2nd ferment - going by SG vs bubbles?

[Carson]

Hi
In the secondary fermentation step I know you are (at least with this wine kit) supposed to let it go to .99 or less. I had heard (it may have applied to beer) that you can let the process go until you are getting only 1 bubble every couple of seconds. Is this a fairly accurate way to judge when the secondary ferment is done? I don't have an easy way to siphon off a bit of wine for testing - also if I do this should I be throwing this wine out and retopping with water?
Thanks for your time.
Carson

 

[Wade E]

Never go by airlock activity as most wine will give small airlock activity for quite some time with C02 escaping. C02 is trapped in your wine until time itself relieves your wine off this gas which at cooler the 75* van take a year or more or by degassing it with a drill mounted stirrer or vacuum device or by good ole fashoin spoon and some serious elbow grease. As for pulling some wine out to test it as long as what you used to take it out and put it in was sanitized well then you can add it back.

 

[Luc]

Hi
I had heard (it may have applied to beer) that you can let the process go until you are getting only 1 bubble every couple of seconds. Is this a fairly accurate way to judge when the secondary ferment is done?
Carson

If you have still 1 bubble every so many seconds fermentation still has NOT finished.......

Luc

 

[Wade E]

This depends on how much gas there is. I jst had a batch of wine that I thought was still fermenting which really was hard to believe at this point so I checked again and it was at .990 I degassed heavy and now she sits for the last 2 days with not 1 bubble at all. There will be wines that just hold a ton of gas and some that dont, Lyc can surely be right but all Im saying is use a hydrometer and check.

 

[Boozehag]

Can I just ask how do you know if you have degassed the wine enough at this stage? What if you didnt degas it enough, do you have to restir it up and then wait for it to clear again?

 

[Wade E]

Mostly if you havent degassed enough, your wine wont clear. But if you feel unsure then wait till you have racked off the lees and degas again.

 

[Boozehag]

Thanks Wade, I must have done ok with the first one as its clearing nicely. Appreciate the help.