Is it ready for the secondary?

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arcticsid

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Just measured the SG on my second batch. The must is at 70F, and the current SG is 1.030, started at 1.110. Pitched the yeast almost 11 days ago but didn't see any activity till the third day. So it's been "going" for 8 days now. Should I go ahead and tranfer it to the secondary now or wait till the SG comes down a bit more? Kind of excited to empty the primary and get another one going, but I have learned from all of you the importance of patience. What do you think? Thinking about using fruit with a comonation of concentrate for my third batch. Without getting to extravagant, any recommendations on the type of fruit. Was thinking of using either apple or grape concentrate for a "base" and adding some type of fresh fruit. I'll be making a 4.5 gallon batch. Was considering using frozen raspberries or/and frozen strawberries. Preservative free of course.
Thanks Gang
Troy
(also, sulphit the secondary, or no?)
 
Never add any sulfites except before you add the yeast to kill any microbes and kill off the wild yeast and then after it is done fermenting or you might end up with a stuck fermentation. Why are you making a 4 1/2 gallon batch? Are you going to put this in a 3 gallon and a 1 gallon carboy? As far as the concentrate batch goes I would either use the grape or apple and still some grape for added body as apple lacks body. \
As far as the wine you are doing now I would probaly wait till it gets to 1.015. What type of wine is this anyway and what yeast strain did you use?
 
4 1/2 because it's the biggest primary I have so far. Going to use 4(1) gallon carboys for the secondary, again, it's what I currently have available. This is a hodgebodge of various frozen concentrates. Grape, Passion, Mango, apple, raspberry, pineapple,cherry, cranberry(It's called "What the hell is that") Tasted a lil of the must taking the SG, thinks it's gonna be great. Used Red Pasteur for the yeast, and 3 tbls yeast nutrient. Seems to be working right along. Thanks for your input.
 
Here goes a newbie question. Why wait till 1.015? It's going into the secondary to keep " doing its thing" anyway. Don't get me wrong, I am going to take your advice, but the curious part of me wants to know why. If I transfered it at 1.03 instead of your recomendation what would be, if any, the adverse effects?
Troy
 
Why wait till 1.015 to rack the wine? Because the fermentation will have slowed way down by the time the wine has gotten to that point.It will be less likely that it will get too foamy on you and cause an over flow problem now that its in a carboy.

That and because the fermentation is less active at that sg. more gross lees will have fallen to the bottom and will not get transfered to the carboy with the wine.
 
Racer nailed that 1! When racking to carboy You want to eliminate all that headspace so that when its done fermenting there is very little exposure to 02. Racking it over when there is just a little fermentation allows for a layer of C02 blanket your wine for protection.

Now, about the amount of nutrient you added, did you really add 3 tbls of nutrient? The recommended dosage is 1 tsp per gallon.
 
Yeah I did, should I be spanked now? did I really mess it up? Seems to be okay. Maybe thats why it seems so happy. Please tell me I didn't mess up beyond something I can't get out of. And now it makes sense about the Sg before the secondary. Now you got me concerned about the nutrient. Please advise.
Troy
 
It could cause the yeast to excrete urea, thereby resulting in elevated ethyl-carbamate levels. It is known to produce a saline or bitter taste. It could also precipitate out as a white powder like a fine dusting on the bottom of bottles or your carboy. Cold stabilization is said to help this precipitate out along with tartaric acids as they usualy bing together at temps around 40 degrees or below. Taste your wine and determine for yourself if it really needs this though as their is no study of how much it takes as different fermenting temps play a big role in the production of this ester. The higher the temp the more of this that will be produced.
 
Actually doesn't taste bad at all, obviously it is still in the primary and I just measured it at 1.020, so shes coming down. Even looking past the yeasty taste I think I may get lucky on this, I hope. Interested in the banana recipe you sent my way, gonna take a closer look later. Thanks
Troy
Temp has been pretty consistent 70F +/- 5 degrees.
 
There are some more recipes on my website near my signature if you are interested in some tried and true good wines. You will have to upgrade to Acrobat Reader 9 to view these most likely but it takes like 3 minutes and youll need to do this eventually soon anyway. Enjoy!
 

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