WineXpert Kit Wine and lees

[derunner]

I am working on my first kit which is a Island Mist Pomagrante Zinfandel. I just racked it to secondary yesterday and it was already .994SG and it was 1.048OG.

i am wondering if I took too much lees with the racking, because it looks like there is about 3/4 inch in the bottom of the carboy. However, i ready it settles on the side so it can look like more than there really is.

Since this kit has no fruit skins, can I assume these are fine lees that would not cause a taste problem?

At the bottom of my bucket was a denser set of lees that stayed there in my tipped bucket as I drew off the wine. So maybe there is not as much as it looks like. My cane has one of those tips that I thought was going to keep the lees out, but I think the siphon creates enough suction to pull in the lees. Going forward I am wondering how to avoid getting the lees in the wine when i rack.

do you keep the cane several inches from the bottom as you a siphoning and keep moving towards the bottom? That way I would not risk sucking any lees in until the last inch or so. Can you partially clamp the hose to slow down the siphon so it does not suck up everthing from the bottom? O do you just not put the tip on the bottom?

Thanks Pat

 

[TonyP]

Of course it's impossible to say how well you racked. But you should know it's probably not catastrophic. All the good siphons have a tip at the input end so the opening does not directly touch bottom. You don't want the tip to be completely immersed in the lees but that's unlikely. As you proceed, it sounds like you did properly by GENTLY lifting the side away from the siphon to drain as much liquid as possible.

Eventually the siphon should be at the bottom but, again, not with the tip below the lees. There's a clip you can buy that attaches the siphon to the bucket or carboy, giving you stability as you rack.

I wouldn't use a clamp to slow the process, but you can get a smaller diameter siphon.

Lastly, you can pour a small amount of remaining wine into the carboy via a funnel and mesh strainer but this should be minimized.

Tony P.

3/4 inch of lees sounds like a lot for value wine such as Island Mist.

 

[robie]

When racking from primary to secondary, don't worry too much about the lees getting pulled over, especially a mist kit that doesn't really contain any true gross lees, like seeds, chunks of grape skins and pulp. What is there is tiny grape solids and dead yeast. What little does come over won't hurt anything in secondary.

As a matter of fact, just before I rack a kit wine to secondary, I like to stir the wine; let it set 15 minutes, which is long enough for any really big stuff to settle, then rack. This insures I am taking over lots of yeast to finish the fermentation. The lees will quickly settle to the bottom with all the other stuff that will naturally fall out during secondary.

W.E. generally use a clarifier that requires a lot of sediment in the wine when the clarifier is added. If the wine is too clean, the clarification process won't work as well.

So don't sweat taking over the small stuff in secondary; you will end up with lots more before the ten days (or so) of secondary is completed, anyway. For a kit, just stick the siphon all the way to the bottom and don't be concerned.

 

[derunner]

Thanks Tony and Robie.