Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Thread for questions and discussion on new winemaker series

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Thanks Bob, I get it now.

    It must seem annoying keep getting asked all these questions!

    Comment


    • Originally posted by timages View Post
      It must seem annoying keep getting asked all these questions!
      Definately not, keep asking

      regards

      bob
      N.G.W.B.J.
      Member of 5 Towns Wine and Beer Makers Society (Yorkshire's newest)
      Wine, mead and beer maker

      Comment


      • I am getting rack my wine no.2 soon and I have a question about stabiliser.

        I bought wilkos own wine stabiliser and the ingredients list potassium sorbate AND sodium metabisulphite. Do I still add sodium meta (or 1 campden) when I use the stabiliser or leave it out as it already has it in?

        Thanks in advance, you have all been really helpful

        Comment


        • sorry to drag up an old post here - (really interesting read BTW) but I just wanted to clarify my procedure.

          I made the easy #1 wine in a 5 litre water bottle and it has now stopped fermenting. I have another 5 litre water bottle and a load of glass demijohns.

          Is the following procedure OK as I wanted to degass in the water bottle before putting into the DJ:

          1. after fermentation, rack into another 5 litre water bottle with a crushed campden tablet and degas in the same 5 litre water bottle by shaking like hell a couple of times per hour etc
          2. after a few hours of degassing, transfer to a glass DJ for fining/Stabilisation. Do I use another crushed campden tablet here?
          2. AFter a further week, transfer to another DJ, sweeten if necessary then maturing over 1 or more months. Do I use another crushed campden tablet here?
          3. 2 weeks prior to drinking, transfer to wine bottles


          does this look right?

          Comment


          • Hi,

            Don't apologse - better to be sure than to do something wrong . This is what I would do:

            1. After fermentation (i.e. when the hydrometer reading is unchanged over a few days) ... rack to your other 5 litre water bottle. Then, clean out the sediment from the first bottle and rack half back into it. You can then degas by shaking each one (plenty of room for the wine to slosh around). I would shake, wait a minute or so, shake again. Repeat until there is no appreciable 'pffffffffttt' when you take the lid off. Depending on the wine this might take 5 goes, or it might take 20 or more. I would then rack/pour into one bottle/DJ, THEN add your crushed campden tablet. If you are going to sweeten, and you are going to do so with something fermentable like white sugar, you must add Potassium Sorbate at this stage too. If you don't add it, you run the risk of the fermentation restarting.

            2. I'd normally wait a while before adding finings - maybe a day - to let the sulphite / sorbate do its job. No need to add more campden tablets now.

            3. Personally I'd wait for it to clear, rack it (no campden tablet), have a taste and decide whether you do wish to sweeten it. If you do, sweeten it now. Put it back in the DJ and ensure fermentation doesn't restart. I'd give it a couple of weeks at least.

            4. When you are going to bottle it, you may need to rack it again if it has dropped any more sediment. Now add another campden tablet and rack it into your bottles.

            5. Wait a month before drinking. This will give the wine time to recover a little after bottling, and to become less sulphite-y.


            Rule of thumb: add a campden tablet after every other racking.

            I'm always cautious when sweetening wines. If this is your first, or the first time with Wine #1, you might be better off not sweetening and see how it turns out. You can always sweeten it in the glass when you drink it.
            Pete the Instructor

            It looks like Phil Donahue throwing up into a tuba

            Comment


            • well that is just fab thanks for the detail there - that really helps.

              instead of the campden tablet, I have some sodium metabisulphate powder also - would half a teaspoon be equivalent for racking purposes?

              Comment


              • No!!!!

                That's way too much - assuming it is pure.

                By far the easiest way is to make up a 10% solution: if you have 100g of powder, dissolve it in 1 litre of water. That will go a LONG way, so better if you make up a smaller amount (e.g. 25g in 250ml). It depends what kit you have available to weigh and measure.

                1 campden tablet is the equivalent of 5ml of your 10% solution. I use a 2.5ml syringe and give it two squirts.

                Your 5ml of 10% solution contains around 0.5g of Sodium Metabisulphite. If you gave it 1/2 tsp of powder that would be a) difficult to measure accurately, but b) still around 5x the required dose.

                EDIT: If you have kitchen measuring spoons, 5g is more or less 5ml - good enough for our purposes.
                Pete the Instructor

                It looks like Phil Donahue throwing up into a tuba

                Comment


                • OK great I'll make up and use the solution as advised.

                  let's see how this turns out - my first time making wine (I normally make beer!)

                  Comment


                  • Probably a dumb question but..

                    Once I have initially racked (via syphon) to my 5 litre water bottle off the yeast lees, when splitting half off for the degassing into another 5 litre bottle, do I have to syphon or can I just pour given I am going to shake the hell out of it to degass? Same for when I then add the de gassed wine to a dj for clearing - can I pour rather than syphon? I would then syphon into final dj after clearing and for bottling.

                    Is this not right?

                    Comment


                    • If I was doing it, I would pour. Like you said, degassing knocks the heck out of it anyway . This is why I add sulphite after degassing - if I added before, much of it would be blown out by the action of degassing.
                      Pete the Instructor

                      It looks like Phil Donahue throwing up into a tuba

                      Comment


                      • Great thanks for confirming. I will do the initial syphon off the lees then pour/degass/pour into dj for sulphate and clearing/then syphon when racking thereafter

                        Once I have later added the finings, do I drop the temp like we do in beer making to get it to drop bright?

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X