When racking wine, should I let the hose go to the bottom of the carboy and let the carboy fill up from the botttom so it doesn't splash? I have kept the hose out of the carboy on purpose, barely inserting it through the top and letting the wine splash in. What's the best way?
Racking Question
- Thread starter James
- Start date
Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:
redwineleo
Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2005
- Messages
- 69
- Reaction score
- 0
I'm guessing you'll get a variety of opinions. I personally don't worry about the splashing if it's my first racking to the carboy from the primary. For all transfers after that, like when I'm bulk aging I generally have the hose curl to the side of the carboy and it just kid of runs down the side without splashing. I've never had any problems either way.
smurfe
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2005
- Messages
- 3,625
- Reaction score
- 16
Theoretically, the least amount of oxygen you introduce to your wine the better. This means the least amount of splashing possible. Putting your hose on the bottom is a good practice. Some will splash their wine if they have off odors in the wine for some reason. Now if you are decanting the wine prior to serving, splashing is desired to aerate the wine.
Smurfe
Smurfe
sangwitch
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2006
- Messages
- 701
- Reaction score
- 0
White wines are lower in tannin and have a typically higher ph so they’re more prone to oxidation. When racking whites you should always have the tube in the bottom of the carboy and be as gentle as possible.
<?
amespace prefix = o ns = "urn
chemas-microsoft-com
fficeffice" />
Reds, on the other hand, can sometimes benefit from some splashing around; especially if you have a particularly tannic wine. The splashing creates a softer wine that allows more of the fruit character to come out. For lower end red kit wines this isn’t really necessary, but if you added ingredients to the kit in order to bring up the tannin levels you may want to splash a bit when racking. Make sure you have followed proper sulfiting procedures of course.
Personally, like redwineleo I'm not too concerned with the first racking as the yeast are still pretty active and they'll benefit from a little oxygen. From there on out I usually spash my reds a bit and go real easy on the whites.
smurfe made a great point about off odors as well. This is true more for full fruit wines rather than kits, but if you detect any off odors like a rotten egg smell then you should agitate the wine when racking.
<?
amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />Reds, on the other hand, can sometimes benefit from some splashing around; especially if you have a particularly tannic wine. The splashing creates a softer wine that allows more of the fruit character to come out. For lower end red kit wines this isn’t really necessary, but if you added ingredients to the kit in order to bring up the tannin levels you may want to splash a bit when racking. Make sure you have followed proper sulfiting procedures of course.
Personally, like redwineleo I'm not too concerned with the first racking as the yeast are still pretty active and they'll benefit from a little oxygen. From there on out I usually spash my reds a bit and go real easy on the whites.
smurfe made a great point about off odors as well. This is true more for full fruit wines rather than kits, but if you detect any off odors like a rotten egg smell then you should agitate the wine when racking.
Similar threads
