Can you rack too often?

[winemom]

I have a couple varieties of white wine that I started from fresh grape juice on 9/14. They had both completed fermentation on 9/24 so I racked them to clean carboys.

The wines are clearing and have around a quarter inch of new lees in the bottoms of the carboys. At what point should I rack them again? Is it possible to rack too often? Is it harmful to let the wine sit on the new lees?

 

[Rocky]

Winemom, in the first racking you got the wine off of the gross lees and they are the ones that can potentially cause problems. The finer lees you are seeing now are the result of clearing and are not harmful. I usually let the wine go until it is clear, rack it, stabilize it and bulk age in carboys (6 months for whites and 1 year for reds). Even after all this, there will still be more very fine lees in the carboy, particularly if I have added fining agents, and I rack it one more time before bottling.

 

[Turock]

Yes, some people DO rack too often.

As your wines age up now, you'll probably find they'll drop out more sediment. If it gets to around one inch, you can rack again. But then, let your wine age up on the fine lees. You already have it off of the gross lees which contain a lot of yeast cells and the products from fermentation that can cause problems if you leave them on too long.

Typically, we rack one or two times. If you bentonite the primary, you find you need to rack a little more.

 

[JohnT]

I normally rack 3 times.... at 2 weeks, at 4 months, and at 8 or 8 months.

When I say "normally", i mean that this is not a hard and fast rule. Racking happens when the wine needs it. If I have hydrogen-sufide issues or if the wine is overy tannic, then i may make additional rackings.

 

[ejiang]

3 times....that's good to know.

When I look at the kit's instruction, there are 3 racking already in a month
1st racking: primary to secondary
2nd racking: secondary to a clean carboy
3rd racking: rack off the sediments from fining agent

If I follow the kit instruction, I will have way more than 3 rackings in total

 

[joeswine]

to rack or not to rack?

when you have make wine long enough you'll know when not and when ,traditional kits 3 to 4 times, fresh grapes depends on pectin haze, style of wine and type,no hard and fast rule comes with time. stay with kit design and learn from there.......................