Splash Racking

[Loren]

Am beginning to be a believer in splash racking. Have been trying to get my cranberrry and Black Currant finished fermenting for the last six weeks, has been a real struggle. After reading something here about splash racking, I tried it on the Currant and behold it has started again. So I did it on the cranberry two days ago and it has started again. I have seven different wines going and these two are the only ones I have trouble with. Hope they make it this time. Loren

 

[Tom]

Am beginning to be a believer in splash racking. Have been trying to get my cranberrry and Black Currant finished fermenting for the last six weeks, has been a real struggle. After reading something here about splash racking, I tried it on the Currant and behold it has started again. So I did it on the cranberry two days ago and it has started again. I have seven different wines going and these two are the only ones I have trouble with. Hope they make it this time. Loren

Be careful when you do this. By doing this you run a big chance to introduce to much O2 and oxidize your wine.
We suggest this when to much sulfite is added by mistake

 

[djrockinsteve]

Loren, splash racking can be a double edged sword. Oxygen can help red wine when done early on in the process but sulfite MUST be added to grab the oxygen molecules to keep them off of the wine. Oxygen can introduce and help start unwanted bacteria and turn your wine into vinegar.

It is important to maintain cleanliness and proper sulfite levels each time you expose your wine to oxygen.

Glad the s.r. worked for you.

 

[Wade E]

If you mean by hoding your racking hose up higher in the carboy to areate it better then while its fermenting or while having a stuck fermentation thats good. If you are talking about from one bucket to another very harshly then thats a little bit to hardcore and isnt good unless you are aving a real bad H2S problem.

 

[AlFulchino]

Loren, you are trying to move a fermentation on....splash racking helped you but its not the purpose of splash racking...i think you are confusing things a bit in terms of the definition of the word

you could have simply stirred things up to get the o2 to the yeast....

splash racking among other things is to drive off excess gas...it is also done to drive off excess kmeta....it is done sometimes to open up an alcohol bomb ( high alcohol ) that is hiding things like fruitieness etc.....( at least to give you an indication of what your wine could be like if you decanted or ran thru a vinturi style device

occasionally i will to a splash rack to assist in speeding up the aging of a wine to see what direction the wine is going in ( but not often)

 

[JohnT]

I agree with all of the above. You should splash rack only when you need to.

 

[winemaker_3352]

I agree with all of the above. You should splash rack only when you need to.

Agree as well - splash racking helps tremendously when needed - like stated above - stirring the must around would have probably got the yeast going again.

 

[Lurker]

I have been layed up for a while, few days in hosp. and a few days at home. I'm just starting to look into the forum again. Splash racking is something that I have started. I use buckets of juice for my wines. Each bucket purchased is pre-inoculated with 100ppm of sulfite. After about a year, when ready to bottle, it is between 50 & 70ppm. Too much sulfite and I taste it as it goes down my throat and I do not like it. It is a very laborious operation, but for me it is nec. Pouring two gallons of wine from on bucket to another is a beetch. But it must be done. Ten pours reduces it by about 10 ppm, I try to get it down to <40ppm. I have experimented with sending bubbles of air thru the wine but due to my health, I do not have the results yet. The thing is that if you need to reduce sulfite, SR works.

 

[Runningwolf]

Lurker, Glad to have you back buddy! Hope all is well.

 

[djrockinsteve]

I have missed you and pondered wher you had been. Get better.

Did the hospital allow you to put Wine Making Talk on the TV. Ya gotta keep up on everything.

 

[JohnT]

Splashing my cider

Well, last weekend I aquired 6 gals of fresh apple juice. I hit it with 1/2 tsp of k-meta. I know that this is a bit much, but given the condition of the apples, I felt it was prudent.

When I got it home, I could not believe the k-meta smell comming from the juice. I did a quick SO2 test and it was crazy-off-the-chart high!

Got off th phone with my buddy. Apparently he thought that he was supposed to hit it with 1 TBSP of k-meta. He did this while I wasn't looking.

I guess I will be splashing my cider for the next couple of nights before I pitch the EC1118. I started by pouring the cider from one bucket to another. I did 4 sessions of this last night and then simply covered the cider with a towel to "vent".

I am going to do another so2 test tonight. I think that the SO2 is still going to be crazy high. wish me luck.

 

[Loren]

Both of these wines were stuck at about 1.040. I have made starters for the cranberry and finally got it going once before but it quit again on me. Don't know why, but I tried holding the tubing up high in the carboy and let it splash, both are fermenting vigerously now, and at least for now I am happy. Keeping my fingers crossed that I haven't screwed them up. Thanks for all the replies. Loren

 

[Wade E]

Make a good starter and slowly introduce ypour must into it to let the yeast get acclimated a little also evan after you get it down some.