Racking and Sur Lie Aging

[jh0330]

First off,
I'd like to say thank you to everyone who have helped me so far on my first blackberry wine!

I know this has been asked already but there wasn't much detail on Sur Lie Aging (aging with fine lees).

About 30 hours ago, I strained (with food strainer and then a sanitized cloth very carefully and thoroughly, it took verrrrry long) and racked my wild blackberry wine into secondary.
I can already see the wine clearing (probably clearing this fast because I added bentonite during primary fermentation).

I have close to 2 inches of lees in my secondary already! (the lees look like a really fine white-ish powder).
My original plan was to rack after two weeks but I have so much lees already!

1) I hear fine lees (yeast lees) can add flavour, aroma, and smoothen the wine. How can I tell the difference between fine lees and gross lees? Also, does it really taste better? Should I try or is this strictly only for whites?

2) I've heard stirring the fine lees (or "battonage") will keep the lees from forming hydrogen sulfide. Will this make my wine cloudy again or will it simply fall back down quickly? Any tricks you guys use to avoid air exposure?

3) When should I rack? Should I rack whenever I see 1/2 inch of lees? I already found 2inches of lees in only 30 hours so I expect more lees to fall out soon. I heard racking too much can lead to too much air exposure..

4) I forgot to degas while I was racking into secondary and now scared to do it because of the lees. As long as I degas before bottling, I should be okay right? Any recommendation on when?

 

[Treeman]

If you have marbles, add them now until the liquid level is up into the neck of the container.

Do you only have plastic wrap on the top? If so, then get a silicon cork that fits along with an airlock.

pH right now is much more important than lees stirring. Find a way, or a friend to measure your pH soon. Once you know your pH then you can read about SO2 and KMeta and decide how many camden tablets to add.

Don't worry about racking or degassing until you are ready to bottle in 6-12 months!

 

[jh0330]

If you have marbles, add them now until the liquid level is up into the neck of the container.

Do you only have plastic wrap on the top? If so, then get a silicon cork that fits along with an airlock.

pH right now is much more important than lees stirring. Find a way, or a friend to measure your pH soon. Once you know your pH then you can read about SO2 and KMeta and decide how many camden tablets to add.

Don't worry about racking or degassing until you are ready to bottle in 6-12 months!

I actually had 2 full and one half full.
Today, I used a turkey baster and filled the 2 full ones to the neck. I also replaced all the plastic wrap with a proper stopper with the bubbler. I am planning on using my half full jug for topping up purposes. I will also add all the lees from the other jugs into the half full jug and refrigerate after bubbling has stopped.

I am starting to smell a bit of funk and was worried. Is this because of the gross lees? I want to avoid any off flavours developing if possible.
It's been about 13 days since I picked the berries.