Primary Fermention complete before 1st racking!!!

[flatfoot]

Hi

I'm new here and hopefully someone can help me. It's been about 10 years since I made my last batch of wine. Recently, I bought two Amarone kits from Argentia Ridge and started them 10 days ago. As per the instructions, I did the primary fermentation in a covered pail at 70-72 degrees. At first there was a lot of action but then after a week it slowed right down. I thought I should have racked the wine into a carboys sooner but the instructions said to wait until day 10. The starting SG was 1.090 and I was freaked out to find that the SG today was 0.994 with no evidence that fermentation is still going on. I racked the wined into the carboys but now I'm wondering if I should proceed to the next step without waiting until day 25. (It's a six week kit). I will take another reading before I do anything and make sure that fermentation has ended but there are NO bubble coming out of the airlock which would indicate to me that fermentation has STOPPED! My big worry here is that even though the wine is saturated with CO2, I'm worried about oxidization because I haven't topped it up to within 2 inches of the airlock yet because I haven't degassed or added clearing agents and the sorbate to stop any further fermentation.

Soooo, I'm wondering if I should leave it until day 25 to let things settle out before racking again or if I should go ahead and add the clearing agents and rack right away and then top it up to protect it from oxidization.

 

[bkisel]

Welcome to the forum!

I'm surprised that your instructions don't say that the days are approximate but give you an SG range at which to move onto the next step(s). I would take another reading ~ 24 hours after the SG 0.994 reading you got and if the same go ahead and stabilize, degas and clear.

Without having degassed I'd not worry about oxidation, certainly not over the next several days.

 

[flatfoot]

Hi Bill

Thanks for putting my mind at ease...I thought I'd be damaging my wine if I left it for any longer. The kit instructions gave specific SG ranges and specific days. After re-reading them again it isn't clear which one should be used however in the future I'm going by SG readings for sure, at least for the fermentation end of things.

 

[MrsJones]

Did you get this kit from Costco? This juuuust happened to me!! My Amarone finished fermentation at day 9; down to .994!

I racked, waited 24 hours, SG was stable so moved onto the next step.

 

[flatfoot]

YES! Mrs. Jones these kits came from Costco. Glad to see I wasn't the only one. I'm going on to the next step tomorrow when I confirm that the SG is the same. I'm making two kits at the same time (60 bottles) so hopefully by next Christmas this stuff will be at it's prime.

 

[MrsJones]

Hey Flatfoot; I wanted to ask you if your clearing with this wine is taking forever! Mine has dropped a lot of sediment but is still dark with no light penetration through the Carboy.

 

[flatfoot]

Yes I think we're pretty much in the same boat. I think the key here is to be patient with this batch. If you look on the bottom of your carboy you'll see a fair amount of sedimentation (lees) there. I'm going to rack this at least two more times just to take the wine off the lees. Remember we didn't follow the instructions exactly because our fermentation completed in the primary so we have to allow for 'extra' rackings that we would have done. I'd start to be concerned if, nearing the six week mark, it still hadn't cleared sufficiently however there's nothing wrong with letting it clear for another week or two after that mark just to make sure it's totally clear. I think I'm going to 'polish' mine at the final clearing by running it through my #2 filter before bottling. Please keep in touch and let me know how things are going. Right now I'm exactly 2 days short of 4 weeks in so there's still time to let things clear.

 

[flatfoot]

I started batches on November 4 and 5 respectively so I've got at least two weeks to go and I'll let it go a little longer couple weeks if need be- however I've got a nice All-Juice Master's Edition Viognier waiting to go so I need the carboys!

 

[Tenbears]

As a mead Guy I never manually degas, as long as the wine is off gassing there is little concern over oxidation as the wine is shielded by the Co2 look for positive pressure in the air lock. I have carried my mead making techniques into wine making, it takes a bit longer, but produces a fine wine. Top that baby up and let the wine take it's coarse. JMHO.