raspberry were first run pressings while cherry were second run pressings.

**When I made the Cherry version I used the same recipe but added one 49oz dark sweet cherry + one 49oz tart cherry.

***I think I will plan what hopefully will be 3gal of finished wine from some of next month's pressings and use honey or honey combined with sugar. Will use 15# pressings, 36oz winemaking fruit puree, 4 gallons water, 12 oz(weight) dutch cocoa, approx 9# sugar, and all the other necessaries. Should work out. Maybe use currant or Marionberry.

tokerlund said:

I'd like to know more about the brandy route too.

Click to expand...

Brandy is made by use of a still and in the U.S. it is illegal to distill liquor without a license. So unless you are licensed for distilling liquor....

Happy to report it is fermenting. . . a lot.

Blew the airlock the first night with some spillage and then again the next day, but with little spillage.

I haven't had to deal with fruit or pressing getting into the airlock. I am learning a lot on this go round!

Well I racked them all over:
Beta Grape Wine
Lemon Mead
Strawberry Mead/Beta Grape Pulp

The wine tasted surprisingly good and reminded me of a Cabernet Savigon, although still very harsh and with a bite.

The Mead has me worried. It smelled good, but the taste was very harsh and unpleasant. It made me worried that the rind of the lemon might have give it an odd taste. I know I am 18mo away from being ready, but this is my first go-round so I am nervous.

Strawberry Mead/Beta Grape Pulp is an experiment and a shot in the dark. It smelled off and tasted much like the Mead. Again, we'll see what the next few months bring, but I am hoping for "drinkable" at best.

This is my first jump into wine and mead (other than cider) and I would love any thoughts or advice about what I have done so far and what I should do going forward. All the advice I have received so far has been much appreciated!