Very new to winemaking. Question about racking from primary when SG is correct but ye

[markandjill]

Hi all. My wife and I are making our first kist and super excited. We bout a Selection Pinot Noir six week kit. The juice has been in the fermenter for ten days now. It seems like it may have gotten off to a bit of a slow start. For the last few days, however, it has been producing a bubble every second or two. The room that the fermenter is in is at about 74 degrees F.

The kit instructions say that primary should take five to seven days between 72-75 degrees. It also says that when the SG gets to 1.010 or lower, we should rack into a six gallon carboy.

We just tested it and the SG is at 1.004. We are worried about racking to a glass carboy when the yeast is still so active. One other note,, the fermenter we are using has a spigot at the lower part of the bucket. Rather than opening the top and using a wine thief for our sample, we have been using the spigot. Not sure if taking from the lower part of the juice instead of the top makes a difference.

Our OG was 1.083 and the instructions called for an OG of 1.080 to 1.10.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Rocky]

Mark, you say that your wine is in a fermenter and producing "a bubble every second or two," so I am assuming you have an airlock on the fermenter with the top snapped securely down. There is no problem in removing the wine through the spigot but I would make sure to break the seal on the top before opening the spigot. Otherwise, you could draw liquid from the airlock into the wine and that liquid could be contaminated. Taking wine through the spigot, i.e. near the bottom of the fermenter is not a problem. If you used a wine thief to draw wine out of the fermenter, that wine would also come from close to the bottom due to the length of the wine thief.

You say the wine is at 1.004 so I would recommend getting it into a carboy with an airlock attached ASAP. It will continue to ferment in the carboy. If you ferment the wine to dry, your final SG will be in the neighborhood of 0.992-0.995. Sounds to me like you are doing great for your first kit. WinExpert Selection series is a very nice wine.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[markandjill]

Thanks so much. This is a big help!

 

[DoctorCAD]

Just remember that "6 week" kit will be ready to bottle in 6 weeks, but you should really wait a minimum of 90 days,180 would be much better.

Drinking should be a minimum of 3 months after bottling.

You should really expect a yesr before it gets way bettet.

 

[markandjill]

Thank you. Our plan is to bulk age it in a carboy for at least three months before bottling and wait at least three more months before drinking. It will be difficult to wait. I think we will buy an inexpensive kit like the Mezza Luna for more immediate gratification. Already have an old vine Zinfandel on the way for longer term aging.

 

[Boatboy24]

Welcome!

I don't have much to add to what's already been posted. But if you're looking for "early" drinkers and enjoy white wines, you can make one of those. They tend to mature much earlier.

 

[francois_du_nord]

Welcome M&J! It sounds as though you are off to a terrific start. The reason you are racking at with a bit of sugar left is you want that fermentation to continue after you rack into the carboy. That way you get a nice safe blanket of CO2 sitting on top of your wine, prohibiting oxidation. In the best case, the CO2 compltely displaces all of the air in the headspace. (CO2 is heavier than air, and will settle lower, a nice trick if you need it).

Remember that when rack off the lees for bulk storage, you will need to top up to the neck, because now you don't have that active fermentation to give you protection, so you need to limit the amount of air to which the wine is exposed.

I'm in the same boat, just a couple of weeks ahead of you. First batch will go to bulk storage tonight or tomorrow (need to bottle some cyser to free up a carboy) and my second batch will be in the same spot in about 2 weeks.

Best, Fran

 

[markandjill]

Thanks Fran. Our local brew shop suggested that we rack into a smaller, five gallon carboy for bulk storage in order to eliminate any head space. This seems like a good idea, so we have that ready to go. We also got some food safe marbles at the same shop just in case we still need to top off a bit.

 

[francois_du_nord]

That will work fine, I'm going to 5 gal for bulk age on my first two (Trinity Red and White) as well. I'll just bottle the remainders for sampling a couple of months out. I haven't got marbles, but that sounds like a good idea.

Best, Fran