Carboy and fermentation/stabilising?

[totality]

Hi all, first post here and my first batch of wine! I'm fine with beers and lagers, but wine is a new one.

Story so far:

1. I have a winexpert Sav Blanc kit
2. It states that after 5-7 days to transfer the wine to a Carboy when it is at a SG of 1010 or below
3. After 5 days the reading was 1012, I left it for another couple of days and checked again, the reading is now 998!! Well below 1010.
4. I have transferred the wine to the carboy.

Now onto the question!

The kit says that when the wine reaches 1010 or below and you have transferred it to the carboy, you wait 10 days and check the SG is 996 or below. Given that my wine is already at 998, what do I do? My wine appears to have gone from 1012 to 998 in 2 days which should take 10 days? Does this matter?

Should I add the stabiliser and clarifier now because the SG is almost down to 996 or do I wait for the 10 days it states now that the wine is in the carboy and ignore the reading? I'm worried that by leaving it 10 days now that its 998 already, the alcohol content may shoot up further and the wine will be alcoholic and really dry - or is wine like homebrew lager whereby you can leave it as it reaches a value and stays there. With lager I can leave it for two weeks in the fermenter before bottling it as it simply reaches a SG and stays there. Is kit wine the same?

Thanks!

 

[Putterrr]

Once the wine gets going the Sg comes down very fast. If you would have transferred it at 1.012, that would not have caused any problems.

Now that you are in the secondary, it won't hurt to leave it there for your 10 days. Keep your temperature in the mid 70's and top up a bit if you have a large air space. If you get a SG reading that is stable for a couple of days, then fermentation is complete and you can move to the next step. The instructions for specific days are just guidlines. The tale of the hydrometer dictates how you proceed.

When you get to the bottling step, i would suggest bulk aging for a few months. this will help it mature and also let more stuff settle out.

cheers

 

[Arne]

You are close to really dry now. After you stabalize it, let it clear some, and you can sweeten it. Most of us like a little sweetening and the sweetening helps bring out the flavor. Most of the recipes on here, and I believe most of the kits will ferment to dry. If you get the specific gravity up high enough, the alcohol will get high enough to kill off the yeast. Then what sugar is not used will wind up left in the wine. That way you get a sweet wine, but it is kind of a crap shoot where the yeast is going to die off. There are charts that tell you about when a paticular yeast should die off, but they are kinda approximate. If you ferment it to dry, then stabalize and bring it back to the sweetness you want it is repeatable and you can make the same wine again and again. Arne.

 

[robie]

.996 is only a reference point. It may not actually ever get there or it might even go a little lower.

Go ahead and (always) leave the wine in the secondary the full amount of time recommended by the instructions. Then continue with next step in instructions.

Check the SG on day 8, then again on day 10. If the SG on day 10 is lower than on day 8, leave wine in secondary for another few days until the SG has not changed for 3 days in a row.

 

[totality]

Thanks all. So wine is like beer in that it hits an SG and just sits there with fermentation complete from what I gather.

What do you add to the wine to make it sweeter? This time I'll stick to the kit recipe, but it I find it too dry I will amend it next time.

 

[Runningwolf]

First off welcome to the forum. All great advice above. Your kit should have sulfite and sorbate that you add after the wine has completed fermentation. Once you add this your wine will be stabilized and you can add additional sugar if you kit does not include a flavor pack. If it does have a flavor pack included this will sweeten your wine.

 

[Regor]

When you get to the bottling step, i would suggest bulk aging for a few months. this will help it mature and also let more stuff settle out.

cheers

Besides any additional settling, is there any advantage to "bulk aging" vs a few months of aging via a bottle?

Thx