more lees than anything

[onetoomany]

ok have made grape wine plenty atime.and only get 5% or so of lees..first time making fruit wine..used canned apricots and apricot nectar..fermented fine down to 0.0.....put it into a carboy ,put airlock..came back an hour later and starting to settle..but just seems im going to end up with 20% wine and 80% lees..skeeter pee?or can i filter wine out of the lees? is this normal?

 

[winemaker_3352]

is it still fermenting? How long has it been?

 

[closetwine]

Usually these will compact into a about 10-20% for me. Skeeter Pee is a good idea reguardless. If this is still fermenting I'd wait it out and see if they do compact down for you.

 

[onetoomany]

i was pretty sure its not fermenting .the sugar is gone.but there are micro bubbles mlf?well just wait and see..how many months in the carboy?be for racking ,back sweeting and campden

 

[winemaker_3352]

i was pretty sure its not fermenting .the sugar is gone.but there are micro bubbles mlf?well just wait and see..how many months in the carboy?be for racking ,back sweeting and campden

I would do this when fermentation is complete - take SG readings - when they are the same for 3 days and it is less than 1.000 - consider it done.

Bubbles could be CO2.

 

[closetwine]

i was pretty sure its not fermenting .the sugar is gone.but there are micro bubbles mlf?well just wait and see..how many months in the carboy?be for racking ,back sweeting and campden

Probably degassing, mine does this.

 

[onetoomany]

ok just jumped the gun over excited..lees shrank down to about 40% over night..that i can live with..i dont have any fancy equipment..so how long to wait before racking..30 days? then how long before sweetening?first sweet wine ever