To leave in demijohns or not?

[jake48]

Hi recently returned to winemaking,made two gallon of cherry ,they have been in demijohns for a couple of weeks,starting sg 1.1 now down to sg 1.03 ,i have racked into clean demijohns today as there was an inch or so sediment in each ,so i now have 1 full demijohn one three quarters full and a 2 litre plastic bottle with the remnants all under fermentation locks (see photo).so question is should i leave the second part filled demijohn or what? thanks for your help.

 

[sour_grapes]

Looks nice!

If your SG is still 1.030, it is not finished fermenting yet. As such, you do not (yet) need to worry about the headspace, because the wine will be pushing off lots of CO2.

Personally, I would not have racked until the fermentation was farther along, less than 1.010 for sure.

However, planning ahead, it looks pretty certain that you will have to find a way to make up some volume when you are aging (sorry, "ageing" for you) it after the fermentation is over. You could find a smaller vessel, for example.

 

[jake48]

Thanks sour_grapes ,i think your right i saw all that sediment and wanted to syphon off asap ,i just checked and it and bubble every minute or so,before every 10 secs so not sure if the ferments going to stick ,wonder wether it .would be better to top up with the plastic bottle to get the ferment going again , .had a little sip a quite sweet but quite nice when syphoning .Think lockdowns getting to me lol sitting here timing the bubbles in the fermentation locks,wondering if there going to stop lol 1 min 30 and 2 min 25 respectively omg think i will have a glass of red.