hooray Blackberry wine!

[Wade E]

Excellent job nico, nows the time to start saving up your empty bottles
or go to the recycling center and grab some for free. Or you can buy
them but thats cheating.

 

[nasv]

Just an update for those interested in a newb's progress. Took another S.G reading last night and we are at 1.050! Big drop over the night before reading, going down from 1.080!

The yeast is working quickly! Per the recipe, I should be racking into the carboy at 1.030 and it seems like I will reach that point sooner than later! How strict is the "racking point"? By this, I mean, if I take a S.G. reading tomorrow morning and see it is already at 1.030 but can't rack till tomorrow night or the next morning, am I putting the wine at risk???

@Wade: definitely have saved my wine bottles! They are all in the corner of the kitchen

 

[grapeman]

It will drop rapidly in the beginning, but that is really fast. Check it and if at 1.030 you could rack it, but another day won't hurt if need be.

 

[nasv]

eeesh, yeast working like crazy and tonight the S.G. has dropped to 1.017 (down from 1.050 yesterday). Am I ruined? I'm not able to rack till around tomorrow afternoon!

 

[Waldo]

Meltdown!!......Evacuate the premises immediately and contact FEMA.

It'll be ok buddy. Just get it to glass as quick as you can. What temp are you fermenting at?

 

[scotty]

you should take more SG readings too

I took some of my first wines to bed with me.

 

[nasv]

Wow! I agree, I need to take S.G. readings more often. (And I will take that as a lesson when I begin my next batch, I think strawberry). The average temp of the must during primary fermentation was between 75 & 80 deg F (room temp was between 72 & 75 deg F).

I racked today, and at the time of first time racking, the S.G. was 1.007 (wow!!????!?). Right before racking, I took a taste: very plastic, fizzy, and "alky" on the nose; thick, fizzy, slight sweetness, and alcohol on the palate. Unfortunately, it reminded me of a spiked punch. I know that I'm not tasting for a finished product but for seeking out the characteristics of a wine in development.

After racking into the carboy, particles did begin to settle to the bottom, but it was still extremely fizzy and the airlock bubbles every 5-7 seconds. I assume this is normal for the beginning of secondary fermentation.

I looked for the scent of vinegar since my first tracking was way late (supposed to rack at 1.030) and it was not apparent at all - still smelled like the wine in progress.

One question, I red that during racking you're supposed to add/dissolve a campden caplet per gallon but my recipe does not indicate this. Is this something I should be doing?

Any other tips for secondary fermentation? So many variations in procedures (second racking in one week vs three weeks, third racking in three weeks vs three months, etc...).

And... thanks everyone who's been following my rookie progress and offering assistance, I REALLY appreciate it!

-Nico

 

[Cracked Cork]

Somewhere in there you missed the taste of yeasty which you should have. Sounds like you are having fun with this and learning fast, thats whats its all about, just think that you will finally get to bottle this, and then WAIT for it to be ready to drink Crackedcork

 

[scotty]

You do not ad the campden tabs to the carboy at the first racking from your primary fermenter because you WANT the fermentation to do well in the secondary. Sulfites at the first racking will usually slow or stop the fermentation. Wait till you are fully fermented and are racking off the lees. Use sorbate and sulfited right at the last of your degassing process. At least thats my method. I just try to do what i read in books and on this website.


The other thing i have learned from this website is that i must drink more wine

Edited by: scotty

 

[Waldo]

Scotty is correct nasv. After fermentation has stopped ( verified by the same SG reading 2 days in a row) you will need to stabilize and degass the wine after you have racked it off the lees.

 

[nasv]

Sounds great! So based on your feedback combined with some reading on this site and books, after this first racking, I'll just "step away" for a while and let the secondary fermentation do it's magic. After maybe 5 days or so, I'll take a S.G. reading and then take it again the next day. As soon as I have two days in a row where the S.G. hasn't changed (or changed minimally), fermentation is done, I rack a second time. Once racked a second time, degass, add K-meta and K-sorbate, and make sure to top-off to limit air in the carboy. Then I simply bulk age for a while in that carboy and eventually bottle!

Let me know if I missed anything or if there are any corrections I should make

Thanks!

 

[scotty]

I may have missed/forgotten some of your comments but do you have an airlock for the secondary. The bubble activity in the airlock can help you see when the fementation is slowing down.


BTW what did you use for a primary???

 

[OldWino1]

in my opinion be careful with bluk aging the wine has bo be of
bottlling ready and you really have to keep and eye on air lock
they willl dry out and you goose is cooked lost 5 gal of apple. I
knoe space ican be a problem but i think the wine likes the bottle for
aging and it has already gone through bottling shock.

 

[Wade E]

What we usually do is (total process) ferment in primary bucket for
7-14 days depending on how long it takes to get the SG down to aroud
1.020 then rack into carboy. We let it finish fermenting in there for
however long it takes and like scotty says wait until airlock shows no
form of life. At that point we take an SG reading and depending on
which yeast we used and what the original SG was determine if it is
done.(Example) if You used Lalvin 1118 which will go upto 18% abv and
your starting SG was 1.090, your sg now should be around 0.990 or maybe
just a little higher but below 1.000. At this point we usually
stabilize and let sit for another 2 weeks. Then at this point there are
a few options.

1) You could keep racking every 2 or 3 months until wine is very clear
and when doing this check the free SO2 and add when needed.



2( Depending on which clarifier you will use( some need all the
lees(sediment),either rack off sediment or not and add clarifier and
let sit for another 2 weeks.



After clear you can either rack off sediment into clean carboy and bulk age or bottle at this time.BULK age prefered.

 

[OldWino1]

My question is how long does it need to be in the 750 ml bottle
after bulk aging to rid it of bottle shock or you think there is no
bottle shock?

 

[nasv]

I may have missed/forgotten some of your comments but do you have an airlock for the secondary. The bubble activity in the airlock can help you see when the fementation is slowing down.


BTW what did you use for a primary???

hey Scotty, i do have an airlock half filled with K-meta solution. The first day of secondary fermentation, it bubbled every 3-5 seconds, the next day it bubbled every 5-10 seconds. Today it is bubbling about every 20 seconds (just to give you an idea of the activity).

For primary fermentation, I used a 2 gallon bucket and I just set the lid on top (did not seal).

-Nico

Edited by: nasv

 

[nasv]

What we usually do is (total process) ferment in primary bucket for
7-14 days depending on how long it takes to get the SG down to aroud
1.020 then rack into carboy. We let it finish fermenting in there for
however long it takes and like scotty says wait until airlock shows no
form of life. At that point we take an SG reading and depending on
which yeast we used and what the original SG was determine if it is
done.(Example) if You used Lalvin 1118 which will go upto 18% abv and
your starting SG was 1.090, your sg now should be around 0.990 or maybe
just a little higher but below 1.000. At this point we usually
stabilize and let sit for another 2 weeks. Then at this point there are
a few options.

1) You could keep racking every 2 or 3 months until wine is very clear
and when doing this check the free SO2 and add when needed.



2( Depending on which clarifier you will use( some need all the
lees(sediment),either rack off sediment or not and add clarifier and
let sit for another 2 weeks.



After clear you can either rack off sediment into clean carboy and bulk age or bottle at this time.BULK age prefered.

Thanks for explaining your process, Wade. What you have mentioned here sounds like the path I'm taking. Quick question though, when you say you keep racking every 2-3 months and "check the free SO2 and add when needed" - what SO2 are you talking about? The sulfites? Like a campden tablet or k-meta? Or de-gassing?

Also, for clarifier, I have some pectic enzyme that I used and added to the initial must. Is this such a clarifying agent that you'd add again during racking?

Thanks again!
-Nico

 

[Wade E]

Oldwino, being in a 750 bottle for approx. 1 month usually does it for
me but some are quicker and I have heard of a few taking longer due to
extreme situations like traveling in a car or air flight.



Nasv, Im tlking about sulfites as you can can get a test kit
specifically designed to test the free sulfites(George sells the
Accuvin test which works awesome and is very easy). This test will tell
you if you even need to add more sulfites at all or maybe you just need
a little.



As for clarifier, I'm talking about SuperKleer which I believe to be
the best clarifier(besides time and gravity which is the cheapest and
most true method) The SuperKleer clarifier in my opinion works the best
and you dont need to transfer all the sediment(lees) with this product.
There are many other products out there such as Chitosan,
Sparkaloid,etc.

 

[scotty]

I may have missed/forgotten some of your comments but do you have an airlock for the secondary. The bubble activity in the airlock can help you see when the fementation is slowing down.


BTW what did you use for a primary???

hey Scotty, i do have an airlock half filled with K-meta solution. The first day of secondary fermentation, it bubbled every 3-5 seconds, the next day it bubbled every 5-10 seconds. Today it is bubbling about every 20 seconds (just to give you an idea of the activity).

For primary fermentation, I used a 2 gallon bucket and I just set the lid on top (did not seal).

-Nico

I like the2 gallon bucket as a primary for small batchesi use a piece of sanitized muslin and a large rubber band made of elastic purchased from a material store. I had one experience where i think vinegar bacteria got into a large batch of false wine i was trying to make. Flies i supose got on the fruit pressings i guess. Now i always make sure that my primaries have a cloth cover held tight with a rubber band of some sort.


It fun to watch the bubbles too

 

[nasv]

quick quick question! As noted above, I recently racked from the primary to the secondary, and everything seems to be going well (even though my first racking was late @ 1.007 SG).

As to be expected in my air-locked carboy, the fermentation is dwindling and slowing and slowing, the airlock now bubbles every few minutes instead of every view seconds. There is now a nice separation between a clearer wine and a thick layer of "lees" at the bottom.

MY CURRENT QUESTION

:

How soon do I need to rack off the lees before it imparts an unfavorable taste/smell to the wine? Is this a question of days, weeks, months? The reason I ask is because I see the fermentation ending pretty soon and I will be out of town for about half a week. So I can either rush and rack before this weekend or rack toward the end of next week. If I can wait, I'd prefer to do so, but I just don't want to make the stupid mistake of leaving the wine sitting on top of the lees if such a lapse in time would be detrimental.

Thanks again, all!

-Nico