First Crack at It

[Wade E]

Holy crap, sounds like you are making wine! LOL See, it aint so hard is it. Did you get some hose yet? Id get like 15' if you didnt yet. Keep one nice and long and cut a pce just long enough to go from your racking cane down to the bottom of carboy on the floor if your going to be gravity racking.

 

[DirtyDawg10]

Thanks...I'm being patient The kit tells me to check SG at day 5 and then every day after that. Seems like overkill to me. I'll probably check it again in 3 or 4 days.

I did get some tubing. I got a 6ft section for now. I can always get more when I need it. One benefit I have is there are 2 LHBS within 5min of where I work

 

[DirtyDawg10]

So I checked it again this morning and the SG is at 1.010

The kit says to rack it to a carboy at between 1.010 and 1.000 and it will ferment to dry in secondary. The fermentation is still going well judging by the frequency of the bubbles in the airlock. I hear horror stories of the fermentation stopping from doing this and I really would like to keep it in the primary. I'm thinking I probably should remove the oak though...or maybe not. Whatcha think?

 

[diggerdan17]

Go ahead and rack to secondary and remove off the oak. If you find that you want more oak you can always add cubes into the carboy after you degass and fine your wine.

Don't worry about fermentation stopping. you may see the bubbles in your airlock slow down a bit as soon as you transfer but a couple hours later it will be bubbling away again.

 

[Wade E]

With white wine I will usually rack over when stated as I dont mind if it doesnt go bone dry, with reds Ill keep it in there until she cant go no more!!!!

 

[DirtyDawg10]

Racked to secondary...

 

[Deezil]

Lookin good!

Hows it taste/smell?

You'll notice, as you do more batches, that you'll be able to taste/smell past all the Co2 and can get a sense for the character of the wine.. But it doesnt happen if you dont 'test it'

 

[DirtyDawg10]

It smelled very fruity and delicious...it tasted like I drank some baking soda with vinegar...lol...well it was better than that but as you mentioned it was tough to get past the CO2 on my tongue. I could tell it was going to have some good flavor eventually though. Maybe in the next racking I will be able to tell a bit better.

 

[Deezil]

When you're sampling really early wine like this, you can always put it in some sort of plastic bottle and give it a couple good shakes before your sip - but only do it to the portion you intend on sampling

Gets rid of some of that co2 tingle

 

[DirtyDawg10]

Thanks for the tip...I'll try that next time

 

[Deezil]

I dunno why i didnt remember it earlier

 

[Wade E]

Man, thats a sweet looking Mexican, carboy that is!!! LOL Looking good there buddy!

 

[DirtyDawg10]

Si senor

 

[DirtyDawg10]

So no worries with racking to the secondary. The fermentation process didn't skip a beat from what I can tell. I also found out that our dog loves the smell of the fermenting wine...lol...my dog is a wino.

 

[Wade E]

I wouldnt worry with a white.

 

[dangerdave]

...lol...my dog is a wino.

I've got one of those, too.

 

[DirtyDawg10]

I've got one of those, too.

So I picked up a Fermtech wine thief today. SG is down to 0.996 very close So are you guys sick of the updates so far? I figure if nothing else this is a great way to document my progress if I ever want to look back.

 

[Wade E]

Dawg, we dont get sick of these and many of us do the exact same thing! This way when we get hammered and spill a glass of wine on our notebook we can at least copy and paste from here and hit print! Im betting a lot of people wish they did this earlier.

 

[Deezil]

I've yet to stop - see Wine Log in my sig - and im coming into my 3rd season.. Started the thread before i started the wine

 

[DirtyDawg10]

Thanks guys! Great wine log, Deezil!