Racking.

[Becks the Elder]

Hi everyone,

I have now managed to get my elderberry wine through its primary fermentation. I racked into six 1 Imp. Gallon demijohns on Friday morning. While reading about the next stage for the batch I read that the wine should only sit upon the 'gross lees' for a few days to avoid contamination from dead yeast cells and other nasties which may have transferred from the primary... or have I misunderstood? Having racked from the primary to demijohns is the wine now on gross or fine(ish) lees?

As this is all new to me I just wanted to ask what I should do next and when? Do I need to rack again in the next day or two or should I leave the wine for a month before its next racking?

 

[Racer]

I only rack off of the gross lees when the wine has gone below 1.000 and remains at the same reading for 2 days.If you rack before the yeast is able to finish you may end up with a little residual sugar in the wine.Dead yeast cells aren't your biggest problem this early on but the rest of the old pulp and such can give you the problems you mentioned.

 

[Wade E]

Gross lees are what you leave behind in the primary fermenter, What your wine will be sitting on for awhile now is seconary lees or fine lees. Most people rack around 1.015 and hardly ever have poblems. Sitting on dead yeast to long can actually cause the yeast to canabalize themselves and give an off smell and taste to your wine. 10-14 days is not long enough for this to happen though so dont worry about that either.

 

[Becks the Elder]

Thanks for clearing that up, I obviously got a little confused... again.

 

[Luc]

Like the others said.
you will be fine.

Now just wait till a lot of sediment appears on the bottom and then
rack again. That way the wine will clear.

I just wonder why you racked to 6 1-gallon carboys.
Why not to 1 6-gallon carboy or did you not have that at hand.

Luc

 

[Becks the Elder]

Hi Luc,

1 Gallon demijohns were all I had but I ordered a 5gal carboy this morning. I've been picking up secondhand demijohns from my local brew shop for £2 each but they have run out now and I want to get another batch underway so I decided to 'go large'.