How long can I leave fruit in the primary?

[homebrewbeliever]

Hello all! I just started a delicious looking batch of strawberry wine, but I've run into a bit of a problem... I have the fruit in a mesh bag, which is sitting in the must. The recipe I am using says to rack the must off of the fruit into a secondary fermenter after it has been fermenting for one week. The problem is that I am leaving town in a few days, and if I racked it off the fruit before I leave, it would only have ~4 days in primary. I don't know why I didn't think about the fact that I was leaving town; I guess I was just too excited to start making some wine Anyway, I was wondering if I should rack it off the fruit early, or just let it sit on the fruit in primary while I am out of town. I will only be out of town for 9 days, so if I just let it sit, it would be on the fuit in primary for 14 days. Would this be a problem? Would the fruit mold? If I rack it early, would I be sacrificing flavor? Any help you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

[david_42]

Leave it. 14 days isn't excessive.

 

[Insomniac]

The fruit will only mould if it floats the the top and sits on the surface. As long as that big is submerged I would just leave it.

 

[MarkKF]

The fruit will only mould if it floats the the top and sits on the surface. As long as that big is submerged I would just leave it.

As long as the wine is making CO2 it should prevent mold growth. With a healthy yeast starter by day two all the oxygen should be displaced.

 

[homebrewbeliever]

As long as the wine is making CO2 it should prevent mold growth. With a healthy yeast starter by day two all the oxygen should be displaced.

Fantastic. Honestly, that's what I was thinking too. But should I weigh the fruit down in the must anyway? I just got a large pyrex dish and a bunch of glass marbles that I have sitting in some PBW right now and then I was going to sanitize it and use it to weigh down the fruit bag. Or, do you think it would be better if I just leave it alone so the CO2 builds up? I opened it this morning, just to make sure it was okay, and I saw no evidence of mold at all...

 

[Insomniac]

If you have the marbles you may as well use them, as long as they're sanitised it won't do any harm and at least your doubley covered!

 

[PurpleJeepXJ]

If you open it up to put marbles in the bag it is not like all the CO2 will escape... CO2 is heavier than air

 

[homebrewbeliever]

Thanks for all the feedback. I opened the fermenter bucket to put the marbles in, and I noticed that about 1/8 of the strawberries had come out of the bag anyway. They escaped through the drawstring hole. Since it seems like a real pain to try to put them back in the bag and then weigh it down, I will just leave it alone and not worry about weighing any of it down. When I get back from my vacation, I will look to see if any of the fruit molded and I will report back to this thread!

 

[roadymi]

If they do happen to mold on you...........you can carefully rack from underneath and treat with a healthy dose of campden

 

[homebrewbeliever]

If they do happen to mold on you...........you can carefully rack from underneath and treat with a healthy dose of campden

If I treat the wine with a campden tablet, wont I have to reintroduce new yeast?

 

[homebrewbeliever]

Also, I treated the must and fruit with a Campden tablet before I inoculated the must with yeast. Wont that prevent the fruit from molding?

 

[Honda88]

if it sits on top of the wine and gets enough oxygen it could mold, if it is submerged in the alcohol then it MIGHT not cause any problems. And no it wont prevent mold because the pot meta will eventually wear off...

 

[homebrewbeliever]

if it sits on top of the wine and gets enough oxygen it could mold, if it is submerged in the alcohol then it MIGHT not cause any problems. And no it wont prevent mold because the pot meta will eventually wear off...

Okay, we'll I am going to just leave it and check on it when I get back. I have read in some books that it is okay if the fruit molds; you just dont want to mix it into the must. Do you all think it would really be necessary to use another campden tablet if it does mold and then just reintroduce the yeast? I would think that it would be okay if I just racked it carefully if it molded...

 

[Honda88]

hopefully there is enough alcohol to prevent mold from growing....that is all you can hope for.....cheers

 

[MikeDAdams]

I made a simple kiwi/mango wine...
Fermented for 2 weeks on fruit before racking to secondary. No mold..
YMMV

 

[saramc]

Why take the risk? Your bag will start floating in a day or two & you will have mold develop on the bag and the fruit that rests on the liquid line. Put the sanitized marbles or whatever it takes to keep that bag submerged. Strawberries mold very quickly. Also try to find a cool spot in your home (check the temperature tolerance on the yeast you used), not only will this help prevent mold/bacterial growth you will pull some great fruity aromatics into your wine.

 

[homebrewbeliever]

For everyone's information, the fruit did NOT mold! I did not submerge the bag or anything, and I don't think it was just luck. I did put it in a cooler spot (~62*F), and even after being in there for more than 2 weeks, there was no mold present.