Hi

I am in the process of making my first batch of marrow wine. My 5lb of
marrow which has been grated is in its covered/sterilised bucket with
oranges, lemons and the relavant yeast and pectose. My recipe says not
to add the sugar for another 5 days. Can anyone see a problem with this
or is this all good?
Regards
Benjamin
'All the gear and no idea'

benjamin -

Normally you want to get yeast fermentation going pretty quickly,
to avoid other kinds of spoilage micro-organisms getting established.
The marrow doesn't have a lot of fermentable sugars, so I would be
worried about letting the grated marrow sit for 5 days. It might work
if you are doing something else to discourage bacteria, molds, etc. --
say, by adding a lot of SO2 (sulfites). Even then, 5 days seems too
long to me.

People who make wine from grapes sometimes do a "cold soak" and keep
the crushed grapes and skins soaking at a low temperature before adding
the yeast, which apparently helps extract more color/tannin/flavor from
the skins. But it doesn't seem to me that this would really apply to
marrow wine.

I think I'd be inclined to add the sugar sooner -- I'd be uncomfortable
waiting more than a day or so before giving the yeast a reasonable food
supply (i.e., sugar). That's my two cents.

Doug

Doug wrote:
People who make wine from grapes sometimes do a "cold soak" and keep
the crushed grapes and skins soaking at a low temperature before adding
the yeast, which apparently helps extract more color/tannin/flavor from
the skins.

I thought a cold soak was to get the flavour and colour from the grapes
without extracting too much tannin, since tannin isn't very soluble in
cold water and is more soluble in alcohol solutions.

The Mad Alchemist wrote:
Doug wrote:

People who make wine from grapes sometimes do a "cold soak" and keep
the crushed grapes and skins soaking at a low temperature before adding
the yeast, which apparently helps extract more color/tannin/flavor from
the skins.


I thought a cold soak was to get the flavour and colour from the grapes
without extracting too much tannin, since tannin isn't very soluble in
cold water and is more soluble in alcohol solutions.

That is my understanding, too. Otherwise the long hang time on the
vine for 'mature fruit' (25-25.5 degBrix) would result in increased
tannin extraction, right?

Gene

Hi
Thanks for your advice. I have have now added the sugar and after an
agonising wait it is now slowly bubbling in its bucket until it is
strained at the weekend.
Thanks again
Benjamin
'All the gear and no idea'
gene wrote:
The Mad Alchemist wrote:
Doug wrote:

People who make wine from grapes sometimes do a "cold soak" and keep
the crushed grapes and skins soaking at a low temperature before adding
the yeast, which apparently helps extract more color/tannin/flavor from
the skins.


I thought a cold soak was to get the flavour and colour from the grapes
without extracting too much tannin, since tannin isn't very soluble in
cold water and is more soluble in alcohol solutions.

That is my understanding, too. Otherwise the long hang time on the
vine for 'mature fruit' (25-25.5 degBrix) would result in increased
tannin extraction, right?

Gene