# How long to leave fruit in secondary?



## Northerngal (Jan 16, 2017)

How long should I leave fruit in secondary? It's under airlock and getting swirled multiple times daily. 

Thanks!


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## Scooter68 (Jan 16, 2017)

No need to 'swirl' once it's in secondary. You want things to settle out because when fermentation is over, you want all that dead yeast and other lees on the bottom.

Let it set until your hydrometer doesn't show a change for at least 3 days. Hopefully at that point your reading will be below 1.000. Completely dry it should have an SG of .990 At that point you are ready to put K-Meta in the new carboy and rack it into there. 

Again Don't swirl, or stir it while in secondary - just let it sit and settle.


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## Jericurl (Jan 16, 2017)

What kind of fruit is it? How warm is the room it is in? What was the SG of the wine when you racked onto the fruit?


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## BernardSmith (Jan 16, 2017)

Are you asking how long it takes for the alcohol in the secondary to extract flavor or how long it takes to ferment all the sugars?


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## bkisel (Jan 16, 2017)

Hmm.. When I make my fruit/country wines my fruit, what's left of it in the strainer bag(s), is given one last squeeze and discarded. I go into secondary without the fruit. 

If I'm tweaking with fruit in the secondary it is simply put in and locked down.


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## Northerngal (Jan 16, 2017)

Jericurl said:


> What kind of fruit is it? How warm is the room it is in? What was the SG of the wine when you racked onto the fruit?



Pineapple, and crabapple/apple (two wines). I'm trying to up the fruit flavour in both. They were both dry (0.994 and 0.992 respectively). I treated both wines with kmeta and froze/thawed the fruit, treating that with pectic enzyme before adding to the wine. I've never added fruit in secondary before and am wondering how long to leave it. Temp is 17/18C. (65F). I'm not opening the carboys to swirl, just making sure any fruit floating at the top is reintegrated.


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## Northerngal (Jan 17, 2017)

*Removed pineapple at 8 days*

Here it is. Now, cold crashing and bulk aging.


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## Cxwgfamily (Jan 27, 2017)

I always stop stirring my primary at least 24 hours before I transfer to a secondary. This leaves a good amount of sediment in the primary. Then I leave the wine in the secondary for around 30 days. It depends on the clarity of the wine nd the amount of sediment I get. The more sediment, I will transfer to a tertiary more quickly. If the wine gets really clear, with little sediment, I let it go the 30 days. If still cloudy after 30 days with very little sediment, I will let it go another week or so but not more than 45 days. Hope this helps and if anyone disagrees with this appproach, just let me know. I am still fairly new at this.


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## Scooter68 (Jan 27, 2017)

Now did you save that fruit residue for ice cream topping?


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