Peach wine in secondary, how fast to rack?

[Mazaruni]

HI there,
I have 3 gallons of wine from fresh/frozen peaches that I racked to secondary 2 days ago. I added a little bentonite at that point. SG went from 1.080 to 1.010 over 7 days at 66 degrees F with Montrachet. So far, it tastes nice but very hazy and gassy (I added a lot of pectic enzyme and amylase, so I hope it will clear on its own).

So now, 2 days later, it is still fermenting a bit, and there's 1.25 inches of lees. I'd like to leave it until it stops fermenting before I rack it again, but do people think I should rack sooner?

Thanks for the thoughts!

 

[Sage]

I have exactly the same thing going. Haven't checked SG lately and it is starting to clear.

 

[Mazaruni]

Patience is a bear! It's worse when things are going OK.

 

[Scooter68]

Unless you racked all the gross lees into the secondary, there's nothing to worry about. Once fermentation finishes THEN rack off of that 1 inch Plus layer. Be prepared peach is one of the heavier producers of lees initially. Consider shrinking that into a couple of 2 gallon carboys and a 1.5 liter or 1/2 gallon carboy after fermentation is over. This is when you can really make use of extra "Airlockable" glass containers of varying sizes less than on gallon.

Don't take this as criticism - in the future especially with peaches, start out well above your desired end amount of wine. With peaches you can almost expect 4 gallons to become 3 by the end of the fermentation, settling and clearing time. So you crush, sweeten up, adjust pH etc as if that' going to be a 4 gallon batch but you know going in that almost a full gallon of volume will be lost before it enters the 3 month of aging time. (That's even with some manipulation of the gross lees to extract all the juice I can get out. Wire mesh strainers etc.)

Right now I have 2 x 16 oz bottles under airlock of extra peach wine that I will be using to top off after the next racking. ( 2 x 16 oz where each has it own 1 gallon size screw on cap drilled for an airlock. Instead of a large mouth quart jar that would have to have some sort of custom cap for an airlock.)

 

[Mazaruni]

Thank you, Scooter! My recipe added very little water, so the peaches decided on the volume, not me--I was lucky to get as much as I did! I am beginning to collect a bunch of 1 and 0.5 gallons--the next racking will be into smaller containers, as you suggest. I don't like the way any of my screw lids or drilled bungs fit, but that's the way it goes. I got some food grade silicone sealant that I squirted inside the 1 gallon screw lids which seems to make a better seal. I suppose there are food grade gaskets out there, too.

 

[Scooter68]

Being a skeptic I would approach any gasket material carefully - The combination of Alcohol and Acidity can be tough materials. With a little patience you can find container that will have screw tops the same size as gallon jugs. Kombucha tea from some places comes in such bottles - glass and they work well.