Ferment until done?

[Bleedaggie]

Sorry for the dumb question. Making a RJS Shiraz kit. Instructions say to rack to secondary at or below 1.020. It’s been bubbling pretty steadily for 9 days now and just now hit 1.020. But it’s still actively fermenting.

Should I let it continue to ferment until it’s as dry as the yeast will go? Or should I go ahead and rack it?

 

[sour_grapes]

Best practice is to rack before it is completely done. I usually rack at somewhere between 1.000 and 1.010.

 

[BenK]

Not to be contrarian but i usually ferment to dry in primary on pretty much everything. I dont have a ton of experience but others do this as well.

Sour grapes is probably right as a best practice but a kit wine especially wont be noticably hurt as long as you actually rack it in a timely matter and arent constantly opening your primary and letting gas escape.

I use a big mouth bubbler for primary preferentially and the lid with airlock might allow the co2 blanket on top to last longer than using the bucket and towel method. YMMV

 

[Scooter68]

Rather than just go by numbers I watch the amount of activity. Rack too soon and you end up with a foam fountain, a mess and lost wine. When you can stir it and not create a bunch of foam, then it's probably safe to rack into a carboy. That can be at 1.020 or at 1.000 just depends on that particular batch.

 

[Julie]

You can wait until it is dry before you rack to a carboy just make sure you snap the lid down and add an airlock to the bucket once it gets down to around 1.010.

 

[heatherd]

Sorry for the dumb question. Making a RJS Shiraz kit. Instructions say to rack to secondary at or below 1.020. It’s been bubbling pretty steadily for 9 days now and just now hit 1.020. But it’s still actively fermenting.

Should I let it continue to ferment until it’s as dry as the yeast will go? Or should I go ahead and rack it?

Not a dumb question... I tend to rack between 1.010 and 0.090 to reduce the likelihood of foaming/overflow.