Operation rack the must into a carboy is a success!
Not that there was much difficulty with siphoning out the wine in the fermentor and into the Carboy, but it was a step needed to be done. When the Specific Gravity of the must drops below 1.010, it is time to rack (aka siphon) into a sterile carboy (large glass jug).
My SG was around 1.005, so I was good to go. Mission accomplished. In addition, the H2S smell was a lot lighter. I think I am heading down the right path. I hope I did not oxidize the wine during the transfer.
I am happy of this step taken for simple one reason. My wine is now out of an opaque fermenting bucket and finally into a clear carboy. I get to watch the color change, the juice clear, and a wine come to life.
I now have to wait another 12 days until secondary fermentation is complete. From there I will add the Potassium Sorbate and the fining agent. I will write some more about them when the time is closer.
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January 26th, 2007 at 3:04 am
Hey Jeff,
I just ran across your article while reading up on winemaking. I loved reading your article because we’re basically on this journey together..my wine is still in the opaque container (specific gravity at 1.040) but I should be racking it to the carboy in just a few short days. It’s my first time making wine too, and mine is from a home kit as well with the concentrated juice.
I have done two things different than you, although only time can tell if it will make a positive difference. First is that I didn’t put an airlock on my lid during the first 48 hours. I did this because I read that oxygen is good for the yeast in its early phases (see link below).
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/extended.asp
The second thing I did was gently stir the entire mixture on the first few days because I read (at the same link above) that its good to stir it so that the yeast doesn’t just settle at the bottom while its in a stage of heavy fermentation. I thought it was interesting though that you said that yeast mostly spends the first few days reproducing. If this is correct then I probably didn’t need to stir it, and this would make sense of the fact that nowhere in my wine kit instructions did it say to stir during the first few days. The fact that some places say to stir it, leave it open to air, etc. during the first few days and that other sources don’t just tells me that its probably not that critical either way. Where did you read about the lifecycle of wine yeast? I’d love to read up on this.
Anyway, I’m sure both our wines are going to turn out excellent…at least I hope so!! I can’t wait to give wine to all my friends and be like “Yeah I made this shit!”
January 26th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Mark,
I did open the lid 2-3 times during the first 48 hours and stir the must. I even stirred it pretty str0ng to create bubbles of oxygen and inject in then into the must. I then put the lid back on.
You are right. The kits say nothing about stirring. I read it somewhere online. The kit told me to throw everything in and 8 days later siphon it to a new carboy. Even on the kit maker’s website, they did not offer a great deal of solutions for if your wine takes a turn to the worst.
When my wine to a turn to stinkville (read: http://www.jefflouella.com/byte_this/2007/01/who_ever_smelt_.html), I then tried to add more oxygen to it again. The next batch, I will leave the lid off in the first 48 - 72 hours. I have a sneaky suspicion that my H2S issues were due to the lack of oxygen in the beginning.