Operator error when racking wine ...

**Bombo80** · 03-08-2010, 03:20 PM

OK, I pulled a homer (DOH!). I finally purchased an auto siphon. Man, why did I wait so long to get one. Anyway, I have 4 different variations of apple/crab apple wine, bulk aging. It was time to rack again. The first three batches went very well, and was so smooth using the auto siphon. The last batch I didn't realize it was in a 6 gallon carboy. As I was racking it into a 5 gallon carboy, just sitting there waiting for the air suction when the level gets below the bottom of the siphon tube. When I heard this, I turned around to see wine pouring out the top of the carboy. Thank goodness I had the carboy in a cardboard delivery box that the water bottles were delivered in, oh so many years ago. That was my only saving grace on this. Otherwise I would have had over a half gallon of wine all over the floor, which is hardwood, and happens to be my office too. I didn't lose too much, but I am thinking there is no way I'm going to waste a half gallon of wine. I quickly removed the carboy from the tote box, and hurried into the kitchen and dumped it into a plastic picture. Now I am seeing all the floating crap that had been accumulating over the years, in the bottom of the box. Now I'm thinking, CRAP !!!! Then a moment of clarity. I will just pour it through a strainer, to get the big stuff out, then gently pour it through several coffee filters, to get the fine stuff. (I do this when I make Lemoncello) When I was done, I tasted it. It was quite tart, and not really dry. I decided to add a little Splenda to try and soften the tartness. So with just under half a gallon of wine, I added about 1/2 cup of Splenda, and put it into a growler I had just sitting there. My intentions were that this will be a taster, and that it will be consumed in a day or two.
WOW, that was some really good apple wine, and it had a good kick to it too. Now I can hardly wait for it to mature. That will be some time from now. My plans are to finally bottle it in about 3 months, then bottle age it for at least 6 months before opening any of it up.

I just thought I would pass along my snafu with the racking.

JeremyCT · 03-08-2010, 05:28 PM

I love it when mistakes = booze for tonight.
But that's my impatience talking.

cbw · 03-08-2010, 10:51 PM

We bottle with bottles places in a milk crate ... with the crate inside an underbed storage bin ... so if we screw up during the bottling process, the wine seeps through the crate, into the storage bin ... which we then dump into wine glasses and drink.

When God gives you lemons, catch the wine in something and drink it!