damdaman

Recipes 

I have seen this mentioned numerous times but I have a couple questions.

I have a blackberry wine with some lingering sulfur smell. This will be its second racking. I don't have a wand degasser.

So I am assuming that "splash-racking" is siphoning without taking the care to "siphon quietly" and let the gas escape? Questions though...

1) How do you keep the siphon action going when it gets down to the end if there's no suction on the end of the line because you're keeping it above the wine so it splashes?
2) I assume I want to use sulfites in this racking to prevent oxidation?
3) Anything else I need to know to make this work?

TIA.

Yooper

Recipes 

I would think that if this is only the second racking, the it's probably not a finished wine and I would not degas at this point. You typically only degas a gassy wine right before bottling, if the gas doesn't dissipate on its own. Once the wine is completely clear, and no longer dropping lees after at least 60 days, then it can be considered "finished" and then bulk aged or prepared for bottling. By then, it should be degassed on its own.

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damdaman

Recipes 

Hmm ok thanks, guess I'll give it more time.

I am curious to know how this technique is done though in case it becomes necessary...?

Yooper

Recipes 

Splash racking is rarely done, unless the wine has problems like H2S. But the "wine whip" is common for kit wines which are rushed to the bottle. Most plain old regular wines never need either.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

RobertRGeorge

Recipes 

I have placed a length of copper pipe, well cleaned, into wine with hydrogen sulfide and that has reacted with the H2S to remove it somewhat. The pipe was long enough that I could fish it out of the neck, and short enough that I could keep an airlock on. Other sources I've read suggest copper sulfate but I'm leery of that. Tried it once with indeterminate results (could still smell sulfur) and don't like the idea of a direct copper addition. Curious about how it got into your wine in the first place. Montrachet yeast? Sulfur spray on the berries?

damdaman

Recipes 

Yep. Was pretty intense too so I went on a stirring/nutrient adding spree, helped but didn't completely eliminate it.

RobertRGeorge

Recipes 

I have totally sworn off Montrachet yeast for that very reason. It was that yeast that caused the problem I mentioned, early on when I had not experienced the yeast before. Montpellier is my choice for a "killer" yeast now, or Champagne. For dark fruits I like Narbonne.

Another thing I have read but not tried is to stick some large gauge uninsulated copper wire up into the racking hose and let the wine trickle through with it in there. It evidently doesn't take much copper to react.