Racked it

So I decided to rack from the 6 gal carboy to the 5 gal carboy. The SG has been at 1.000 for a couple weeks. I have been without heat for 6 weeks so I think the fermentation slowed down. 2 questions: now that the lees are separated out of the wine will it still ferment dry in the 5 gal carboy? I cleaned the carboy with a sanitizing dose of k-meta. I let the carboy drain but there was still traces of solution. Will this mess with the wine and is it safe?

This is a picture if the final bulk aging carboy.

5 or 6 makes no difference to the process. what would happen to one size will happen to another

I always rinse my equipment with K-meta at avery stage and the bit left behind has never cause any problems.

cheers

The very small amount of Kmeta won't matter.

The act of racking, if you apply a little heat (75F) for a week, might be enough to get the yeast started again. However, 1.000 is reasonably dry. If the wine doesn't go any lower in a week under heat, just consider its fermentation completed.

I assume you have electricity. If so, if you are making wine in a cool place, get a big plastic storage bin(big enough for a primary or carboy), put the vessel inside the bin, put aout 3 to 4 inches of water and place an aquarium heater (20-25 gallon) heater in the water and dial up what temp you need. My cellar stays at or lower than 65 degrees and I had to turn the aquarium heater down because it was nearing 80 degrees. Wine was bubbling away.

I do something similiar to olusteebus

I use an aquarium heater 300 watt heater, 14'' long and it goes into my primary container - it is fully temperature adjustable. Once the yeast has taken off - I will remove the heater at that point. It typicaly only takes less that 24 hours before I have to remove it.

Good advice I am going to check that out the week. One concern I have is the wine is at 50 degrees F right now and I file the carboy up to the neck. If I heat it up to 68 degrees F will it over flow? Should I remove some of the wine?

Flafemina said:

Good advice I am going to check that out the week. One concern I have is the wine is at 50 degrees F right now and I file the carboy up to the neck. If I heat it up to 68 degrees F will it over flow? Should I remove some of the wine?

Click to expand...

Yes it will defintley overflow !!
I am guessing, approx 4 oz - just keep an eye on it and keep sipping it