Thread for questions and discussion on new winemaker series

[spritzer]

Just tested both my wines number 1

Apple -> 1.086 -> 1.030
Pineapple -> 1.072 -> 1.002

Although the Apple wine tastes sweet, it is still fermenting... so I am not worried about that.

And the pineapple wines, tastes, well, pineappley .
It is still going, but slower..

So will leave both for another couple of days

All thoughts welcome

[StockeyDAW]

Just tested both my wines number 1

Apple -> 1.086 -> 1.030
Pineapple -> 1.072 -> 1.002

Although the Apple wine tastes sweet, it is still fermenting... so I am not worried about that.

And the pineapple wines, tastes, well, pineapple .
It is still going, but slower..

So will leave both for another couple of days

All thoughts welcome

Have these wines been racked to clean sanitized dj's when the SG reached 1.020? This is a process in the wine making process that gets the must off the settlement and dead lees in the bottom of the dj (if you have fruit in nylon straining bags they are also removed at this time). After this racking the must is left to ferment in the dj with air lock attached until the SG's reach 1.000 or less for a few days. Then the alcohol fermentation process is determined complete and it is then time to carry on with the next stage of the wine making process: ie: sulfiting, degas and fining stage and racking to a clean sanitized dj to allow the young wine to clear.
Hope this helps Cheers Daw

[spritzer]

Have these wines been racked to clean sanitized dj's when the SG reached 1.020? This is a process in the wine making process that gets the must off the settlement and dead lees in the bottom of the dj (if you have fruit in nylon straining bags they are also removed at this time). After this racking the must is left to ferment in the dj with air lock attached until the SG's reach 1.000 or less for a few days. Then the alcohol fermentation process is determined complete and it is then time to carry on with the next stage of the wine making process: ie: sulfiting, degas and fining stage and racking to a clean sanitized dj to allow the young wine to clear.
Hope this helps Cheers Daw

No.. not yet Daw... but they will be now...
Well the pineapple one will be...
The apple is still at 1.030, so will wait for that to drop further.

Thanks
Carole

[StockeyDAW]

No.. not yet Daw... but they will be now...
Well the pineapple one will be...
The apple is still at 1.030, so will wait for that to drop further.

Thanks
Carole

Great now you have a system going! Daw

[spritzer]

Great now you have a system going! Daw

Its going through now.... as we speak.

Should kit wines be racked at 1.020 as well then ?

[StockeyDAW]

Its going through now.... as we speak.

Should kit wines be racked at 1.020 as well then ?

It is kind of a SG number that we all follow (1.020) - I have some recipes that call for 1.030 for racking. If you rack when the SG is higher you are very much likely to have a overflow problem in the air lock and foam blockage. This will cause problems you do not want to happen.

Lots of the kit wine directions are now saying to let the ferment go to the 1.000 or 6-8 days then rack to the sanitized and cleaned DJ's. I however, always rack at the 1.020 - 1.030 at the most. I find this necessary to get the must off all the settlement and dead lees in the bottom that can impart a undesirable flavor to the must and also since the fermentation has slowed there is less Co2 being produced and the likelihood of contamination entering greater the primary fermenter with the large loose fitting lid much greater.

Cheers Daw hope this helps

[Hippie]

Good advice from DAW. I agree.

[spritzer]

Thanks Daw....
The kits that I have had previously, have not said to rack at 1.020....
But I think I will in future, as it seems a good habit to get into, for advancement onto more complicated wine making.
( .......... Are we all ready for a zillion more questions when that happens )

[Mamgiowl]

Thanks Daw....
The kits that I have had previously, have not said to rack at 1.020....
But I think I will in future, as it seems a good habit to get into, for advancement onto more complicated wine making.
( .......... Are we all ready for a zillion more questions when that happens )

Yep!

[lockwood1956]

Indeed we are

[spritzer]

Good stuff

I always have questions

Just wish there was a THANKS button tooo

[Jekteir]

Hi all,

I'm at the rack/age/rack/age stage of things. I just racked after about 10-15 days of bulk aging in the bucket.

When I put it in the bucket I sulphited with campden tabs, then degassed it for ages with a kitchen electric eggbeater before sticking the lid on top. It bubbled up a lot, and also hopefully that means that the CO2 was all in the inch or so airspace between the wine and the lid.

But now that I've racked it back to the large barrel I was using before, I've got more airspace above the wine. Every time I rack I get more airspace due to lees coming out along with a bit of wine I couldn't separate from the lees at the bottom of the container.

I don't want to top up with water or juice because I don't want to weaken the wine or make it watery. I don't want to top up with a wine because my wine doesn't taste like commercial wines and I think it would make the wine less 'my' wine, and also perhaps mess up the flavour. But I now have about 4-5 inches of airspace above my wine, so I'm worried about oxidisation et cetera.

Unfortunately putting a vacuvin stopper over my airlock doesn't seem to work: although I got it tight over the airlock in the end (with the assistance of plastic bands) when I remove air I can hear it getting through somewhere - possibly the space around the screw-down cap of the barrel. So the create-a-vacuum method doesn't seem to work.

Does anyone have any tips on how I might fix this, and how worried I should be about the airspace? I still have a couple of bottles of my wine from racking outside the barrel -- the ones with the less-leesish end of the bucket that I want to decant a bit before I shove their wine into the barrel (so that I don't end up putting some of the lees into the barrel). So that should reduce my airspace a bit, but I think I still have too much.

Thanks,

Jek

[lockwood1956]

You are right to be worried about the airspace.......


your wine will spoil unless you either top it up, or move it to smaller containers

Bob

[Jekteir]

What kind of a grace period do you think I have to let the wine in the bottles separate from their lees before I need to add it back to the barrel?

How much do you think adding juice to the wine in the barrel (it's 5+ gals in the barrel and I'd be adding 1-3 litres, with 3 being absolute max) would alter the flavour? Versus adding a bottle or two of cab sauvignon or something?

Thanks.

[lockwood1956]

adding some lees to the barrel is preferable to leaving too much headspace....