Racking Question

[nickweg]

This is my first batch of (strawberry) wine. I started primary fermentation with a SG of 1.095 after 4 days it was down to .996. At that point I moved the wine to my secondary and measured SG for another 4 days. It dropped to .994 and stayed there. The recipe I used said it could take 3 weeks to stop fermenting, but mine happened really fast. Is that an issue? I kept the wine temp at 72 - 75 degrees which might have sped it up? Anyways, at that point there was quite a bit of sediment at the bottom of the carboy so I went ahead and racked the wine into a few smaller carboys. I was surprised how hard it was to keep sediment out of wine as it transferred. I did my best but I can tell that there is still some pulp and seeds in the wine. Do I need to do something about that now or just wait it out?

On a side note, I tasted some of the wine as it transferred and it sure didn't taste good I could really taste the alcohol and there wasn't a whole lot of strawberry taste. Do I need to worry about that, or does it just need to clear and age at this point?

I'm planning on waiting until there is an inch of sediment at the bottom of the carboys before racking again. Does that sound like a good plan? Here are some pics of the wine as of tonight. I can't figure out how to rotate them, sorry!

 

[djrockinsteve]

Next time you can ferment dry in the primary bucket. At 1.000 add some energizer, stir well and snap on a lid with airlock.

Anyway when you transferred the wine did you transfer the sediment? This is necessary to continue fermentation.

Wine will drop below .990 with enough nutrients and O2. If your wine is not thru fermenting you will have trouble.

Leave wine in carboy until its thru fermenting. Adding 1 teaspoon of superferment will insure a final fermentation. Then allow it to sit a day or two then rack wine off sediment.

You wine has little sugar. It will taste bad. It will be a lot better when you back sweeten.

For now finish fermentation, clear and age.

 

[nickweg]

When I transfered the first time alot of sediment was transferred and it was still fermenting. Right now there isn't alot of sediment in the carboys after the second transfer and I don't see any bubbles. The current SG is somewhere between .096 and .094. Did I ruin this batch since I didn't transfer the sediment? Should I try to add superferment or just leave it be? I'm guessing it's not going to ferment much more because of the lack of bubbles and sediment. I was under the assumption that it wasn't a good idea to leave must sitting on sediment for a long time. Thanks for the help!

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Your doing fine,
When you back sweeten - try frozen strawberry concentrate as it will add sugar and taste as well. Frozen section of the grocery store - make sure you add sorbate prior and this shouldn't happen until the wine clears first.

 

[Turock]

Don't do anything more to it. You always want to leave as much sediment as you can in the primary. Transfering all that sludge is bad for wine, anyway.

Age it now for at least 9 months, allowing it to clear and degass. Rack off sediment as needed.