How to top off a Carboy

[nickweg]

You have already been using your hydrometer so keep using it, your wine can be done and slowly degass sending bubble through your carboy, less on a high pressure day and more on a low pressure day so bubbles at the end dont tell you the whole story, but your hydrometer knows what is going on. Most people dont have as many senior moments as Bernard and especially since you only have 1 batch and are probably going to check on it every 15 minutes I dont think you are going to forget to top off. Since you had the good sense to make a little extra at the start and its fermenting just the same as your main carboy wait until things start to settle down and you get some lees forming, then rack again and top off with your extra. There is plenty of CO2 in your big batch to protect it, just make sure to smell the little one before you add it to the big one to make sure nothing bad happened to it, you might even rack the smaller one first to a smaller jar or even a bottle as its got most of your lees already. WVMJ

Thanks for the advice! How often do you check the SG once it's in the secondary? I assume that once the SG is stable after a few days its done. Does that sound right? The forum is awesome and I can't believe how willing everyone is to give advice. Thanks you all!