Why bother racking it ????

[xcaret]

So once again I have my pineapple wine fermenting , but this time i thought i'd go high tech,and read my winemaking made easy, book, It says to rack it in a few days , so I notice now 8 days later the bubbles stopped ( i tried the fermentation lock this time ) I usually just put it in a sealed pail and forget it for a month or longer . Anyway the bubbles quit bubbling ,and so the book says pour,well ,siphon this all into a carboy ( and make a huge sticky mess ) and put the fermentation lock on ther carboy. Well it quit bubling ,so will it start again?? I doubt it , but don't know for sure .. I tried this one other time with strawberrys I think it was ,and made a mess, so now I wait till its done ,take a 2 quart
( 2 lt) open jug, and scoop up the pineaples out of the pail and pour it into the nylon stocking that's held inside the other smaller pail i have resting on the edge of the bigger fermenting pail, I just let it lean against my legs , then as the smaller container ( 12 ltrs) fills up I set it in the sink and squeeze the juice out ,then pour it into 2 liter pop bottles ( using a funnel )
So I'm wondering what would the benifits be of rackinbg it into the carboy?? This stuff tastes like pinacolda when done in a couple of months .. I could never get that siphon thing to work properly , i got juice running down my body, across the floor and even got some in the bottles .lol recipe used ,pasted below..
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNK6NQMhmIM[/ame]

 

[jswordy]

The way you are making wine is a jailhouse wine or hobo wine approach that apparently does not use accurate measurement of the fermentation process (a hydrometer) and does not incorporate the known methods that improve the quality of wine, like removal from the lees at appropriate times.

You got explosions from your carboy because you are not using a hydrometer to accurately tell when fermentation has ended, or when it has reached the point where you want to transfer, and so you have transferred before it was time and gotten the extremely predictable results.

Apparently, since you imply some history to your methods in your post, you like the way you do it, so I'm really not understanding why you are posting. It seems as if you are satisified with You Tube as a teacher. Normally, people who come to Beginners Wine Forum are looking to improve their methodology or have some question about process. We're a helpful bunch. Is your goal to improve the quality of your wine?

You did have one question, on why rack the wine.

1) The wine is racked to remove it from the lees for sanitary reasons that are manifold. Without getting into more technical matters about aging on the lees, the lees can promote off flavors or produce sulfur dioxide in interaction with live yeast.

2) As well, siphon racking helps the wine clear quicker because debris is removed by being left behind in the process.

3) Lastly, using a carboy with an airlock properly fitted and filled protects the wine from oxidation. The air lock prevents the wine from having contact with oxygen in the air. The carboy, due to its structure where the wine fills it up to a neck, minimizes the surface area of the wine presented to the air. That's why we top up, to keep the exposed surface area as small as possible in the neck.

 

[BernardSmith]

Siphoning should not create any sticky mess. You might want to look into a self priming siphon or else practice siphoning with water to see how you might create enough vacuum to start the flow but not enough flow so that you get the wine rushing out the siphon tube before you get it into the mouth of the carboy. For filling bottles you might want to look into spring loaded tubes. They only allow fluid (in this case wine) to flow from the carboy into the bottle as long as you put a little pressure on the tip of the tube by pressing it against the bottom of the inside of the bottle. The moment you lift the tube from contact with the glass or plastic bottle the spring closes the tube and the wine stops flowing. This will give you far more control over the flow of wine into each bottle. As Jim says, it seems that you may be creating a more frustrating situation for yourself simply because you have adopted a jailhouse approach to wine making. But unless you live in a community where winemaking is considered criminal then there are quite simple techniques and technology available to make the process "user friendly". Your local wine making supply store sells these devices quite cheaply.

 

[xcaret]

Thanks guys,, So the airlock on the carboy is not so it can bubble ( still ferment ) but to improve the taste and let things settle ... I get it .
Btw I never had an exploding carboy , just found my siphoning skills not very good ,, so I made a mess..
Well , you guys have answered my questions ,and I thank you ..
Neilw

 

[SpoiledRotten]

The air lock allows gas to escape while keeping air on the outside from getting in to your wine. The gas left in the carboy that doesn't excape through the air lock, offers a certain amount of protection from oxygen as well.

 

[Arne]

They make an autosiphon thing as Bernard suggests, but I have never tried one. First try or two was with a piece of hose. it works, but not the best. When at the home brew store, if found a carboy cap. They typically come orange in color and have two holes in the top of them. Get a racking cane and the carboy cap and some tubing that is the same size as the cane. Put the cane in the middle hole and down to the bottom of the carboy with the little cup type tip on the bottom of the racking cane. Now put the tubing on the top end of the cane. I usually just use a short piece of tubing that will fit over the cane and the other tubing. Now put the cap on the carboy, put the cane to the bottom of the carboy, put the tubing in the recieving carboy. The carboy with all the wine in it (the donor carboy) has to be higher than the recieving carboy. Now you can blow in the other hole of the carboy cap. It will pressurize the donor carboy and the wine will start to flow. If you have floated the fruit in the wine while fermenting and if you have trouble siphoning, you mite have to strain the wine. We try not to have to do this as it will expose the wine to more oxygen than we like, but sometimes you do what you have to do. Now that I have made this plain as mud, good luck with it. This is really very simple, if I knew how to post pics, I would post one for you. Any questions, just ask. Good luck with it,Arne.

 

[xcaret]

Thanks , sounds like something I could make good use of.
Neil

 

[jswordy]

Here's what Arne's talking about...



They work great. You can even use them on smaller necked jugs than the 5-gallon carboy, that they don't really fit. Just push down on the top to seal against the neck and blow to start your siphon.

 

[jamesngalveston]

i learned to syphon when my dad a car lot, and i needed gas. got a mouthful a few times.
an auto syphon is about 9.00...get one, you will love it, used mine all the time before i had vaccum pump.

 

[xcaret]

My Dad never owned a carlot ( or ever was around) I learned to siphon gas in backalleys , kinda hard to see what I was doing if there was no moon..lol
Thanks guys for the info on the auto siphon..
My last batch of pineapple wine will be ready to drink on the 23 of this month .. I think I'll siphon it into 2L pop bottles and let it sit a few months..

 

[CBell]

You probably don't want high alcohol wine sitting in plastic soda bottles for months. I might do it as a stopgap for a few days or for skeeter pee I'll be drinking in a week or two, but why not glass bottles? Plastic can leech all sorts of crap into your wine...