How long tilll you rack the wine?

[ed71]

Ok guys, when I used to make my cheap 1 gallon juice/bakers yeast wine, I never racked it and just drank it a month later. Lees and all down the hatch. Once I got into beer making with kits, I started to understand some basic rules of fermenation and the dreaded autolysis.
I do know that with beer, 2 to 3 weeks is good till you have to rack or bottle. Usually the beer is already fermented out at one week, and the next weeks is for the yeast to "clean up" after themselves.
So does the same idea go for wine? Or does one just wait till SP shows completely done....then rack?

Ed

 

[jamesngalveston]

I have no idea about beer. It would help you alot if you started reading about basic home wine making on the net.
We can lead you to water, its up to you to drink. Meaning no offense, but you should read some first before you start making wine, are asking questions...Reading is a fundamental research tool.
Answers alot of questions.

 

[DoctorCAD]

With wine, its all about the SG of the mix. Rack when it goes below 1.010 and then every 30 days or so until no lees form in 30 days.

But, yea, theres a ton of info on this and other sites to le arn.

 

[grapeman]

After racking the first time be sure to top up the wine to the neck of what you have it in (if you rack before 1.005 you may want a bit of headspace), either the neck of a gallon jug or the neck of the carboy you put it in. You can top up with a wine like what you made, something to displace the wine a bit, such as sterilized marbles or last choice a bit of water. Be sure to leave most of the lees behind when it is almost dry. Some kits have you rack sooner and leave the lees in to help the clarifier work. Just follow the directions for the kit. I am being very general here because you will get a lot of varying opinions on just how to do it, but they all have the goal of having the wine clear up.

 

[ed71]

So Im guessing by the responses that autolysis isnt very much of an issue with wine as it is with beer. Its a good thing know since now I dont have to worry bout it much and just concentrate on the Final SP. As for the topping of the liquid in its container, I take it this is to keep a minimum of air out of the wine? Im just guessing here.

 

[bchilders]

Hi Ed, as you may have already noticed you will find plenty of opinions here and most will be right but the basics are just that the basics and from there you can experiment. I highly suggest buying and reading the book, The Home Wine Maker's Companion.

The main thing is to monitor the SG to see if the fermentation is where you want it before you stabilize the wine to stop fermentation and start the preservation process with K-Meta. If you rank early and fermentation is not finished, no harm, just don't add K-Meta yet.

I usually rack after two consecutive days of an SG <=1.000 but it depends on the wine and the desired alcohol content.

 

[Vpilieci]

For the record (I make more than 60 gallons of beer a year) fears of autolysis in homebrew volumes are totally overrated. It's an issue with commercial brewers who have massive quantities of beer sitting on top of tons of trub and crushing it, which releases all sorts of nasties that cause autolysis. But, in home brew volumes it's not an issue. I rack to secondary for clarification, but I've had stuff on the trub for a month or more with no discernible effects. As for wine, it's a different beast all together. Wine takes longer to ferement (I've started the practice of not even bottling until after its sat in secondary for around 9 months), but I make wine from Juice. Anyways ... with respects to autolysis, you can relax a bit.

 

[Floandgary]

Some like to ferment till dry (3 days no SG change) in primary, rack to secondary (no lees) with airlock, then again in 30 days and stabilize if you like and oak if you want. Rack and Dose w/K-meta every 30-45 days till you want to bottle. Keep stuff sanitized!!!

 

[ed71]

Thanks fellas. In the beer forums I visit, some of the guys there did mention that autolysis was indeed overated for homebrewing beer but never explained the why. From Mr. Vpilieci's explanation, it all makes sense now (despite that I really never worried about it since I drank the stuff after a month) This leads me to wonder what a person can learn about beer in a wine forum...lol!
My biggest question bothering me was why to add so much sugar to juice or any other fruit or any other fermentable material to make it to SP of bout 1.090.
By reading websites upon websites I came to learn that the wine grape is itself, is very high in sugar content compared to other fruits. (which why I also wondered why wine makers who grow such grapes never added pounds upon pounds of sugar) But apparently I was ignorant of such a noble fruit, and did not understand it it seems. Now im seeing why the wine grape is a well respected fruit worthy of recognition. It does beat putting 5lbs of sugar on the stove to disolve it and to add it to the mixture. (not to mention the balance of acid and tannins it provides) Very interesting stuff!

Ed

Ed