Cellar Craft Share some kit racking tips please!

[deboard]

I've been making wine for several years now, but I'm a newbie to kits, I have 4 under my belt now, and I'm noticing differences in racking between what I used to make and kits.

What I notice is that when I rack from primary my auto-siphon seems to struggle to stay unclogged, particularly with the kits that have wood chips. The kits that have the oak powder have some problems as well, but not as much. The bentonite sludge seems to be a little of the problem as well, but the wood chips seem to really foul it up.

I tried placing a clean piece of pantyhose (I buy them for straining bags, much cheaper) over the end, but that doesn't help much, it may actually make it worse.

So are there any ways to make this work a little better? Switching to 1/2 inch hose? Do those of you who auto-siphon leave the cap off the bottom when racking from primary?

Anyways, I'm looking for some tips from those of you who have been doing this a while.

BTW, just racked my CC Red Mountain Trio, and it took a long long time, which reminded me to ask this question.

 

[Rocky]

Deboard, some of the things that I have found that help are:

1. install a spigot on the primary fermenter and rack through the spigot rather than a racking cane.
2. put everything that you can in bags, i.e. grape skins, raisins, oak chips, etc. and remover the bag before racking.
3. stir the wine a couple of times daily during primary but as you approach the first racking, i.e. when SG hits around 1.020, let everything settle for a day or so to get everything to the bottom.

Hope this helps some.

 

[Duster]

Rocky gives good advise except I hate putting everything in bags.
I haven't made meany kit wines but I have made several wines that like to plug the auto siphon, peach is bad for this.
a little trick I learned is to sanitize a colander and let her sink 2/3 of the way (I have a plastic one and just setting it on top of the primary she will want to float at about the right level and sometimes I have to even help it down if the cap is thick. Then siphon out of the colander.
Hope that makes sense

 

[cpfan]

deboard:

I have made many many kits (7 years running a Ferment on Premises). I used an Auto-Siphon exclusively. But I have been using the large size, and always use the tip when racking from primary. Yes I have occasionally had the larger oak chips clog the tip. I just shake it back and forth a bit. Yes it causes a bit of the sediment to be carried over, but it's no big deal, it will settle out quickly and be left behind at the next racking.

I don't recall any problems from bentonite or oak powders.

Steve

 

[deboard]

Thanks for the replies and tips, I may try a 1/2 auto siphon, I've been looking for an excuse to buy one anyways. I may try all of them at some point though. I never thought to put the oak in a bag though, does it get enough contact then? I'm not a heavy oak fan anyways, and if I oak anything non-kit that I make, I wait and use staves or spirals later.

I actually thought of doing this with the kits, just save the oak (if it's chips or cubes anyways, not powder), and doing it after I rack it twice. The Red Mountain trio has chips and cubes though, but I could put it all in I suppose. I've been sticking to the instructions for the first few I make though.