# Skeeter Pee - Sluggish after rack to secondary



## ryankelley (Oct 6, 2015)

It seems like my batches always slow down and struggle to finish after I rack them to a secondary. Reading Jack Keller's website, he mentions: _Transfer does not mean rack. While the solids are strained off and discarded, the liquid and lees are poured through a funnel into the secondary. The lees are important at this stage because many of the live yeast cells will have settled into the lees. Without them, fermentation will get very sluggish or stick (stop altogether). The best procedure is to stir the wine to get the lees into suspension, then pour the liquid through a large funnel into the secondary._

Huh? I thought the whole idea was to move the wine off the "gross" lees that accumulated in the bottom. Am I supposed to transfer the lees over with the wine? There are no solids with Skeeter Pee, so racking it always seems to be all about getting it off the lees.


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## cmason1957 (Oct 6, 2015)

On the first racking, that is the one to a carboy. I try to get as much as I possibly can. I accent had a problem doing it that way for five years now. Also, I generally let it go longer in my primary fermented, which is always a bucket of some sort with just a lid on it very loosely.
I seldom rack before 1.015 or lower.


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## menerdari (Oct 6, 2015)

Mine was almost done when I racked to secondary.


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## chasemandingo (Oct 7, 2015)

I like to keep mine in primary till around 1.00 or less that way I know it is finished before hand. I also only add one bottle of lemon juice at first. Then add the second when I add the second dosing of nutrients. Then the third when racking to primary. This helps acclimate the yeast to the high acidity better. Primary for a week secondary for a month and then rack and stabilize/back sweeten and let clear. It can be pushed faster though. I can't wait till I get my All In One wine pump and see how much faster everything clears when it is completely and thoroughly degassed!


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## vacuumpumpman (Oct 7, 2015)

chasemandingo said:


> I like to keep mine in primary till around 1.00 or less that way I know it is finished before hand. I also only add one bottle of lemon juice at first. Then add the second when I add the second dosing of nutrients. Then the third when racking to primary. This helps acclimate the yeast to the high acidity better. Primary for a week secondary for a month and then rack and stabilize/back sweeten and let clear. It can be pushed faster though. I can't wait till I get my All In One wine pump and see how much faster everything clears when it is completely and thoroughly degassed!



When did your purchase your All in one wine pump ?

I am doing a batch of skeeter right now and I am doing exactly the same procedure


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## chasemandingo (Oct 7, 2015)

Lol I have yet to purchase one. My bday is coming up and am trying to convince the wife that it would be a great present/investment!


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## ryankelley (Oct 7, 2015)

*Shop Vac*



chasemandingo said:


> Lol I have yet to purchase one. My bday is coming up and am trying to convince the wife that it would be a great present/investment!



Have you seen the bucket top shop vacs from Home Depot? I never thought about it, but why couldn't you just buy one of those and vacuum it over to a secondary? 

I have carboys but have been using them less lately...using a bucket instead. If I were making a wine I was afraid of oxygen exposure, I might not do this...but with skeeter pee I haven't been overly concerned about it. Especially since you can Kmeta it right away if you wait till the end to transfer to the secondary.


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## chasemandingo (Oct 8, 2015)

I think i convinced the wife to get me one.......So soon I will have clear filtered wine/beer!


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## chasemandingo (Oct 21, 2015)

Well my wife did give me money towards my pump for my birthday so it is currently on route. I'm pretty excited as I have several batches going currently and am ready to test this baby out!


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## ryankelley (Oct 21, 2015)

Sorry, wrong post


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