My kit says not to top off in secondary yet.

[malisk]

4 week vino Italiano valpolicella..

My kit says after racking to secondary after 7 days (I have just done this) to not "top off" yet. It says to wait two weeks (when I add the Chems to clear the wine) before topping off. Everywhere else I have read says you MUST top off right away in secondary. Can someone explain the reasoning behind not doing it? When I transferred it was at 1.0 gravity.

Pic related.

 

[DoctorCAD]

The company wrote those directions for a reason, follow them.

After you learn what happens when you do it right, then you can start changing things and learn what makes it better or worse.

 

[Rocky]

Malisk, the company is counting on the continuing fermentation in secondary to provide enough CO2 under the airlock to protect the wine. I am not sure at what SG you transferred to secondary (I am usually around 1.020 or so). I think they feel it is easier to stabilize, degas and clarify if there is some "head space" in the carboy. I guess it is okay, but I usually fill the carboy to the neck. When it is time to stabilize, degas and clarify, I use my wine thief to remove some of the wine to ease these processes.

 

[GreginND]

I generally leave a little more room when I go from primary to secondary when wines are not completely dry. I think it should be fine.

 

[robie]

Topping off is not necessary during secondary unless you waiting until the SG stopped dropping before you racked to secondary. The main thing during secondary is to close up the wine and add an air lock.

 

[cpfan]

One reason for NOT topping off on the first rack into a carboy is that it will allow sufficient space for some serious stirring during degassing. IMO, you can't degass by stirring (manually or drill powered) without some headspace in the carboy.

Steve

 

[Dugger]

You mention that everywhere else it says to top up right away when transferring to the carboy. It could be that what you have read elsewhere refers to those kits which do a complete fermentation in the primary bucket and thus when you rack to the carboy you are to stabilize and top up, since no more CO2 is being produced to protect it.
The kit you are doing does an initial ferment ( primary fermentation) in the bucket and the fermentation is then completed ( secondary fermentation) in the carboy and CO2 is still being produced to protect the wine from exposure to oxygen. Thus you do not to top up until you get to the stabilization stage.

 

[derunner]

I don't see it in your kit, but some kits also leave headspace to allow for later adding a F-pack of sweetner/flavor that gets added when stablizing.