secondary fermentation

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Chami

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How critical is it to move your wine into your secondary right at 1.00 sg.
Are there any downsides to leaving it in primary until 0.993?
 
.993 is pretty hard to achieve. That beind said if its a light fruit or a white wine its a good idea to do so as these are pretty easy for the win e to get oxidized, reds I always let ferment to dry in primary, whites I usually rack over at around 1.015 to make sure there is a blanket of gas to protect them.
 
what are you making?

...racking it early is to get it off the lees to prevent any off flavours developing in the wines.... at times I have fermented to dry in the primary.. then racked off to a secondary and sulphited/sorbated for bulk aging. Depends on how much of a deposit the wine throws.

Allie
 
I am making a Cab Suv.
I only had it in the primary for about 2-2.5 weeks at most (though I did have it sit next to the heat register to make sure it doesn't stall)

When I checked it, it was 0.993, so I transfered it to a secondary.

I tasted it and it didn't really taste bad or anything, but was wondering if it could get screwed up by leaving it too long in the primary
 
If it sits in there too long without an airlock and lid sealed then the extar 02 can oxidize it and all the lees can also give it an off flavor so yes there is a point at which it can do harm but you have not reached that point if you had the lid snapped on with an airlock on it.
 
Thanks Wade E,

I always seal the primary and stick an airlock in just in case I don't get to check the SG as often as I would like to.

I guess I just wanted to know if there are downsides to leaving it too long.
 

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