WineXpert VR Riesling

[bovinewines]

I'm probably getting ahead of myself; but thought I would go ahead and ask this question. <laughing> Guess I'm going to have to get my Wiki server up quicker than I anticipated so I can start putting together a Knowledge Base!
I have a VR Riesling that I started primary fermentation on Sunday, Sept. 9th.


If I wanted this to be a "sweeter" Riesling vs. a "dryer" Riesling, I assume I would stop fermentation. I see two methods to do this; one is to raise the temperature of the must and kill the yeast or add something like Potassium Sorbate.


Is that the right track? Any other suggestions?


Bovine


Disclaimer: seeing how this is my very first batch of wine ever, I'm asking the above for "future" projects....

 

[grapeman]

Neither of those methods are reliable ways of doing it. It is tricky at best stopping a fermentation. You would probably do better to let it run to dry and then back sweeten after adding K-Mta or Na Meta and then Potassium Sorbate. Once it is stabilized with those, then add some reserved juice or a sugar syrup. Do a search on the forum for back sweetening and you will get some hints for doing it.

 

[bovinewines]

Perfect...thank you.
Bovine

 

[Wade E]

Sound advice given there Bovine. Raising the temp can actually cause the yeast to stress out and cause a gas which will smell like rotten eggs and stopping a fermentation in progress is really only advisable by 2 methods. One method is still a little risky, it is done by cold stabilization and requires dropping the temp of the must to around 36* for around a week or more and the adding the sorbate and k-meta to keep the fermentation from restarting as it has been suspended from the temps. The other option is by buying an Enolmatic filter with a .25 micron filter pad. This is called sterile filtration and is the safest way but can cost a few bucks as this machine with all the bells and whistles for doing this is few hundred dollars. So, fermenting to dry and back sweetening after sorbate and k-meta is the easiest and cheapest and is the way most almost all of us do it.

 

[geocorn]

Excellent advice, Appleman! Thank you.

 

[bovinewines]

Next question: I just did my first racking from the primary fermentation bucket to my 6 gallon glass carboy.
Does this look right? I left probably about 2 cups of wine or so in the bottom of the bucket since that seems to be most of the current sedement.


For the record...Sunday was 7 days. I was out of town over the weekend. My Sp.Gr. yesterday was 1.004 but I wasn't able to rack till today where it was 1.000. Temp of juice hovers around 77 degrees F...but the yeast seems to be cranking along with no worries.

Edited by: bovinewines

 

[grapeman]

Are you sure you brought the kit up to 6 gallons originally? It looks like you are about 3 bottles short there. Either you didn't have quite enough water added initially or you left more in the primary than you thought. You don't need to leave so much sediment behind on the transfer. You could transfer most of it to secondary with no worries. Actually some of the kits count on the sediment to insure proper clearing since the bentonite(fining agent) is added at the beginning.


With temps that high it isn't surprising that it is almost done fermenting. Don't rush it and don't worry about it. Wait for the time to rack and add things per instructions. Upon that transfer you will have to figure out what to do to get the level up to the neck for clearing time. If you had a 5 gallon carboy, you could probably get most if not all in it at that point. I'm sure you will hear from others as to what they would do -or have done in this case.

 

[Wade E]

I have run across this 2 times myself and not sure why. Maybe it was me, maybe we have a few primaries that arent quite accurate. I racked to a 5 gallon carboy after SG and wine was cleared and stabilized in 6 gallon carboy. You could top up with commercial Riesling. It is also okay to top up with some water but thats to low to add just water in my opinion. You could also sanitize marbles and put those in to displace the missing volume.

 

[bovinewines]

Thanks for the info Appleman.
I'm pretty sure the bucket was up to 6 gallons when I started this about a week ago. Unfortunately the initial bucket I bought (which was a couple of years ago) didn't have the gallon marks on it. I used another 2 gallon food grade soup container to measure out where my 5 gallon and 6 gallon marks were on the bucket.


Just now I went back and finished up what was in the bucket and left probably about 1/2 a cup? I would say I've got about 750ml space in the carboy at this point.


Thanks again!

 

[bovinewines]

Great advice Wade...I had read that somewhere early on in this process about adding marbles. I had totally forgotten about that.


So where is the 6 gallon mark on a glass carboy? Is it closer to the neck?


I guess I'll leave it for this evening and I'll be making a trip to Walmart on my way home tomorrow to buy marbles! Those sound like they might be handy to have around for situations like these!


Its continuing fermentation as the airlock is bubbling again...


Thanks!

 

[PeterZ]

The carboys are a "nominal" 6 gallons, but aren't that accurate. Fill the carboy you will be using for a secondary with water, pour it into the primary, and use that mark as your dilution point.

When I racked my MM 23L Amarone to a 6 gal secondary it looked almost as low as the one above, so for the second racking prior to stabilization and clarification I bought a 5 gal carboy. The 6 gal must have run big, and the 5 gal small, because on the second racking I got to 5" below the neck (space for degassing) + 2 750ml bottles + another 1/2 gallon. The 1/2 gal is now down to a quart (used it for topping up and samples) and still have the 2 x 750 under airlock for future topping.