Topping off fruit wine in 1 gallon

[Gwenakinyi]

It's been 2 weeks in the 1 gal secondary, and now time to rack my cherry wine. There's a lot of sediment at the bottom, maybe 2 inches.

Several questions: do I try to leave behind all of the sediment when I rack? And should I top up with something to eliminate airspace before adding the airlock?

With all of the liquid lost to racking and SG testing, I think there won't be much wine left.

How do you top off when you're making a small batch of fruit wine? Do you do it every time you rack?

 

[Johnd]

It's been 2 weeks in the 1 gal secondary, and now time to rack my cherry wine. There's a lot of sediment at the bottom, maybe 2 inches.

Several questions: do I try to leave behind all of the sediment when I rack? And should I top up with something to eliminate airspace before adding the airlock?

With all of the liquid lost to racking and SG testing, I think there won't be much wine left.

How do you top off when you're making a small batch of fruit wine? Do you do it every time you rack?

Yes, leave behind all sediment, but get as much wine as possible. Some folks even run sediment through a coffee filter to get all they can.

Top up with a wine that is similar to what you're making, do the best you can with cherry, you probably don't have any of that, but something close.

No matter what size batch I'm making, I always top up.

By the way, you shouldn't lose wine to SG testing, sanitize all of your tools and put it back in after testing.

 

[Stressbaby]

Agree with John, don't pitch the wine after SG testing, put it back.
I always try to nudge 1 gallon recipes up to about 1.25 gallons. Then I store this extra off in a bottle or mason jar in the fridge. When racking, I use that for topping up. Very rare any more that I come up short at the end on a 1 gallon batch.
Also, you will get better at racking over time, so your losses will drop as you practice.

 

[Scooter68]

Topping off can be done with water ( I prefer distilled to be safe) or as others suggest with a comparable wine. I figure if my batch was heavy enough on the fruits side then that little loss because of dilution will be no big deal. Also I normally push my alcohol number to around 14-15% so even a little dilution still keeps me in the safe range.

Water is my top-off choice because I make fruit wines only now and there is no "Comparable" commercial wine to what I make. I'd rather up my fruit/gallon ratio and top off with water than introduce another flavor to my wine. That's just my preference. There is one exception that I have made and that's when I backsweeten - With my blackberry wine I use white grape juice concentrate to back sweeten - the aroma that the grape juice adds is great and the flavor of the blackberries blows away any grape flavor.

 

[Gwenakinyi]

Topping off can be done with water ( I prefer distilled to be safe) or as others suggest with a comparable wine. I figure if my batch was heavy enough on the fruits side then that little loss because of dilution will be no big deal. Also I normally push my alcohol number to around 14-15% so even a little dilution still keeps me in the safe range.

I ended up losing a lot of my wine to the sediment; I had to add a whole bottle of commercial sauvignon blanc to top off. I think adding that amount of water would have been detrimental. I like the tip about pushing the alcohol higher to account for addition of water later, good idea.

 

[wineforfun]

Ok, couple of things.

You added a whole 750ml bottle to a 1 gal. secondary? If so, something may have not been right in your initial racking from primary. You shouldn't have lost that much. Of course, I don't know what you lost from tossing the SG reading wine. As others mentioned, dump that back in.

To take care of topping up in the future, make extra to begin with, ie: 1 1/4 gal., 2 1/4 gal., 6 1/2 gal., etc. That way you have a like wine to top up with.

For me, I will only use water if it is a few ounces as I don't want to dilute the flavor.

 

[mikewatkins727]

You may not have two inches of sediment in the bottle. The yeast and other debris will collection on the sides of the jug, giving an appearance of much more sediment.

 

[hounddawg]

did you use finings in your wine, my cherries I let sit at least 2 months closer to 3 before I rack between each rack, to allow lees to drop. co2 to escape, as scooter68 said I only make fruit wines myself, but I make extra, I keep drilled stoppers from my carboys on down to smaller bottles to top off with, I have yet to add anything but what I make myself, I've heard others say they use smaller bottles but keep extra in the refrigerator, that I cant say because I use smaller bottles each size of smaller drilled rubber stoppers and airlocks, I go down to half size wine bottles anything smaller is for taste testing,, LOL
Dawg

 

[Scooter68]

Ref debris on side of carboy - carefully slide a wire (copper wire) down the side to that debris point and you should be able to quickly see if it's just on the side of the glass or the top of the layer.