WineXpert Update and Avoiding Sediment

[promo0]

Hey all,


My two wines are going fine. I just degassed my Luna Rossa and my Chilean Malbec is undergoing its secondary. The Luna Rossa is clearing up fine, but here's my question - How do you avoid sediment when you rack? I'll be racking again in about 8 days, per instructions, so do I keep the racking cane above the lees? I have a friend who filters his red wine, should I? The local wine shop told me that filtering a red is unnecessary.


Thanks! You guys rule!

 

[masta]

I see no need to filter red wine either and have never filtered any of my kits. I use an autosiphon to rack which has a sediment tip and you should be able to get one for your racking cane. The tip on the autosiphon keeps the suction off the bottom about 3/4". If the lees is deeper than that you need to have a steady hand and tip the carboy so the liquid goes to one side and work you way close to the solids.


Racking is a bit tricky at times but you will get the hang of it after a few kits.

 

[Hippie]

I wouldn't be too anal about picking up a little sediment or lees, might lead to too much topping up. Thoughts?

 

[promo0]

Right before bottling, should there be any sediment at the bottom of the carboy? I know some rack the wine to the primary fermenter, during that final rack, should I watch out for sediment then?


Thanks.

 

[Angell Wine]

Yes & No. You should wait until the wine is not trowing any more lees before bottling. As far as sediment goes, if there is just a little a bit in the bottom of the carboy, maybe just a dusting, I go ahead and bottle out of the carboy without raking, keeping the racking crane above the sediment. Once I get to to end I suck up all i can with some sediment going in to the bottle and saving those for toping up anothercarboy.

 

[masta]

You need to rack the clear wine into another carboy or fermenter without sediment before bottling otherwiseit will end up in the bottle.

 

[pfanelli]

Hello all!


Masta, you mentioned that you use an autosiphon to rack which has a sediment tip. Could you point me to one of those in George's catalog?


I love this forum!


Patrick

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Hi Patrick - Maybe Masta is still asleep, I'll try to fill in for him.

Check here
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=4879

Good luck!

Bill

 

[masta]

Thanks Bill.....Patrick-The Autosiphon also comes in 2 sizes 3/8 and 1/2.

 

[peterCooper]

When bottling, rack 90% of it into a clean vessel, carboy primary or whatever
,and then bottle all that.That way you ensure that 90% of your bottled wine
is perfectly clear.

Then go back and rack as much of the remainder as you can without lees
and bottle it. These are your test bottles later on to see if the wine has
matured sufficiently. Only you get to drink them because you don't mind as
much as everyone else.

Bottle anything left over, lees and all and let it kind of settle in the bottle.
Label it "muddy bottom" and use it to top up a similar wine later on.

 

[PolishWineP]

Peter! Great answer!

We also sometimes just pour that last bit through a paper filter into a pitcher and drink it then.

 

[pfanelli]

Hello all,


Many thanks regarding the autosiphon information. I especially like the idea of siphoning 90% of the wine and bottle from there. Great tips and much appreciated.


Patrick

 

[peterCooper]

Today the Murray River got bottled.
Here it is in all its glory

First, racking to a clean sanitized carboy

Notice I'm leaving the muddy bottom in the original carboy.

Now I'm bottling...

I'm using a variety of bottles because I'm too cheap to buy new ones.
Anyway, I got:
- some clean clear bottles. they'll be might presentation ones. I won't
drink those, they'll be given away to friends.
- some odd green or brown ones left over from other sessions or given to
me by friends who want something in return. These I'll give away only in
an emergency. Otherwise they are mine.
- some old Bella Sera 1.5 liter bottles not shown in thhese pictures
because I didn't even take the labels off. The labels on those botttles are
hell to get off. Even once you've taken the label off the glue doesn't come
off no way, no how. These are my everyday drinking bottles so I make
sure I get some of the wine

I'm only putting caps

and labels

on the good bottles. Why waste labels on the ones I drink. Actually my
printer ran out of ink after the first page of labels so I only managed to
label four of them.

That's it for now. Nothing to do until Tuesday when my next batch
arrives from George.

 

[peterCooper]

I only got one bottle of muddy bottom out of this one because the
instructions say to rack 8 days after stabilizing (which I did) which takes a
huge amount of lees out of the situation.

Tasted good. Should taste a lot better after the new year.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

That's a pretty batch Peter

 

[pfanelli]

Hello all,


Peter, that's great looking wine. I'm envious of the clarity! Very nice!


I tried the autosiphon this weekend since I was bottling some Ice Wine for Christmas gifts. I'm sorry to say, I could never get it to work. I'm sure it's not broken; it's me. I could never get the 'siphon' action to continue. Anyway, I siphoned the old fashioned way with a 5 foot or so tube. Unfortunately, i did get a bit of the sediment in the product. I hate this since I was so patient in polishing it. Perhaps I'll call George sometime this week and see if he will talk me through it.


All the best,


Patrick

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Patrick - my feeling about the auto-siphon is that you need a very tight
connection between the vinyl tubing and the top of the cane. I began
using the 1/2" tubing that I got from George and noticed that while the
flow was going, there were a lot of small bubbles forming at the top of
the tubing and traveling down. Eventually they interrupted the flow.

I bought 7/16" tubing which is a very tight fit on the racking cane, but it
can be slipped on after heating under hot water. No bubbles form while
siphoning. With that headache out of the way, I can concentrate on
fiddling with the bottom of the auto-siphon as the level of wine gets low.

Don't despair yet - give it another try (you can always practice with water)

Bill

 

[smurfe]

Patrick - my feeling about the auto-siphon is that you need a very tight
connection between the vinyl tubing and the top of the cane. I began
using the 1/2" tubing that I got from George and noticed that while the
flow was going, there were a lot of small bubbles forming at the top of
the tubing and traveling down. Eventually they interrupted the flow.

I bought 7/16" tubing which is a very tight fit on the racking cane, but it
can be slipped on after heating under hot water. No bubbles form while
siphoning. With that headache out of the way, I can concentrate on
fiddling with the bottom of the auto-siphon as the level of wine gets low.

Don't despair yet - give it another try (you can always practice with water)

Bill

Do you have any issues getting the tubing off to clean? Do you have to run it under hot water to get it off as well? I have the 1/2" racking cane and tubing myself and my tubing fits pretty snug.


Smurfe

 

[PolishWineP]

We usually have to run it under hot water to get them apart. But compared to the hassles of not using the auto-siphon I see it as minor.

 

[PolishWineP]

Patrick, I was nervous when I first started with the auto syphon, but experience is a great teacher. I actually use it as you would a pump to really get it going. Several up/down draws will get you a good start and as long as your hose connection is tight there should be no problem. I usually have the plunger pulled up a way when I put it into the wine so the first action is a push not a pull. Get your toys out, put some water into a carboy and have something into which you will receive your pumped water and check it out. And let us know if it works! We're all behind you!