Can I skip racking from secondary

[ohiowino]

I'm doing juice buckets and racked from primary bucket to carboy and was wondering if I can just leave it there for several months to age (red with oak chips) and then rack back to bucket right before bottling just to mix them as I have more oak in the 1 gal vs the 5 gal.

 

[salcoco]

I would worry that the gross lees sediment would cause off odors. this sediment is dead yeast. live yeast in the wine will try to feed on these dead ones. under stress the yeast will yield a rotten egg odor or worse. rack at least once then monitor fine lees as wine clears to rack again before bolting decision. if you are trying to save on purchasing glass containers don't. the gamble is not worth it. buy plastic there are cheaper and for short term storage fine.

 

[Slappy]

General consensus is rack off sediment in secondary as soon as you can once there is no further fermentation. Technically the lees in secondary aren't the gross lees. I have left mine for a few weeks no problems at all but generally rack once from the secondary and sulfite, then leave to clear. I have bottled after the second racking with no issues other than the last couple of bottles getting a little sediment if I'm not careful enough but if that happens I just drink those bottles first. Others advise to rack several times until the wine is crystal clear and bulk age before bottling. All depends on what you're after in the finished product. I suggest if you rack once from secondary then age a few months before bottling as you plan you'll likely get a bit more sediment in your bottles but the wine should be fine if you've made it well. Was nothing wrong with my first few batches doing just that but now I am following the more patient and labor intensive way of racking every couple of months and bulk aging. But that's with 50 odd gallon all grape batches.

 

[user 36973]

Take a look at the thickness of the layer of yeast at the bottom of your carboy. If it's more than 1/2 inch, I'd lean to racking it off. If it's less than 1/2 inch I wouldn't be concerned with any off flavors.

Alternatively you can give the carboys a swirl every week to stir up the lees. This prevents the yeast autolysis from producing any off odors and can add complexity to your wine. This is equivalent to "sur-lie" aging that is often done with Sauv blanc where the wine is stirred to disperse the yeast.

 

[jburtner]

Adding 1/4tsp KMETA every three months is recommended and racking at the same time is easy enough. You can splash rack a couple times to help with any degassing and then seal under vacuum for the next three months. I check and top up the vacuum regularly just to keep it tight. I think 12 months, 18 months, 24 months are sorta the regular bulk aging timeframes. When you bulk age across two to three seasons you also have the ability to choose your blenders a little better. ie; to balance alcohol, tannin, acidity, fruit, etc into a single bottling...

Cheers,
j