When to rack to secondary Carboy?

[Jswo23]

First off, i just want to apologize to the forum for blowing you guys up with questions and threads, but this seems to be my quickest form of getting information from people that have been in my spot.

Now for the question, I making a wine from Welch's grape concentrate as a cheap form of practice in the fine art of making wine. The Hydrometer when i began the wine read at 1.099 to around 1.1000, after a 4 days of what was some intensively aggressive fermentation, my hydrometer (if I'm using it correctly) is reading 1.010 from many of the wine making help guides I've read, you want the yeast to eat roughly 70% of the sugar during he primary fermenting which usually ends at 1.020- to 1.030. However the Video on how to make this wine, stated he waited until .998 adjusting it for temperature of course, with the batch producing an alcohol content of roughly 12.5%. My Wine is still bubbling with what appears to me as yeast consuming sugar and smells like yeast as well. I temped to rack it because that's what the information I've read said to do. does anyone have any suggestion if i should wait, or progress to the second carboy.

 

[terrymck]

I have never seen the need to actually rack to a separate carboy for secondary. My secondary ferm consists of snapping the lid on the ferm bucket and attaching the airlock. Ferment to dry like this. Rack off the gross lees when fermentation is finished.

 

[bkisel]

I've done kits from 4 different manufacturers and seen instructions to rack to secondary @ SG 1.020 (RJS and I think MM)), 1.010 (WE) and 1.000 (CC).

 

[wineforfun]

First off, i just want to apologize to the forum for blowing you guys up with questions and threads, but this seems to be my quickest form of getting information from people that have been in my spot.

Now for the question, I making a wine from Welch's grape concentrate as a cheap form of practice in the fine art of making wine. The Hydrometer when i began the wine read at 1.099 to around 1.1000, after a 4 days of what was some intensively aggressive fermentation, my hydrometer (if I'm using it correctly) is reading 1.010 from many of the wine making help guides I've read, you want the yeast to eat roughly 70% of the sugar during he primary fermenting which usually ends at 1.020- to 1.030. However the Video on how to make this wine, stated he waited until .998 adjusting it for temperature of course, with the batch producing an alcohol content of roughly 12.5%. My Wine is still bubbling with what appears to me as yeast consuming sugar and smells like yeast as well. I temped to rack it because that's what the information I've read said to do. does anyone have any suggestion if i should wait, or progress to the second carboy.

One of the main reasons to rack it when down around 1.010 is to get it off the gross lees. These may........or may not.........produce some off flavors. I generally rack mine to secondary anywhere from 1.000 - 1.010 and then within a week or two, it is dry, ie: .990-.994.

 

[Scooter68]

Since you are using juice instead of fruit with pulp/skins etc - the move to another container for the secondary stage isn't as important. As mentioned you are almost through with the fermentation anyway. The yeast has probably provided a nice coating to the bottom of your container but there isn't much else to collect there. Sometimes the racking can restore fermentation activity but again you seem to have plenty of active fermentation going on. Unless someone with more experience wine making from pure juice has other input - leave it. I've only done 2 batches from pure juice source both produced some lees - less than 1/4" from 3 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket.

 

[NorCal]

If it is chugging away, and you don't have a thick sediment, I'd let it finish. Might save you a racking.

 

[codeman]

I always ferment to dry in primary.