Use of airlock and racking questions

I have two questions please:

In wine kit instructions, after degassing the wine, it called for a placement of a SOLID stopper on the carboy and to let wine sit and clear for a period of time. I was curious why they want a solid stopper at that point instead of continued use of an airlock to ensure CO2 continues to release? If i used an airlock instead, would it affect the clearing process?

Also, when using juices or purees is it necessary to rack the wine before it is fully fermented? I noticed many fruit wine recipes call for the first racking when the SG gets to about 1.030. They don't say why, but I assume that's to get the juice off the pulp. But if I am using juice or puree to start with can I just leave it in the primary fermenter until fermentation is complete?

Thank you very much for your consideration to these questions.

Welcome to the forum! I always use an air lock on my aging carboys. Sometimes after a year in the carboy, I'll use a solid stopper, but rarely. I believe the air lock allows gases to escape, & allows the wine to react to temp changes etc. As far as racking at SG 1.030 for fruit wines, I have seen that too. I rack my fruit wines off the gross lees at SG 1.005 too 1.020. My personel preference, prefer to keep under air lock at those #'s for better protection. Roy

Let me stab at an answer. Your first question ask about a solid bung, the kit instruction does say AFTER you de-gas. There should be no CO2 left at that point. The problem I have is keeping a solid bung in place because of changing pressure so I use an airlock.

Your next question about racking too soon is important. Others may disagree with me here but now I never rack before the SG hits 1.000. I have racked twice before when it was still above 1.000 and had a mess both times because it overflowed. I would say if you are going to rack before 1.000 then leave plenty of space. There is nothing wrong with leaving it in the primary until fermentation is complete.

I make my wine in a cellar that is cold. I heat a small room with a portable heater. Once in a while I have a hard time keeping the temps up where I want them. When that happens I will rack off the primary after a week so I can get it off the lees. You do want a little head space.

I would never use a solid bung.

I go to a solid bung after the post mlf racking.

ny3299 said:

I have two questions please:

In wine kit instructions, after degassing the wine, it called for a placement of a SOLID stopper on the carboy and to let wine sit and clear for a period of time. I was curious why they want a solid stopper at that point instead of continued use of an airlock to ensure CO2 continues to release? If i used an airlock instead, would it affect the clearing process?

Also, when using juices or purees is it necessary to rack the wine before it is fully fermented? I noticed many fruit wine recipes call for the first racking when the SG gets to about 1.030. They don't say why, but I assume that's to get the juice off the pulp. But if I am using juice or puree to start with can I just leave it in the primary fermenter until fermentation is complete?

Thank you very much for your consideration to these questions.

Click to expand...

I use an airlock rather than a stopper until I bottle. I like to know that the carboys can handle any pressure or temperature changes.

I have racked at 1.010 and had wine overflow my carboy, so I have to leave more headspace. I like to wait until the wine is nearly dry and then rack because I can fill the carboy up more fully without concern of wine volcanos.

After all of the fussing around (degassing/stabilizing/back-sweetening/etc.) is done and you've topped your carboy to a reasonably minimal airspace, a solid bung should be able to stay in place. Hopefully your aging wines will be in a location where temperature swings will not be great enough to be of consequence. HOWEVER,,,, can you be sure that the batch is ENTIRELY degassed??? On that note I must declare that my wines are always under airlock until the cork goes in the bottle! Just have to check them every now and then since the liquid can evaporate.

What does MLF mean?

Also, why would the wine overflow at first racking with a higher SG - just so I understand.

ny3299 said:

What does MLF mean?

Click to expand...

Malolactic fermentation

ny3299 said:

Also, why would the wine overflow at first racking with a higher SG - just so I understand.

Click to expand...

Sometimes racking an active fermentation will 're-energize' the yeast. If you do not leave enough headspace in the secondary, you get to practice your clean-up skills.

If you wait until the wine is dry, this is not a problem.

Either way works, so long as you plan ahead.

ny3299 said:

What does MLF mean?

Click to expand...

Your questions were regarding a kit, so I want to point out that you should not do malolactic fermentation on your batch.

Thanks very much!!

Topping off a fruit wine

I am in the midst of a blackberry wine fermentation. It's a one gallon batch, however, the first racking into secondary fermentation shows about 2 1/2 cups of headroom in the 1 gallon carboy. It's not an issue now that it's still fermenting, however, when fermentation is completed I am going to need to top it off. I know I can displace it with marbles or move it into a smaller jug, but I am interested in suggestions on what I can use to top it off. So, my question is what should I top it off with? If it was less headroom, I would use distilled water, but 2 1/2 cups is a lot on a one-gallon batch to use water, right? If I use a store-bought blackberry juice, should it be from concentrate or not from concentrate? Anything else about using a store-bought juice I should look out for - any recommendations on what to use overall? I would prefer to keep it a pure blackberry flavor, so topping with a red or white wine is not my preference. I would really appreciate your thoughts on this. Thanks very much!!

Airlock overflowing

Hi, I am on stage two of my winexpert malbec. I went from primary to secondary fermenter. The wine is bubbling up into and out of my airlock. What should I do? I just removed and cleaned the airlock and refilled with water. My carboy was pretty full. My SG was below 1.010 as directed.

You can safely leave the airlock off until the fermentation settles down a bit. If you have some cheesecloth, you could throw that over the top.

You can also remove some of the wine and put it into a sanitized wine bottle or mason jar for a day or so.

Hi Paul, Thanks Im just going to keep an eye on it and clean the airlock as necessary to reduce juice build up. If it gets too crazy I will take off the airlock for a bit. Thanks Dave

Sounds like a fine plan!

Hi Paul, Do you know where I can read a good way to clean and sanitize wine bottles? I think I am going over board with my cleaning. I have gotten about 50 bottles from the town recycle bin. Some had some fruit fly larva and so now I extra paranoid about making sure the bottles are super clean. So far I have soaked and removed labels and used bleach and water to kill off anything inside them. I have a brush I plan to use with oxyclean. After that I am going to soak in clean water to make sure all the bleach etc is gone. Before bottling I am going to use Star San on each bottle. Any advice or where to learn more would be appreciated. Thanks Dave