WineXpert reached FG too soon. skip step?

[daugenet]

I am making a selection original series chianti kit and had it fermenting for 5.5 days. The directions say to



1 rack it once the gravity reads 1.010.
2 let it ferment down to .998 or less and then add sulphites and fining agents making sure to stir up the lees or else it wont clear properly.
3 wait 8 days and then rack again
4 wait 14 days and then bottle

Well when I cracked it open it was .990. I went ahead and racked and made sure to suck up a bit of the lees since the directions indicated that I would need some for the fining agents.

So should I just go ahead and add sulphite and fining agent?

 

[robie]

It just reached dryness a little sooner than the so-called "norm". The "norm" is only a reference; yours can be a shorter time or a longer time. Same with the final SG reading. If you got to .990, and the SG is no longer dropping (no drop for 3 days in a row means it is finished), your wine is dry, so just follow the steps in your kit and DON"T skip anything.

W.E, more than others, likes to have a lot more sediment present when clearing starts. It's because of the clarifier they put in your kit. And it works great, so no worries.

When you do clear, again, the number of days it takes to actually clear can be different than the "norm". Always wait at least the number of days specified in the "norm" for clearing. Just keep in mind that if it is not clear by then, wait until it is.

Always follow the direction's steps and never skip... and have fun!

 

[daugenet]

Yeah I knew that part of the clarifier was already included. I guess what I was getting at was to see if I should have used all of the lees or just the amount that i sucked up when I racked.

Racking over mid ferment is what is throwing me off. I should have checked the gravity sooner to eliminate this problem.