(Dan Emerson) wrote in message . com...
Can you punch the cap too much? I work at home and have access to my
fermenting must 24X7. I find myself punching the cap every couple of
hours while awake. Is this too much? It has a pretty heavy cap at
the moment and really need punching. What is the norm?

Dan


Dan

Generally, punching down the cap every couple of hours does no harm
during the first week of a healthy primary fermentation. In fact, it
is beneficial for most reds to keep the cap wet and extracting all the
goodies and let the heat caused by fermentation disipate. Some reds,
such as merlot benefit greatly from the technique. I use a fan over my
primaries when punching down a merlot must. Over time your nose can
pick up the faintest H2S odours and aggressive punching really helps.
Okay back to your concern. Let's assume you sleep for 8 hours and poke
your must every three hours out of the remaining 16 hours. What that
around 5-6 times in 24 hours? That is not too much. The recommended
minimum is three times a day. Monitor the S.G. and ease up to twice a
day below 1.020 S.G. and press when it reaches .995 to 1.000.
Cheers Zinman

It doesn't really sound excessive so much as it sounds obsessive or
cumplusive. I bet you are new to wine making. But, dang, if we were not
all obsessive we would not be paying so much attention to this site.

I don't see how you could be doing any damage as long as you are not mixing
too much air into the must. As far as breaking the skins too much, I was
taught to squeeze the grapes with my hands as I punched down to be sure that
all the grapes were really broken. That is a matter of style I guess.

Ray

"Dan Emerson" wrote in message
om...
Can you punch the cap too much? I work at home and have access to my
fermenting must 24X7. I find myself punching the cap every couple of
hours while awake. Is this too much? It has a pretty heavy cap at
the moment and really need punching. What is the norm?

Dan

"Dan Emerson" wrote in message
om...
Can you punch the cap too much? I work at home and have access to my
fermenting must 24X7. I find myself punching the cap every couple of
hours while awake. Is this too much? It has a pretty heavy cap at
the moment and really need punching. What is the norm?


Hey, Dan, we've all been through a phase in our lives when we had to punch
the cap every few hours. ;-)

Brian

"Robert Lee" wrote in message
...
As long as you're not breaking the skins up too much it shouldn't be a
problem.

LOL, that reply fits my interpretation, too. ;-)

OK, calm down, enough...

Brian

I use a stainless steal mixer that a friend on mine maid much like the
mixer that you would use to mix drywall with. I attach it to a
1/2 inch drill and mix the cap, in instead of punching it down. I am
probably introducing some air but I am not shure that it is a bad
thing to do.

"Jim" wrote:
I use a stainless steal mixer that a friend on mine maid much like the
mixer that you would use to mix drywall with. I attach it to a
1/2 inch drill and mix the cap, in instead of punching it down. I am
probably introducing some air but I am not shure that it is a bad
thing to do.

There are two reasons that I know of to "punch down the cap": To keep the
cap moist, and thus discourage the growth of bacteria; and to increase
extraction of colour and flavours from the skin. Rather than push the cap
down, or spray it with pumped must, I prefer to stir it gently with a large
rod. I believe that this provides more extraction than the other methods.
The downside is that some alcohol will evaporate --- the more vigorous the
stirring, the more loss. I don't believe aeration is a problem at this stage
of fermentation (of a highly-tannic red wine), and it may even be
beneficial. Your "invention" should work well, providing the drill speed is
relatively low. If it is too high, you might get excessive aeration and/or
alcohol loss.

Thank you for the suggestion Negodki I never thought about alcohol
loss.