Now what? Went to rack but Lees HIGH!

[crabjoe]

So I went to check on my wine, which I hadn't checked for 3 days because every time I listened, I could hear bubbles from under the towel.

Today, I hear nothing.. I move the towel and it looks super clear, so I decide to rack into it's secondary.

At 1st, it started fine, but when I went to set the racking cane down, it sucked up a huge cloud. I end up holding the cane up to make sure it's above the Lees.. Now here's the problem

I get to the bottom and I find that the Lees isn't compact, but very loose and fluffy, and taking up over 2 inches t the bottom of the bucket. I don't want to move this to my 2ndary, but if I don't I'm going to end up with close to a gallon of head space..

What should I do?

 

[stickman]

Don't worry about about every last bit of the lees, just move the wine to the secondary, you'll be racking again once it's fully complete.

 

[crabjoe]

Don't worry about about every last bit of the lees, just move the wine to the secondary, you'll be racking again once it's fully complete.

I think it's done.. the SG came in at 0.992.

And look the head space. Wasn't sure what to do, so added a tsp of sugar in the hopes that the yeast will make a bit of CO2 to blanket it, with a air lock.. I'm hoping that'll give me a few days to figure something out.

 

[CDrew]

Your sugar addition is wishful thinking. And it's going to cause a brief growth of yeast that will then drop out that you will have to rack off, increasing your racking losses. Put the wine in a carboy that's the right size. Then use a proper airlock. The silicon ones are really perfect but even a bubbler airlock would be an improvement.

You need containers of every size. 6 gallon, 5 gallon, 3 gallon, and a bunch of 1 gallons. Even 1/2 gallons and then individual wine bottles can be useful.

Regarding lees; Racking off the gross lees wastes a lot of wine. That's just the way it is, so get used to it. I went through that process today. 25 gallons to start, 21 gallons after racking. Normal.

 

[John Miller]

If you have not thrown out the gross lees, put them in a gallon jug and put in the fridge. My guess you will get at least a 1/3 of the gallon to use to top up later.

 

[Stressbaby]

Agree with all of above, except that you don't want to age your wine with a silicone airlock, they allow a LOT of oxygen through according to Daniel Pambianchi.