When Moving From Primary To Secondary How Are You Straining Out Sediment?

[critterhunter]

We've made wine twice so far and haven't used a mesh bag to contain the fruit (pears). The first batch we made we ran the sediment through a mesh bag, but truth be known after squeezing the juice through the bag most of the sediment ended up back in it anyway.

This time we found something that seemed to work better, or at least went quicker. We used a huge funnel and a kitchen screener. We'd pour some from the primary into the screener, shake the screener, and the juice would slowly move through. Perioditicly we'd rinse the screener out with water to remove the crud that would slow things down. By using a big funnel we were able to wildly shake the screener to get the juice moving. Seemed to work well.

However, one day later the carboy we racked from the primary to has about half it's volume filled up with sediment. I'm sure this sediment will compress and settle over the next week or two but I'm just wondering if there is a better way to filter the junk from the juice? We are going to lose a good bit of volume by the looks of it when we rack the next time in a week or two, even if it compresses a good bit.

While I'm at it, I asked this in another thread but figure this would also be a good place to get input. Let's say in a week or two when we go to rack again we need to make up for a good bit of lost volume. This wine is going to be real high in alchohol content so we wouldn't mind watering the alcohol down a bit.

We had used 30+ pounds of pears and 1 & 1/2 gallons of Raspberry/Apple Juicey Juice juice in the 7 gallon primary. Can we pour more juice in there when we rack it to make up for the lost volume? We want to water down the alchohol content, enhance the raspberry flavor, and NOT allow it to convert the sugar in the juice to yet more alcohol.

Can we put in the juice and Sorbate to halt the fermentation? Any negative effects to pouring more juice in? Should it be boiled first? And, since we used 1 campden tablet per gallon a little over a week ago when we made the primary, do we need to add more campden along with the sorbate to halt it?

Or would you recommend adding say a 50/50 mixture of water/juice to make up for the lost volume along with the sorbate and (?) Campden? Also, should that be boiled?

 

[critterhunter]

Oh, and I know some of you might say pouring it through a funnel is the wrong way to do things but we did that with the first batch to (though using a mesh bag to strain it) several rackings because we were new to wine making and didn't know that on your second racking you should only siphone down to the sediment. Still, I guess this is what they call splash racking and from what I hear it's good to do the first racking or two to degass the wine. Our first batch came out great with no oxidation, and we didn't even use 1 campden tablet per gallon in the primary on that batch to prevent it.

That's other thing I'm curious about. If you splash rack the first time or two does that get rid of the need to de-gas your wine before bottling? We didn't de-gas our first batch.

 

[Lurker]

If you know it is wrong, why do it that way. Apparently you know the correct way, do it right.

 

[Ken914]

1. Mesh bags are your friend. They're cheap and reusable.
2. Steamer-juicers are even friendlier, but they cost more. No sediment to speak of - just wonderful fruit juice right into the primary.


Now that I'm done pontificating...

Sediment should settle out of the must. However, if you still have huge amounts of your pear remains, I'd consider getting a new fishtank net, sanitize it, and use that to gently scoop out your pear pulp. If you're wearing sanitized rubber gloves, you can probably squeeze the juice out of the pulp with each net-full you catch.

 

[Tom]

Critter,
STICK TO ONE QUESTION PER THREAD

Have you not EVER made wine? Some very basic questions you have been asking?
Julie replied to you with some great info on some books to read.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Yeah - it gets kind of confusing on which question to start with.

Are you not racking your wine - just pouring it through a funnel?

I would get a racking cane some siphon hose and rack your wine.

If you wine is still cloudy - i would hit it with some super kleer.

 

[Daisy317]

...If you splash rack the first time or two does that get rid of the need to de-gas your wine before bottling? We didn't de-gas our first batch.

I would think (and others correct me if I'm wrong), that "splash racking" would simply put more air back into your wine, not remove it.

I always degas my wine because I am a patient person, but would rather help speed up some things when I can.

 

[critterhunter]

Critter,
STICK TO ONE QUESTION PER THREAD

Have you not EVER made wine? Some very basic questions you have been asking?
Julie replied to you with some great info on some books to read.

Excuse me, but is this the BEGINNERS WINE MAKING FORUM? What's your problem anyway? For no reason at all you've been rather rude in several threads to me. I'm just asking questions. After all, this is the BEGINNERS WINE MAKING FORUM, isn't it?

If you don't like people asking beginner questions then go to one of the other forums or use your scroll bar. I've been told to feel free to ask anything and everything in this forum and people would be more than willing to help out us newbies.

If you are telling me that a BEGINNERS forum isn't for asking basic and what may seem like stupid questions to somebody as experienced as you then why does this forum even exist in the first place? Would you rather I not ask and just blindly go about doing things?

Yes, this is my second batch of wine and with that new questions have arrived. I'm still trying to fill in a lot of gaps. What I've found in wine making is that people leave out a lot of basic details that may seem real obvious to you but are a big mystery to us beginners.

One thing I've learned in several fields is that one should feel free to ask and learn. Maybe wine making has a more "sophisticated" class of people who look down on those who are still very new to the hobby. Is that what you are telling me?

Let's take the blunt remark about "if you know you are not supposed to do something then why do it?" Well, I've had many people tell me that it can be a good thing to splash rack the wine the first few times you rack it by pouring it through a funnel in order to release gases. We did that with our last batch and suffered no oxidation problems.

During fermentation we smelled rotten egg smell from the breather a bit and were told that this was due to lack of adding enough yeast nutrient. We were also told to make sure we splash racked it several times to release that gas/odor before it started to effect the taste of the wine. Since it turned out well I figured we should do the same thing this time, pouring it through a funnel instead of siphoning it off. Now it appears your saying that doing that is very wrong. OK, how about some reasoning behind that to explain things, and why others are telling us the exact opposite thing here?

And yes, with the last batch we did rack the wine off with a hose and leave the sediment behind. I'm talking about from the primary to the secondary and perhaps the first racking after that when there is a ton of sediment in there. We need to get some of the juice out of that excessive amount of sediment.

 

[Tom]

Critter please stick to one question per thread. You start asking one question and 1/2 way down you ask another then make a statement. It gets confusing for those who reply to you.
Don't be so defensive. If you ask a short question rather a long one you will get better response.
We mods and members are here to help but your questions are to long and confusing. Just keep it short. Julie sent you to a link that you should enjoy. We also have a search on the forum that can help you as well.

 

[Ken914]

Dude, breathe deep. Relax.

It sounds like you have a lot going on with this batch and you may be getting some not-so-good advice.

Are you keeping a log of what you're doing? If you haven't been doing so, it's really important so you can identify the sequence of what's happening.

My suggestion (WMT wisdom that was given to me early on) is this:

1. Start a new thread.
2. Begin your post with your recipe. Also, include your SG (starting gravity) of your must.
3. List the steps of what you've done.
4. If you've deviated from the recipe, state when/how.
5. Ask THE question you need to ask. Likely, people will ask you to take additional readings of the gravity of your must, so just get a current reading now and post it.

People here are great, but I think you've confused many of us with your post. It sounds like you're deep into the process and it's not going as expected.

Best of luck,
Ken