Other Orchard Breezin' Blueberry shiraz - Extra rack?

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DageonYar

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I'm in the middle of a batch of Orchard Breezin' blueberry shiraz. Starting SG 1.050. It's day 21 now, I racked from primary to carboy at day 14 (.996 SG). The instructions call for a final rack and then bottle at day 28, but I would like to know if it would benefit from a rack before then. There is some light lees at the bottom of the carboy now. No activity in the airlock since it was racked (which included adding all the chems).

I also have a mini-jet with #2 filters, and was wondering if it would benefit from running through filtration before bottling (at day 28?).
 
Personally I would probably rack off sediment and filter about day 28 to 35. #1 pads would be my preference but #2 pads will do fine. If you rack, and observe that the wine is very clear then filtering is not necessary.

If you are experienced with the MJ and can filter without sucking up that sediment, then you could skip the racking.

I've done it pretty much every combination possible, and for me, it depends on the circumstances. Currently I'm tending to let wines sit in carboy longer, and skip the filtering.

Steve
 
Just an update :)

I left the wine sit an extra week in the carboy. We then did a rack, and let it sit another day. Then filtered with the mini-jet and #2 pads. Bottled it the next day. The wine is a nice bright clear red (much lighter than a shiraz). It has a wonderful nose of blueberry :) It is rather sweet, and a little light on the alcohol (6-7%?). We had a half bottle left over so we couldn't let that go to waste ;) Chilled it up and it was quite good. The rest will bottle age for a while and likely make some xmas gifts for the fam.
 

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