Idea

Ernest T Bass · Nov 18, 2010

Has anyone ever racked the crud off the bottom first, put it in a jug to settle.
Then racked the wine, this way you don't have to worry about getting it transferred?

Just wondering?

Semper Fi

midwestwine · Nov 19, 2010

Most of the sediment is so compacted on the bottom of the carboy to get it loose your going to have to scrape it off and that will mix part of it back into the wine

JohnT · Nov 19, 2010

When racking, I try to avoid any/all contact with the sediment. I find that any contact with the lees will just end up kicking the lees back into the clear wine.

Also, I take the approach that you DO NOT want any solid lees. You will not get any wine from that! When you get down to the lees level, you should pour the free run into you "saving" container and throw out/wash out anything that stick to the bottom.

djrockinsteve · Nov 19, 2010

I will transfer the last of the liquid and most of the movable sediment/lees to a smaller container. Airlock it and place it in the refer since it's not enough to fill all the way. Then after 3 days or so I'll rack off the wine that had settled to the top and throw away the sediment.

Some of us do this to get some extra wine. This can be even in a 750ml bottle or 1/2 gallon. It's good wine that normally would have went down the drain.

Brian · Nov 19, 2010

djrockinsteve said:
I will transfer the last of the liquid and most of the movable sediment/lees to a smaller container. Airlock it and place it in the refer since it's not enough to fill all the way. Then after 3 days or so I'll rack off the wine that had settled to the top and throw away the sediment.

Some of us do this to get some extra wine. This can be even in a 750ml bottle or 1/2 gallon. It's good wine that normally would have went down the drain.

I agree with djrockinsteve. With my apple wine I just did when I did my racked off the secondary lees I took most of what was on the bottom and put in a 1/2 gallon jug air locked it, let it settle and ended up with about 375ml of wine that would have gone down the drain. I planned on using that to finish the last bottle but didn't need it so I drank it... Ye Haw!!!!

JohnT · Nov 19, 2010

Brian said:
I agree with djrockinsteve. With my apple wine I just did when I did my racked off the secondary lees I took most of what was on the bottom and put in a 1/2 gallon jug air locked it, let it settle and ended up with about 375ml of wine that would have gone down the drain. I planned on using that to finish the last bottle but didn't need it so I drank it... Ye Haw!!!!

This answers a question that I was going to ask... Given that the wine is in a half filled container, and the wine is the last "squeeze" from the lees, would you be willing to drink it straight up? If the answer is NO, then why would you pour it into a good batch of wine?

If your answer is YES, then never mind!