gongshow during first racking

[VanMkr]

My wine was happily bubbling away for the past 6 days and last night, with the SG slightly above 1, I decided to rack the juice from the fermenter. My siphon tip thingi (to which hose attaches) wouldn't seal between the 2 parts and I was unable to get a steady stream going. After farting around for multiple attempts, I resorted to pulling off the skins, tossing them into a bucket and hand-bombing my wine out of the fermenter with a measuring cup (washed in k-meta soln).

I scooped away until I hit the lees at the bottom and things kinda got stirred up, the wine was quite murky near the bottom. I didn't attempt to remove the last inch or so, it went down the toilet.

The whole process felt like a complete "F" up. Before getting the wine all stirred up, I got a few mouthfuls while attempting to get the siphon going and it tasted quite good. Did all the agitation mess up the wine or will it simply take longer to settle out all the suspended solids?

 

[garymc]

It will simply take longer to settle out all the suspended solids. Except that you usually still have a little bit of sediment a few weeks after transferring to the primary, so you would have to rack anyway in a month or three. I rack the secondary a few weeks to a month after transfer from the primary and then every 3 months after that, so getting more or less sludge at the time of transfer doesn't really matter much.

 

[meadmaker1]

Sounds to me like you are right on track.
Play with your siphon tip thingy a little so you know what to expect
If there is a fool proof way to not stir up lees I havent found it.
Someone to hold it works best for me. But never my wife.

 

[VanMkr]

Sounds to me like you are right on track.
Play with your siphon tip thingy a little so you know what to expect
If there is a fool proof way to not stir up lees I havent found it.
Someone to hold it works best for me. But never my wife.

Whew! I was worried...thanks for the feedback and I'll sip it again in a month when I rack again.