Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Bogelbaum here with a classic episode from
Speaker 1: our archives. Or as much as we can all do
Speaker 1: at home and in our personal lives to support environmentally
Speaker 1: friendly practices, often the real work comes at the industrial scale.
Speaker 1: Today's question is a sticky one. What happens to the
Speaker 1: grape waste produced during wine making? Hi, brain Stuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: Bogelbaum Here. It takes about two point six pounds that's
Speaker 1: one point two ms of grapes to produce a standard
Speaker 1: to seven and fifty million liter bottle of wine, and
Speaker 1: after the grapes are squeezed, about of that weight remains
Speaker 1: in the form of grape skins, seeds, and stems. Pomis
Speaker 1: or grape mark, as grape waste is called. Is something
Speaker 1: that the global wine industry produces a lot of, close
Speaker 1: to twelve million tons or eleven million metric tons every year.
Speaker 1: So what do wineries do with all that gooey stuff?
Speaker 1: You might think that disposing of vast quantities of it
Speaker 1: would be a sticky problem, But even though the tasty
Speaker 1: juice has been squeezed out, the material that's left behind
Speaker 1: has a variety of uses, as A two five article
Speaker 1: from Wine Maker Magazine notes the exact composition of palmice
Speaker 1: depends upon what sort of wine has been made and
Speaker 1: at what point the liquid was extracted. With white wine,
Speaker 1: for example, the juice is removed prior to fermentation, so
Speaker 1: the palmice is rich in sugar, nitrogen, and amino acids.
Speaker 1: With red wine, in which the grapes are fermented along
Speaker 1: with the juice before being pressed, there's less sugar left
Speaker 1: and not as much of the tannins that give wine
Speaker 1: it's bitter taste. But fermented palmice still contains a whole
Speaker 1: lot of different components, including cellulose, tartaric acid, trace amounts
Speaker 1: of other organic acids, sugars, tannins, plant pigments, and some
Speaker 1: aromatic chemicals. One way to get rid of all of
Speaker 1: that palmice is to use it to make other types
Speaker 1: of alcoholic beverages. Palmis from white wine can be distilled
Speaker 1: to make grappa, a traditional allion brandy. Palmas also traditionally
Speaker 1: has been recycled as fertilizer or animal feed, but scientists
Speaker 1: are increasingly interested in studying ways of extracting useful components
Speaker 1: of great mark for applications such as fuel alcohol production
Speaker 1: and biofuel energy production, as well as for the production
Speaker 1: of biosurficants, which are used in environmental cleanups. Food scientists
Speaker 1: have also realized that palmas contains a lot of healthy
Speaker 1: stuff antioxidants, fiber, and compounds that help moderate blood sugar
Speaker 1: and create a feeling of fullness, just to name a few.
Speaker 1: These can be used to make other foods healthier. Palmas
Speaker 1: has been used as an ingredient in bread, cereal, pasta, cheese,
Speaker 1: ice cream, and has even been added to meat and seafood.
Speaker 1: In Northern California Wine Country, some wineries use it to
Speaker 1: make cookies, flour, and culinary oils. You can even find
Speaker 1: teas made from wine grape skins if you're looking for
Speaker 1: a different sort of sip. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article what do Winemakers Do with grapewaist on how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot Com, written by Patrick Jake Tiger. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is production of I heart Radio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang.
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