Sediment in the bottom of carboy

[Neeshac]

So I followed my directions, and finished up this evening, and my wine is clearing already, but there is a layer of sediment forming in the bottom. What is it, and should it be there?

 

[Pumpkinman]

It is sediment (lees), rack it off the less to a clean carboy.

 

[garymc]

When it clears, that happens by the stuff that makes it cloudy settling in the bottom of the carboy. When you rack, you probably stir it a little and get some of the sediment into the new carboy, but if you leave 90% of it behind each time you rack, soon you will have no perceptible sediment and clear wine.

 

[jamesngalveston]

what kind of wine is that

 

[saramc]

Neeshac...do some research on 'wine lees'. But the lees are essentially an accumulation of live/dead yeast cells & any other solid which has dropped out of solution. As the must degasses it starts to clear and lees will drop for several months. You have two types of lees: fine and gross. You definitely need to be able to distinguish between the two and how to handle them. Note that when making a kit the instructions may tell you to stir the lees into suspension before racking, but in non-kit scenario you typically want to leave the majority of lees behind (so you avoid stirring the must, etc before you rack). There is also a process called 'sur lies and battonage', makes for interesting reading.

 

[robie]

So I followed my directions, and finished up this evening, and my wine is clearing already, but there is a layer of sediment forming in the bottom. What is it, and should it be there?

What part of the process of making wine did you finish up last evening?


Did you add the clarifiers (clearing agents)? If so, the sediment is the result of your wine clearing. All the cloudy stuff in the wine will drop to the bottom as yours is doing. Let it continue to drop sediment for the time given in your instructions, then rack it carefully to a clean carboy to avoid taking the sediment with it.

 

[Elmer]

Rack the wine off the goop (lees),
Take the goop out to your back yard (parking lot will suffice if that is all that is available).

Dump lees on ground,
Pour a ton of gas on goop.
Light on fire.
Dance around flames celebrating.

Goop 0 Neeshac 1

 

[jamesngalveston]

Elmer....lol
Never ever try to make a peach are mango...you will go crazy

 

[Neeshac]

what kind of wine is that

It is peach, and I hope it is good!

 

[Neeshac]

What part of the process of making wine did you finish up last evening?


Did you add the clarifiers (clearing agents)? If so, the sediment is the result of your wine clearing. All the cloudy stuff in the wine will drop to the bottom as yours is doing. Let it continue to drop sediment for the time given in your instructions, then rack it carefully to a clean carboy to avoid taking the sediment with it.

There was no time given in the kit instructions. I am to bottle in two weeks. I can and will rack it off, but that will probably leave a good bit of empty space in the carboy. I don't want to back fill because it will affect the ABV, unless I back filled with a wine or something. Thoughts? Will having some room in the carboy hurt if it is only going to be a couple of weeks? From the look of it, I would say I will lose about a quart of volume if I had to guess.

 

[jswordy]

Don't worry about the time in the kit instructions at this stage. You can let it go longer. It will be better for bulk aging longer in the carboy The kit is all about "do it quick" because that's what people want nowadays - INSTANT! Time is usually your friend on the back side of fermentation in winemaking. So don't stress over it.

It is far more important to give your wine time to clear really well than it is to get it in a bottle prematurely and then watch it drop sediment in the bottle.

 

[Neeshac]

Don't worry about the time in the kit instructions at this stage. You can let it go longer. It will be better for bulk aging longer in the carboy The kit is all about "do it quick" because that's what people want nowadays - INSTANT! Time is usually your friend on the back side of fermentation in winemaking. So don't stress over it.

It is far more important to give your wine time to clear really well than it is to get it in a bottle prematurely and then watch it drop sediment in the bottle.

Sounds good. So racking it off and having some air space in the carboy will be ok? Or do I need to back fill to the neck again with something?

 

[jamesngalveston]

the peach and the mango batches i made were pure heaven...just excelent.
my mango came in at about 15 % abv and after back sweetning a tad..It is a smooth semi dry, with beautiful color and a good mouth feel. I would make more, but I have a fig,mustang grape,db and a 6 gallon black berry going.
in primaries...a db,blackberry,strawberry,and black and blue in secondary.
our of room and buckets,lids,airlocks..lol

 

[Duster]

neeshac, you will need to top up your carboy. If your sweetening the wine then simple syrup will take up some of the airspace, just make sure you stabilize it first. Also if you planned on adding oak, that will help with the air space also.
Different members have different methods of combating the topping up delima. Some use water (Not recommended with a peach) some use glass marbles I have even seen an air bladder bag inserted into the carboy. I prefer just buying a cheap bottle of white wine and adding it to the carboy when needed.
For me, with the addition of oak, simple syrup and making about 1/2 gallon extra from the get go, I seldom have to do this anymore.

 

[jamesngalveston]

I do started making xtra...if i do 3, i make 3 1/2 are 4, if i make 5, I make 6, etc...what doesnt fit in carboy, i put in 1 gallon and 1/2 gallon jugs with air lock..and pull from that when needed during racking./
learned from every one here.

 

[BernardSmith]

You might simply rack into a smaller carboy. If you made 6 gallons then rack from the lees into a 5 gallon container. If you made 5 gallons, rack into a 3 gallon carboy and add any excess to single gallon or smaller containers, including wine bottles and mason jars. I recently found local stores that sell milk in 1/2 gallon glass bottles with necks that I can attach a bung and airlock to. I guess my point is that you may want to amass a range of containers that you can rack into without any need to "top up" carboys with too much headroom caused by the removal of lees. Presumably , as the years pass and you make the same or similar wines again and again, there is no reason why you cannot add a bottle or two of the same variety of wine to the carboy to top it up.