When to rack into 1 gallon jugs?

[Toxophilite]

New here and new to wine making, though my mother has made wine for the past 50 -60 years and when I was young we were all recruited to help crush grapes before she was able to get juice.
I have been drinking her wine at family events and dinners for years.

I'm starting off small wit 5 gallons of cabernet sauvignon must.

Wine seemed to go through it's first fermenting rather quickly in the bucket and then it was racked into a carboy (actually and a jug as the carboy was smaller US gallons) and airlocks were added.
A hydrometer seemed to suggest fermentation was at an end but the locks are still suspended. I have tried a couple readings all indicate fermentation has ended.

My mother has always made wine by 'feel', her wine is characterful and strong. She seems to think that when the airlocks bottom out that fermentation is done and it was time to rack into jugs. I was thinking, they're airlocks, they stay up because they're airlocks. Certainly mine aren't bubbling at all, but not bottomed out.

Which is it?
I started my wine on October 9th so it has been 39 days

Thanks!

 

[Ohio Bob]

Airlocks are suspended? Bottomed out? None of that makes any sense. Activity in the airlock tells you nothing. The only thing you should worry about is the SG, what was the measurement you took? If the SG gets to 1.000 or less, than it’s essentially done fermenting. Rack off the lees and add potassium metabisulfite and rack again in 3 months.

Congrats on taking up this hobby!

 

[Toxophilite]

Thanks! It's an interesting hobby with potential for pleasing results. As my mother is 90 (and has a batch going) I though somebody in the family should carry on the tradition.
I think you answered my question. I was pretty sure the airlocks weren't an indicator. Specific gravity is about .92 it has been at that level for a week or so. I will admit to having racked off the lees and out it back in the carboy about a week ago. Time to put it in the 1 gallon jugs?

 

[Ohio Bob]

0.920 is not possible, perhaps you meant 0.992, so I agree it’s fermented dry. If it’s is a carboy now, why do you want to put it into jugs, just leave it in the carboy for 3 months.

 

[Rice_Guy]

welcome to WMT
We can’t stop by and taste to help like Mom would, so we talk gravity numbers. The graphic in David’s post does a good job saying what is happening as the gravity drops.

this information Immensely helpful! I took the information from the study you cited and added the phases to the top of the below study. I believe that they are counting cells as being present, even if not alive, which is why the death phase does not show a decline in cell numbers.

View attachment 96883

Main phases of wine fermentation. Evolution of the main fermentation parameters during wine fermentation on a synthetic medium containing 200 g/L-1 glucose/fructose and 330 mg/L-1 assimilable nitrogen, with the commercial wine strain EC1118 at 24°C. Dark blue: fermentation rate; light blue: ethanol; red: cell number; green: nitrogen; and purple: sugars.

Marsit, Souhir & Dequin, Sylvie. (2015). Diversity and adaptive evolution of Saccharomyces wine yeast: A review. FEMS yeast research. 15. 10.1093/femsyr/fov067.

Basically oxygen is the enemy of alcohol. Alcohol wants to continue oxidation and turn into vinegar so we keep the wine under airlock. When whites / country wine have 1/3 sugar removed the yeast no longer build cells so they don’t need oxygen / should be under airlock. Reds follow the same rule but when we stir the skins we can’t help but expose it to air, so we modify the guideline.

Seeing Mom was a good way to learn the process and the taste. You have a good start.

 

[Jovimaple]

Welcome to WMT!

All advice given above is on point from the experts!

Do you plan to bottle the wine? Or are the one gallon jugs your method of bottling?

Most wine benefits from aging for at least several months to a year, and if you do that aging in the carboy, you get a more consistent batch.

Also, are you using a balloon for an airlock?

Good luck and happy winemaking!

 

[DrGriz]

Reds like your Cab will benefit from at least a year's aging, probably more. The reason to bulk age is so that all of the bottles are generally the same.

Always measure the Specific Gravity out to 3 decimal places. That's what we're all looking at.

I often wait until the SG is down below 1.030 to put under airlock. Maybe even 1.010 depending on how fast things are going. I often get very fast ferments and have to catch it when I can. I find if I put an airlock on too soon, the wine will bubble over into the airlock and make a mess. I figure if the fermentation is vigorous and foamy, we're still making plenty of CO2 to displace oxygen in the must. A lot depends on the fruit type, yeast type, nutrients in the must, temperature etc.

As for the airlock, I know exactly what you mean by floating. As long as the air pressure in the container is more than the outside temp, you will have positive pressure or bubbling. This could be due to ongoing fermentation, or offgassing of CO2 suspended in the must after the ferment. Or, just general changes of air pressure and temperature can make it go up and down.

So we use SG to determine if the ferment is done. The ferment can slow down to a very slow simmer towards the end. So 3 consecutive days of unchanged SG below or around 1.000 is the reliable way to tell.

That said, with experience, You kind of get a sense of when it is done. That's what your mom does I am sure, and she's going to be right almost always (moms just are!). You want to let the gross lees settle so you can siphon off of them. I find generally there's no rush, and if you do rush you'll be doing it again. 3 weeks under initial airlock before siphoning off generally works for most of the country wines I make.

Someone let me know if I said something stupid, but this is how things have worked out well for me.