Grappa- No pumace in Boiler

[onick]

Hi everyone,
I am instersted in making grappa. I have access to pumace, so that a big step. I have a few questions:

-Once I get the pummace, I plan on fermenting again. I have heard this is accomplished one of two ways
1) add back just water (half of the press take) and let the already fermented pumace do its thing
2) add water, sugar, and yeast to ferment
What works best and gets the best yeild?

-What goes in the boiler?
From what I have heard, traditionally all of the pumace makes its way to the boiler. my boiler is a 15L keg with a 2in opening, so I don't see this as practical for cleaning. I have heard putting the pumace in a bag in the fermenter, sqeezing every now and then, wait until fermantation is done, and then racking off the liquid to run. Thoughts?

I am very new at this so any input would be great!

[blind drunk]

Is the pomace white or red?

1) add back just water (half of the press take) and let the already fermented pumace do its thing

Since it's already fermented, adding water won't accomplish much fermentation/yield wise, but it will hopefully pull out the volatiles/alcohol into the water which you can then run through your still. Similar to the traditional way of running steam through the grape pomace, sort of. This last bit is pure speculation on my part.

2) add water, sugar, and yeast to ferment

Making a second wine will give you more yield but less grappa flavor. I've done this and it wasn't bad. It was early days for me, so it could have been better ... probably. I would use lots of pomace, if you can get it. As you know, that's where the unique grappa flavor comes from. Keep your ABV on the low side. Certainly no higher than your typical wine.

I have heard putting the pumace in a bag in the fermenter, sqeezing every now and then, wait until fermantation is done, and then racking off the liquid to run.

That sounds like a plan. Be careful to not infect your fermenting wash when you squeeze the pomace sack every now and then. Use a nicely sterilized something or other. Would be nice to have the pomace in there, but like you said, a problem with a 2" opening.

Good luck. Tell us how it goes.

[TonyHibbett]

By law in Italy, no water is added to the pomace to make grappa, so distilling the fermented pomace is tricky as it is somewhat dry. Worse still, the stalks and pips, being 'woody', generate lots of methanol. Pomace wine, however, is pretty simple to make and actually quite pleasant stuff and should be drunk young. Distilling it could produce a safer grappa-like spirit, but as yet, I have not attempted it.

[Dnderhead]

I believe grappa came from hand/foot pressed grapes so it had a lot of juice left.as the presses become more efficient it going to be harder to make the real thing.

[farmguy]

I made grappa this year. Got wine grapes that were just pressed but still had some juice in them from winemaker friend. Added 3-5 gallons water to 33 gallons pomace and added yeast. Fermentation took 10 days. I have a large opening in the top of my 15gal keg. I added everything to the boiler. It would have been hard to squeeze the juice out simply because there wasn't that much. Most of the juice is caught in the soggy mass of grapes. My friend, who worked for Clear Creek distillery a while back, said that's how they did it. If there's no way for you to do that then I might suggest adding enough water and sugar to make the volume of wine you need and hope that the grape flavors will get in there. I think they will to a certain extent. Good Luck. ---Farmguy---