Racking over my port wine...

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JDL

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I am currently at the stage of racking and stabilizing my fruit wine. I pulled the fruit out at 1.015 and it has completed fermentation, it is down to .995.

It is currently in a 5 gallon bucket with little headspace where it finnished fermenting. I am going to be racking it over to a 6.5 gallon carboy to degas the wine and back sweeten it. My question is can I leave it in the carboy for a week with that much headspace? There will be a 1 1/2 gallons of headspace. I have a 3 gallon carboy and some 1 gallon jugs I am going to bulk age it in, but i wanted to be able to let it sit for a week and the rack it off that sediment into the 3 gallon and 1 gallon jugs.

I guess my other option is as soon as it is all mixed up I degass and immediately move over to the carboy and glass jugs.

Thanks,
Jeff
 
You should have as little air in the headspace as possible. I try to get around a half inch from the bung. Bacteria need air to breed.

I've known some folks who sanitized marbles to fill up the space. You may have to use several carboys for now.

You don't want to sweeten just yet. Sweeten around 1 month prior to bottling and add sorbate to prevent refermentation.
 
I am going to try to bulk age it in my 6.5 gallon carboy I think.

I have 5 gallons right now before I sweaten it. That means I will have just below 6 gallons. What can I top it with that will not mess with the taste that is a 1/2 gallon?

It is Wade's chocolate strawberry port and it was only suppose to make 3.5 gallons but I got almost 5 gallons so my 3 gallon carboy to bulk age will not work.

I am using 3 cans of 12 oz strawberry daquiri mix
14 oz of strawberry syrup
8 oz of chocolate extract
1 pint of brandy
2 lbs of sugar disolved in water

My idea is to top it with are as follows...

1) Water (Was told not to use anything more then 750ml of water)
2) More Brandy
3) Add a little more over everything proportionately since that amount is only suppose to back sweaten 3.5 gallons and I have almost 5.
4) Buy a grape port wine and top off with it (Not sure what the grape wine will do to it)

My current idea is to add everything proportionately until i reach the top of the water....

Thanks in advance for any help
 
If you were going to top up and had to make up a gallon could you think of any fluid to use? Or should I just go marbles?
 
It would help to know what kind of fruit port this is, just using juice would dilute it quite a bit so you will want to most likely use juice and brandy or everkleer to keep the abv up and maybe some glycerin to keep the body up also.
 
Wade,

It is your Chocolate Strawberry port recipe. I followed the directions but ended up with 4.8 gallons instead of 3.5.

The only reasons I could see is I just put the fruit right into the must and did not use a fermentation bag, I strained it out with a paint strainer at 1.010, and I crushed the fruit not realizing you just had to slice it up. Besides that I followed your recipe exactly on quantities.

I had a 3 gallon carboy and 1 gallon jug I was going to bulk age it in, but with it being that much and not even back sweatning it yet I decided to go for the 6 gallon carboy. I just need to know what to top it up with.

Thanks,
Jeff
 
You did notice in the instructions
These are extra ingredients for after wine is stable.
8 ounces – Liquid Chocolate Extract
3– Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri Mix
2 lbs – White Table Sugar added to 1 Cup Boiling Water
14 ounces – Monin Strawberry Syrup

My recipes are always designed for having some extra so that you dont fall into his needing to top up later, you should have ended up with around 3 1/2 -3 3/4 gallons. Those ingerdients at the end are to be added after wine is stabilized and therefore nothing should be added after that.
1 Pint – E&J Brandy
 

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