timing on transfer from buckets to glass

[muskie003]

just seeking some opinions here...
I have three buckets of Italian reds (mosti bello) on day 10 in the buckets. initial reading was about 1.090 SG or 12%. todays reading (again day 10) was 1.000 SG or 0%. normally this is when I would take the juice from the buckets and put it on oak in glass and let it sit (if I hadn't done it before I reached 1.000). however, the juice is still very, very "active". still a lot of effervescence when you open the lid and what seems to be a wall of foam after you stir that takes upwards of a minute to go away. my fear (bc this has happened before) is that if I transfer to glass and put an airlock on it, it'll just suck up into the airlock or, worse than that, blow the stopper out and volcano on me. I had that happen to me last fall, ironically with another bucket of mosti bello Italian.

I guess my question to all of you more experienced folk is do you think I should go to glass now or wait until it is significantly less active? will keeping the lid loose on top of the bucket allow more gas to escape and speed up that process or is that too risky from a bacterial standpoint?

my grandfather and dad always said that when you stir and the bubbles go away in a few seconds then you know its "done". I guess that was the old school hydrometer! but in the past that has always held true...that is, when my SG got closer to 1.000 the bubbles would clear almost immediately after stirring.

thoughts?

 

[Buehler91]

just seeking some opinions here...
I have three buckets of Italian reds (mosti bello) on day 10 in the buckets. initial reading was about 1.090 SG or 12%. todays reading (again day 10) was 1.000 SG or 0%. normally this is when I would take the juice from the buckets and put it on oak in glass and let it sit (if I hadn't done it before I reached 1.000). however, the juice is still very, very "active". still a lot of effervescence when you open the lid and what seems to be a wall of foam after you stir that takes upwards of a minute to go away. my fear (bc this has happened before) is that if I transfer to glass and put an airlock on it, it'll just suck up into the airlock or, worse than that, blow the stopper out and volcano on me. I had that happen to me last fall, ironically with another bucket of mosti bello Italian.

I guess my question to all of you more experienced folk is do you think I should go to glass now or wait until it is significantly less active? will keeping the lid loose on top of the bucket allow more gas to escape and speed up that process or is that too risky from a bacterial standpoint?

my grandfather and dad always said that when you stir and the bubbles go away in a few seconds then you know its "done". I guess that was the old school hydrometer! but in the past that has always held true...that is, when my SG got closer to 1.000 the bubbles would clear almost immediately after stirring.

thoughts?

go to the glass and top up to about 2-3 inches from the top with an airlock on it.

 

[Julie]

I will ferment to around 1.010 and snap the lid down and wait until ferment to dry then rack to carboy.

 

[Thig]

That wall of foam is probably CO2 escaping when you stir it. I usually rack to a carboy any time the SG gets to be 1.000 or lower.

 

[richmke]

If you vacuum transfer, that will take care of a lot of the dissolved CO2. If you don't have one, then stir until the foaming subsides.

Transfer and stop a little short of the shoulder on the carboy. That will leave some airspace. When there is only a little foam on the top of the wine, top up the carboy to the neck.

At SG 1.000, there is not much left to ferment.

 

[deRicardo]

At an SG of 1.000, the fermentation is pretty much done. What you have now is a dry wine with lots and lots of CO2 in it. Racking the CO2-filled wine to the carboy can cause it to expel some of that CO2, resulting in it getting into your air lock.

Go ahead and rack it to glass. But, temporarily take a liter of wine out of the full carboy, degas the carboy of wine, then replace the liter by allowing it to splash into the carboy (to remove the CO2 from the liter of wine). Then, add an air lock and proceed with the instructions to stabilize and clear the wine. I always like to degas once more before bottling.

 

[muskie003]

thank you all for the input. moving it over to the glass tonight!