Problems with an apple wine.

[kyleb]

This is my first shot at wine making. I started an apple wine in my primary fermenter 6 days ago. The temp was a little cool (65) and today it was finally ready to move to the secondary fermenter. I racked it over and discovered I could only fill the jug about 3/4 the way full! I'm only making a 1 gallon test batch so I can't just go get a smaller secondary.

Should I top it off with water? Apple cider? Leave it alone? I tasted a small sample and it tasted pretty good, still a bit sweet but I think that was to be expected.

The starting S.G. was about 0.1085 and now it's about 1.015. The yeast is Red Star Montrachet.

 

[Wade E]

While its fermenting do not top it up as C02 is filling that void so there is no problem but when its done fermenting you must get rid of all that headspace. If it goes dry and you want it sweeter then add sulfite and sorbate and sweeten with simole syrup or apple juice and that will most likely take up that headspace.

 

[johnjack]

wine is clear but is flatttttttttttttt

 

[BernardSmith]

wine is clear but is flatttttttttttttt

flat
'
Hi Johnjack, By flat you mean... what? Not sparkling? Making a sparkling wine is the something you would do just before you bottle ...and you would prime the wine by adding a quantity of sugar to the wine (assuming there is still active yeast in the carboy). That yeast will ferment the quantity of sugar (perhaps 1/4 C of sugar to 1 gallon of wine) and produce CO2 but if you bottle the primed wine (the wine with added sugar) the CO2 will be trapped in the bottle and will result in sparkling wine when you crack open the bottle.
However, if by flat you mean has no interesting taste perhaps you need to increase the acidity, the tannins, or more of the fruit flavor...
Perhaps if it is "flat" you need to add more sweetness...