Did I mess up?

[jkruer01]

I added yeast to my first batch of wine on 2/24/10. I used the Blueberry recipe from this site:
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4549

I had a starting SG of 1.080. I left the lid sitting on top of the wine but not sealed. 2 or 3 times a day for the past week I pushed the fruit bags down to the bottom to keep the fruit moist and slowly mix the must.

Last night (7 days after adding yeast) I checked the sg for the first time and it was .992. I plan on transfering to secondary tonight.

Did I wait to long to transfer to secondary. Everything I read on here it seems like I should have transfered to secondary sooner while it had a higher sg. Since I have left the lid just sitting on the primary and not snapped shut I am worried about oxidation at this lower level of sg.

How full do I need to get my secondary to help avoid oxidation? Besides squeezing the fruit bags and siphoning to the secondary, what else do I need to do?


Thanks!
Jeremy

 

[Larryh86GT]

I think you are doing just fine. That first batch is a nail biter isn't it? I'm pretty new at wine making also. I have my 4th batch of raspberry honey in the primary right now. I racked my first 3 batches into the secondary after about a week but am thinking of letting this batch sit for 2 weeks before moving it. It just gets so much easier as you do progressive batches and see that it really is a lot easier to do. (Yes, I'm the one who started the "How do I use my auto-siphon" thread not so long ago.
Larry

 

[wyntheef]

Jeremy,
Don't panic. It doesen't seem to be way too much time and also there will be helpful answers coming. Your'e in the right place.
I'm fairly new at this myself, so please defer to those more experienced. But to help out a bit, yes you should transfer to secondary as soon as you can for the reasons you stated.
Normally, you can leave some headspace in the secondary because there is still some fermenting going on, but since your juice is already fermented out, I would think to top up to 2" from bung and airlock.
Unless you have already added a second application of meta bisulfate, you should do that also when you transfer.
The other things you should do are to relax, enjoy the fact that you are actually making wine, and learn from whatever happens.

Steve

 

[Tom]

Jermey,
Take a deep breath and say everything is OK
Some here rack a little earlier than you did. Some do not. leave some head space in the secondary for degassing. Let it sit for a week so more solide will fall. Keep checking the gravity as it still may go down more After a week ck the gravity if it is as low as it can go then add the meta and sorbate. NOW degas. Here is where you should decide it you want to add a f-pac (flavor pac) and backsweeten.
If not adding a f-pac add clearing agents to help the solids fall.
You will get ALOT of sediment. Dont be in a hurry to rack when you see this. When you do leave it behind.
Get back to us anytime

 

[jkruer01]

Thanks guys!

Jeremy

 

[Wade E]

Since it was still loaded with C02 and since its a darker wine youll be fine, if it was an apple or something very fragile it really could have starting browning but even that is very iffy do to the short time you are talking about. I highly dought it will ferment anymore from the sg you gave us at all. I would degas at this time and sulfite it and also add sorbate if you are going to sweeten this batch.