Sediment & racking

[robie]

I re-read your post. You indicated you have stabilized already. You haven't added the clearing agents, yet, have you?
You should not add them until ALL the wine is ready to clear.
If you have already added clarifiers, let us know before you add the extra wine to the rest.

 

[robie]

Bottling?

You first have to possibly finish secondary, then clarify and add the F pack (in the order your instructions say).
Your instructions should tell you how long to leave the wine clarifying and how long after that before you bottle. It will be at least 10 days (probably longer) clarifying, but...
follow your instructions.

Don't get in too big a hurry to bottle, else you can end up with cloudy wine. If it is cloudy in the bottle, it will stay cloudy.

Just follow your instructions, it will be fine. I have made two O.B. kits and both turned out great.

 

[skyal]

I re-read your post. You indicated you have stabilized already. You haven't added the clearing agents, yet, have you?
You should not add them until ALL the wine is ready to clear.
If you have already added clarifiers, let us know before you add the extra wine to the rest.

I added everything already because I didn't think I could rescue any more of the wine from the fermenter. The kit had me add 2 packages with powder in them (sulfite & sorbate, I think), then the flavour pack, then 2 clear liquid packages (Kieselsol and Chitosan, I believe).

Thank you for your help! I was worried I'd screwed it up & I guess I have.

I knew it would be a couple weeks until I could bottle, just was curious if there were any signs that would definitely show that it was ready or if it's more subjective.

 

[robie]

I don't think you have screwed up!

It will take awhile for the clearing agents (two clear packages) to work, so you are likely just fine. There should still be sulfites and sorbate in the wine to take care of any yeast you may have reintroduced to the wine.

If you added the clearing agents several days ago, you might have a problem getting the wine to clear. (I'd bet your clearing agents are still working, so you will get a clear wine in the allotted time.)

You still have at least one more racking to do, anyway.

Just make sure that when it is time to bottle, there is no sediment AT ALL in the bottom of your carboy. If there is some, rack the wine again, wait about 3 more weeks and if no more sediment falls, bottle.

Also, make sure the wine is crystal clear. Never bottle a non-cleared wine.

 

[BIGJEFF]

If you really want to, you can buy those clearing agents at your wine store, degas and re-clear...i've done it before and didn't see a difference in the taste...

 

[Wade E]

If it doesnt start clearing then you have 1 or 2 problems. One would be that you didnt degas your wine nearly enough and the other would be temps or possibly both of these. If you thinks you didnt degas then you could do this which will stir everything up all over again but if its starting to clear just give it more time. Degassing a wine should be done at a temp around 75* as that is a temp where trapped C02 will come out of fluids much easier then colder temps. Now as far as temps and clearing goes cooler temps work great when clearing naturally bit temps around 75* work way better when using a fining agent so get it up somehow if the temp is lower and youll probably see it start clearing much faster, With kits a temp of 75* is best to maintain all that way through until the wine is clear and ready to age and then its just stable temps that are important.

 

[skyal]

I now have about 1L that wouldn't fit in the carboy. Stupid question...what do I do with it?

 

[winemaker_3352]

get a #2 drilled bung and an S air-lock - fill a 750 ml bottle up and attach the air-lock.

Use the rest for sampling

 

[robie]

OK, at this point you have a carboy full of wine and it has been stabilized and had clearing agent added to it; it is in the process of clearing.

You have 1 liter of wine from the racking just after secondary and it probably has NOT had kmeta and sorbate added to it (it has not been stabilized.). If this is true, I'd just discard it.

If kmeta and sorbate has been added to the 1L:
After the bottle has set long enough to clear on its own, it can be utilized to top up another batch of wine. Maybe in a couple of months but not any sooner.
You can put 750 ml of it in a wine bottle with a bung and airlock on top. You can use a bung like this:
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=5148
Just turn the bung upside down and slip it over the top of the wine bottle.

On your full carboy of wine, after clearing is done and you rack, you will need to top up again with more wine.
BUT, you wouldn't want to top up cleared wine from a bottle of unstabilized or uncleared wine. The wine bottle will not have time to clear before the carboy has cleared and is ready to rack.

In a few months, the bottle will clear on its own. It will develop sediment in the bottom of the bottle, just like the carboy will, but at a much slower pace, since the wine bottle had no clearing agent in it. After the wine bottle has cleared, if you end up racking your full carboy of wine a second time, you can top up with the wine bottle.

 

[skyal]

Thanks! The 1L doesn't have any clearing/stabilizing stuff & I can't easily get any supplies, so I guess my only option is to dump it.

 

[robie]

Thanks! The 1L doesn't have any clearing/stabilizing stuff & I can't easily get any supplies, so I guess my only option is to dump it.

Like Winemaker 3352 said, run it through a coffee filter and sample it. It will be a pretty tart, but the flavor should still come through.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Yeah it is a good way to monitor the taste as you are going along. I sample throughout the process - make sure the smell and taste are normal or not.

 

[WineRookie]

I've had the same questions with our first batch. I'm in the carboy now and have done the stabilizing, degassing and clearing phases. There appears to be a lot of sediment in the bottom of the carboy. What should I use to filter and should I rack it back to the fermenting bucket to filter? One last one for you pros, I've seen vids of people degassing the wine a bunch of times after the clearing stage. Will this ruin the wine to constantly degas it? Can I remove the airlock any time now? I thought the point of the airlock was to keep air out, but by tasting it or degassing it again, I'm introducing more air aren't I?

 

[winemaker_3352]

I've had the same questions with our first batch. I'm in the carboy now and have done the stabilizing, degassing and clearing phases. There appears to be a lot of sediment in the bottom of the carboy. What should I use to filter and should I rack it back to the fermenting bucket to filter? One last one for you pros, I've seen vids of people degassing the wine a bunch of times after the clearing stage. Will this ruin the wine to constantly degas it? Can I remove the airlock any time now? I thought the point of the airlock was to keep air out, but by tasting it or degassing it again, I'm introducing more air aren't I?

Welcome aboard!!

How about posting a thread in the intro section - tell us a bit about yourself.

To your question - using a whip to degass you can introduce O2 - using a vacuum pump you will not.

Make sure you degas around 75* - it releases CO2 easier.

If you don't have an actual filter - buon vino or something similiar - don't worry about filtering it - just give it time.

If you do have a filter - rack off the sediment first - then filter - it is much easier..

If you have a vacuum pump - there is no need to actually degas - you degas as you rack the wine...

Always leave the airlock on - changes in barometric pressure can cause the volume to rise and lower - w/o an airlock it will suck in O2 or blow off the solid bung.