Second Runnings

[Soulpanda]

Ok, so I am fighting with this cranberry wine,
And, while I was waiting for the baby to come one
Night, I read all of The Art of Wine Making by
Stanley F. Anderson. In it he suggests doing a
Second running off of grapes by adding tannin,
Acid, nutrient, and sugar; topping off to whatever
Amount you had been making; and getting another
Batch of similarly strengthen, though lighter bodied
Wine.

Now, I understand about yeast mutation and possible
Spoilage contamination and the exponential growth
Of such. But besides that one concern, has anyone
Tried this? And is there any other reason why this
Would not work with my capranberry mash, which
Came from 20 lbs of real cranberries.

Thanks guys!

Night

 

[jkane]

Yeast mutation takes a few batches. Pro's may reuse 10-12 times. It's not a problem in this case.

I make cranberry mead every year. I have done second runnings a few times. 20 lbs is perfect for it. The result is milder and has less body though. In the end I started blending the two back together. Last year I did a 15 gallon batch instead of a 10 and a 5 for second runnings. So far it seems to be about what the blend ended up being.

Anyhow, a second run by just adding more water and honey to the left over stuff in the bottom of the primary is worth trying.

 

[Chevette Girl]

I do it all the time, it's one of the best parts about bagging your fruit, pick up bag, allow to drain a little, plunk into new sanitized fermenter, go! I like to experiment with honey, brown sugar, spices etc when I do second runs. I think there are a couple of threads kicking around if you do some searching... "second run" didn't get me any hits but I'm sure if you look back maybe through the Ingredients section or something, there are a few... here's my cranberry wine brewlog where I mention the second run...

Edit: Jkane brings up a good point, I find making a smaller seconds batch works better, although with more potent fruit or fruit that didn't get left in the first primary for too long (less than a week) you could probably get a gallon from a gallon and still be able to taste what it was, but I usually get two or three gallons from a 5-6 gal batch, 1 gal from a 3 gal batch. And to up the body, add a pound per gallon of chopped raisins...