Racking Question

[GettinCorked]

I'm on my second carboy racking. I have lost a bit of wine due to cedement and now I have a carboy with clear wine but am missing a few inches below the neck of the carboy. I also have the cedement/wine poured off into a bottle and am hoping it settles down so I can use the wine to top off the carboy. Am I on the right track ???

Thanx

 

[Wine Maker]

I assume that since you have done your second racking the fermentation is completely finished. If you still see air bubbles with the air lock on the carboy either the fermentation hasn't fully completed or you have some CO2 gas in your wine. Assuming that the fermentation is complete, did you add any sulfite to the carboy? If not you will want to so that you can protect the wine from oxidation and bacteria. You should be ok for a few days with the carboy not fully topped off. I think you will find that the smaller bottle will clear substantially in a few days, then you can top off the carboy. If not you will need to bring the wine level up in the carboy. To do this you can either top off with a store bought wine of similar variety or I have heard of people using glass marbles to bring the level up. If you use marbles make sure they are glass and you sanitze them.

As for the smaller bottle, I would transfer it to an even smaller bottle as you have a lot of exposure to air with that much head space.

 

[GettinCorked]

Thanx for the tips !!!
Sulphite is in,carboy topped off and cloudy wine from big bottle has been transfered to two smaller bottles....
All is well again

 

[bein_bein]

Hi Corked,
For future reference/batches here's something you might want to try.
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=775
This is something I did in the past and it worked GREAT!! As I used the wine from the 'mini-carboy' I would added glass marbles so it would stay 'topped off' as well...

 

[GettinCorked]

Hey BB,
Great idea !!! Just shows you what a little out of the box thinking will get you....
Heres a little story about what I learned today as a novice wine maker...
I learned that Metabisulfite=Campden tablets...... I learned this by a mistake I made yeasterday when I added a small packet of sulfite to my first batch of wine ever...Trouble was that I had five(one per gallon) campden tablets in my carboy already. You see I thought that the Campden tablets only stopped the fermentation so I added the sulpite as well and now I have twice as much as I need in my carboy. All is not lost...I ordered another batch of juice from my wine store and will mix it to my overdosed batch when ready this time without adding anything (campden or sulpite)and this should ballance both out.....
Ahhhh,learning something new is so much fun...........
Any comments or tips on what I'm planning to do here is more than welcome...

 

[Wine Maker]

The recommended dosage of campden tablets to yield 75 ppm is 1 tablet per 5 gallons. 75 pm is enough to inhibit bacteria growth and help to prevent oxidation. With white wines you could go to 100 ppm or higher. The higher the pH of the wine the more sulfite is needed to protect it. Do you know how much sulfite was in the "little" packet so that we can try to figure out how much excess sulfite you added?

 

[GettinCorked]

Do you know how much sulfite was in the "little" packet so that we can try to figure out how much excess sulfite you added?

No not shure how much was in it, package doesn't state but it was enough to do 5 gallons of the Chardonnay that was in the kit that I got it from. I basically borrowed the sulphite from this kit knowing well that I would have to replace it when the time came .....