First Racking

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FechterNector

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Can someone explain to me the proper time to rack from the primary? I've seen many different instructions. When it says "rack into carboy" I assume and install airlock. When the airlock is installed wouldn't fermentation slow down fast with no new oxygen? Will 1.010 ferment to dry if racked? Thanks!
 
Yes it probably would ferment to dry but to be honest, I don't like chancing it. Once fermentation is between 1.010 and 1.000 I snap the lid down on the bucket, add an airlock to the lid and just let if ferment to dry in the primary bucket.
 
Personally I don't like to rack until the sg is 1.005 or less. I have had wines foam up after racking to carboy and spritz out of the bung, making a bit of a mess. Worse to clean up if red wine. The oxygen is required at the start of fermentation not at the end.

I have made numerous kits that I racked to carboy in the 1.000 to 1.010 range and they finished .990-.995.

Steve
 
OK thanks. What would the purpose of racking at 1.010? Can you let it go dry with out racking or covering the bucket with airlock? Would it be bad to ferment dry and let it sit in primary below 1.000 for a few days? I appreciate the help!
 
The purpose of racking at 1.010 is to get it under airlock and remove it off of the gross lees, which include a layer of yeast that is autolyzing (dying). As you get towards your terminal (final) gravity, less and less CO2 is being produced. This CO2 creates a protective blanket (CO2 is heavier than O2) that helps keep the wine from oxidizing and helps keep other nasties out. If that CO2 gets depleted you have a large surface area that can absorb O2, which is not good. A topped up carboy has less surface area, especially if you fill it up to within an inch or so of the airlock.
 
The purpose of racking at 1.010 is to get it under airlock and remove it off of the gross lees, which include a layer of yeast that is autolyzing (dying). As you get towards your terminal (final) gravity, less and less CO2 is being produced. This CO2 creates a protective blanket (CO2 is heavier than O2) that helps keep the wine from oxidizing and helps keep other nasties out. If that CO2 gets depleted you have a large surface area that can absorb O2, which is not good. A topped up carboy has less surface area, especially if you fill it up to within an inch or so of the airlock.

Craig I was with your post till you got to the last paragraph about topping up to within 1 inch of the bung....If this is done on first racking to get the mix away from the lees......What happens when you come to degassing.....surely there isn't any room and to transfer the mix to another degassing vessel would introduce more oxygen.

I adopt a far simpler option...I ferment in a 30l fermenting carboy, the type with the 4 inch plastic screw on lid with the hole in the middle for the bung and airlock. I start the brew off and after 24 hrs, I agitate the mix to introduce air for the lazy yeast cells to kick in. It then goes under a bung for between 3 to 10 days when I check daily to see what the sg is By drawing off a little from the tap on the bottom of my vessel. When it gets to 1010 or a little less, it gets racked into another similar vessel and air locked till the fermentation reaches 995 or less, but I tend to use my tongue to test if it tastes right. I very rarely let any mix ferment out completely as I don't like bone dry wine.

Once I have what I think is my perfect mix, taste and nose, in goes the stabiliser and out comes the drill. On the hour every hour she gets a good whipping till the little medicine bottle fizz test shows very little fizz but I never let it go to an absolute flat mix (I will explain why later) Once its been finned and left to settle, the mix goes through 2 big coffee filters in a funnel to get rid of the big bits (about 10 to 20 microns) the mix is then put through my trusty old boots .5 micron filter.

A tip on these filters....when the filter runs slow, stop the action and remove the pad very carefully, place it on a flat chopping board, it will stick quite well and run it under the tap with warm water and scrape a large flat carving knife over the top. This will remove the particles that are blocking the filter and will reduce the overall filter capacity of the pad to around .3 microns. Put it back in with 2 coffee filter papers cut to the exact size as the pad and clamp it all together and away you go.

Once polished and ready to bottle, there will still be a little gas still in the wine and its dead easy to get rid of. Just place the finished wine in a bottle or even a demijohn and use a £5 air extractor pump which can be bought on e bay. The ones people us to take the air out of a bottle of wine which is open. This little pump will draw the bubbles to the top and away and you can see it happening very quickly. After there are no more bubbles coming out, cork it and lay it down.

Bobs your uncle. Job done. I don't believe in leaving wine on lees for any periods and neither do \I think its necessary to leave co2 in the mix for any oeriod of time to escape by cold chilling. My philosophy is, once the yeast has done its job, get rid of it and oncve the sg has reached its final figure, clear the wine of all bad stuff and get it in a bottle with as little gas as possible and let it mature with no negatives in the mix.

A lot on here will say you need patience to make good wine, I disagree, you need to do it right and follow the instructions. A bottle that has gone from start to finish and clear will mature quicker and better than anything else.

My brews are anything from the cheaper end stuff to cantina up to wine expert and they are all in the bottle and laid down within 3 to 4 weeks of starting and I am never disappointed, plus I can tweak and mix as I want to achieve a blend which suits my moods.

Blending is a great way to get what you want. I just brewed a cheap 30 bottle Belvino forest fruit kit and when it was done I mixed in a full gallon of robust merlot. The end result is a wine with a great nose, a great deep red glow, a blast of fruit but the underlying taste is woody which comes from the merlot. 2 wines that don't taste that good alone but together, they are the best summer quaffing brew for a hot sunny day outside with the Barbie and a good steak.

By the way....ABV is measurement of the wine designed for people that need wine, not like it. Wine is brewed for taste, not to fall over on. Ive never checked my abv under brewing by the og and sg figures, I always use a little vinometer and my brews are always between 11.5 to 13.5, so I get a buzz. If you need stronger wine, drink another glass, simples. ABV is so over rated.
 
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I've done a few identical kit wines where I've both racked to "secondary" @ SG 1.020 and gone to dry, after locking down around 1.020-1.010, in the "primary" bucket. These were kits with no packs but some had oak dust or oak chips. I did NOT notice any taste difference one way or the other!
 
I am at day 6 of my Winexpert Chilean Merlot. On day 1, prior to adding oaks and yeast to primary I was at 1.094. I clipped lid on tight and added airlock half filled with water. When I removed today, SG was 1.004. I racked it into my carboy and added bung with airlock half filled with water. I was surprised at how much was actually left at bottom of primary, seemed to do a fairly good job of avoiding getting much sediment into carboy. I tasted what was in the testtube and you know what? I have wine! It tasted a little on the sweet side but could definitely taste the dryness of a merlot. Does it sound so far, so good? What to watch out for in this next step? I'm going to read up on degassing. Will my little electric drill spin the whip fast enough to do the job? I appreciate the help and support I've gotten from this site immensely! Makes me feel a little more confident in what I'm doing.

20150411_105941.jpg
 
Degassing has always been, for me, a pain in the butt. I drill whip 2-3 times longer than the instructions say and then still have to vacuum degas, using a VacuVin, over the course of 2-3 days to get most of the CO2 out. Lots of hand pumping but the end results are worth it even if it is a pain.
 
Craig I was with your post till you got to the last paragraph about topping up to within 1 inch of the bung....If this is done on first racking to get the mix away from the lees......What happens when you come to degassing.....surely there isn't any room and to transfer the mix to another degassing vessel would introduce more oxygen.

Most Kit instructions have you move to an air locked carboy, then after initial clearing (10 days or so), rack some to a 2-4L container and then add clarifiers and degas the original container (from which the 2-4L was removed). Then they say to add back in the wine that was removed.

I am currently doing two kits, one had me top it up, the other says not to worry and don't top it up. When I remove the 2L prior to clarification/degassing, I do so in a container that has been purged with CO2 I use for kegging my beer. Also I try not to "splash" as I transfer by keeping the end submerged below.

I think the important idea is to get the wine under airlock before it reaches terminal gravity.
 
The kits make it sound like its 2 minutes of whipping, then add your finishing ingredients and then another 2 minutes of whipping and you're done. I have yet to see anything that tells me that there is a sign that you're completely degassed. Is there a sign that you're degassed? What do you look for?
 
Pull a sample of wine into a tall cylinder (like what you use your hydrometer in) after sanitizing it. Sanitize your hand. Now cover the cylinder, shake. Remove your hand. If you hear much of a sound of gas quickly escaping, you aren't done.

The best wine whip I have ever used has three longish arms. It generates a great velocity. You can degas in a fairly short amount of time. Personally, after admit three or four vacuum rackings I have no has issues. I think it also helps to stir the wine two or three times a day, during the rapid fermentation.
 
I was having a problem degassing until you all here made me realize that the wine to be degassed needs to be warm (70+ deg F), or at least warmer than my 60 deg cellar where my carboy farm is located.
 
Am I right that during the carboy stage, there will be less fermentation? I notice that the airlock is not bubbling like it was in the primary fermenter.
 
I don't mean to hijack this thread but I have a question for everyone who does secondary in a carboy. I was always under the impression that for secondary fermentation the carboy should only be filled just up to the start of the shoulder, leaving a little room for either foam or because, I assumed, it still needed a bit of oxygen to complete.

It sounds like some of you are saying you top the carboy right up and it still finishes okay. Is that right?
 

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