primary to dry

[tonyt]

Today should be (could be) first racking for my Trapani Sicillian Syrah. The SG is 1.012, the instructions say to rack at day 6-8, today is day 8. Instructins also say SG should be 1.02 or less, and it is. I usually do my winemaking chores on weekends out of convenience.

So here are my questions,
I read that some of y'all "ferment to dry" in primary, why?
How many days past dry (SG1.000 right?) would you leave in primary in order to rack on the next weekend?

 

[vcasey]

So here are my questions,
I read that some of y'all "ferment to dry" in primary, why?
How many days past dry (SG1.000 right?) would you leave in primary in order to rack on the next weekend?

I ferment to dry in the primary because it does make it easier to degass. Once the must reaches 1010 or so I'll give it one last really good stir and snal the lid in place for a few days once the must has stabilized a couple of days in a row I'll proceed to the next step. I've never waited until the weekend, just went on to the next step.
Now here is a MAJOR disclaimer. I've left a high alcohol mead (20%) in the primary for 2 months with no problems to date.

 

[Wade E]

I have been fermenting to dry in primary since the first time I made a RJ Spanols kit. One reason is that it is easier to degas the wine but to me now I just find leaving it in there with all the viable yeast just makes sense. AS a forum mod I see so often the question of why did my wine stop fermenting after racking at 1.020 or there abouts into carboy. The reason is unless you stir it up, sometimes you just leave behind to much viable yeast which just puts too much stress on the yeast left and it cant finish the job leaving residual sugar in your wine. It never seems to do it when it would be ok and only on a nice big red wine that should be bone dry making your life miserable trying to find a way to get it going again!

 

[jerry]

Am I correct to think, If you do put into secondary fermenter just stir it good before you do. Also, putting in secondary is kind of a wast of time. I thought the secondary was to slow the fermentation down whenit reached sg 1.030

 

[Wade E]

Racking at 1.030 is actually a little too dangerous to be racking as its way to violent unless you are going to separate it into 2 vessels with much headroom.Yes, I would stir it a little if racking before fermentation is done to make sure you dont leave behind viable yeast. Not sure what you mean about secondary being a waste of time, many people do this, I just prefer not to until fermentation is done. Putting your wine into a carboy does not slow it down and most of the time can actually speed it up due to the wine getting some 02 during this racking thus really creating a problem in a vessel with less area for gases to get out and also the vessel not have as much volume.

 

[tonyt]

At the risk of splitting hairs do y'all consider dry 1.000 or less or .098 like the directions say? And how many days after dry in primary could I wait to rack to secondary, And lastly, when I do rack to secondary do I go strait to stabilizing and clearing?

 

[Dean]

dry to me is 1.000 or less.

 

[Dean]

Further to that, I usually just rack to a carboy, then wait a few more weeks. Give it a small 1/8tsp shot of k-meta and forget about it. After that, you can stir it all up, then clarify and stabilize. Then wait a while (3 or 4 months, sometimes up to 6) and rack to a clean vessel. Give it another shot of k-meta and wait until bottling time.

 

[RickC]

Another reason toferment to dryin the primaryfor kits containing skins to give more contact time with the skins. If the skins are in the mesh bag, keep the bag submerged when you snap the lid down. All others, I follow the instructions.