Making Better Second Run Wines:
Notes courtesy of Ray Bodnar

MAKING A SECOND RUN

(Notes from Peter’s description at CVWG Meeting October 21, 2002)

Use enough water to make up half the volume of the first run.

For every 4 L of water:

On the second day of fermentation – add 2 tsp of super food.

Notes:

  1. If you use corn sugar, use ¼ less than amount required if recipe call for granulated sugar.
  2. Boiling the sugar causes it to ‘invert’. This saves the yeast a step.
  3. Rule when adding to the must – add ‘solutions’ to ‘solutions’ – that is, dissolve all powders with a little liquid (water) before adding to the must.

SECOND OR FALSE WINE

Don’t be deceived by the name: there’s nothing second-rate about this wine. It gives you an excellent wine for the price of the sugar and a little effort and a least doubles the volume of wine you get from your grapes. Furthermore, it eliminates the work of pressing the pulp and is usually ready to drink in half the time of your first-run wine.

You have drawn off the free-run wine and in the bottom of your primary fermenter lies a mass of skins and pulp mixed in with partly fermented new wine. This is the basis for your second wine. Now proceed as follows:

  1. Add to the primary fermenter the same volume of water as the new wine you have just drawn off. Also add per gallon of water:
    • 2 pounds sugar
    • 3 tsp acid blend
    • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
    • ¼ tsp grape tannin
    •  
    • (the pulp is richly laden with yeast so you don’t need to add any more yeast)
      • Stir thoroughly and cover
      • Stir twice a day for 5 to 7 days.
      • When the S.G. has dropped to 1.020 or 1.010, siphon off the new wine into secondary fermenters and continue in exactly the same way as the with the first-run wine.

You now have double the wine for an extra 25 cents a gallon.

You can repeat the whole process and get a third run of wine off the same skins. This will have just the same alcohol as the first two but will naturally be very thin. Still, there are many people who enjoy a light-bodied wine.

Addition of Grape Concentrate: To increase flavour and body.