Time to Rack?

Khirsah17 · 10-30-2009, 04:23 PM

Hello all,

I made my first wine here a little while ago. Started with the grapes, extracted the juice, sterilized, added yeast, all that.

It's been about 10 days and have had good fermentation up till now. I think it's time to rack, but there seems to be a lot of sediment (maybe yeast?) floating around. Should I wait till it settles out more, or let this stuff transfer over to the secondary? Seems like if I just rack off the liquid on top of the sediment I'm going to lose alot.

Thanks!

rsmith179 · 10-30-2009, 04:34 PM

Holy hell that's a lot of sediment at the bottom of your batch! I would definately leave it in there for a little while longer to see if this settles any more. You're looking at losing about 1/3 your whole batch with that much sediment at the bottom. Did you add the skins to the wine? I really can't see yeast multiplying that much to create that much sediment at the bottom.

I have about 6 batches of wine down now and I have never had that much sediment at the bottom. Any additional information for us regarding how you made this and with what?

RyanK2 · 10-30-2009, 05:38 PM

Yeah, I've never seen so much sediment. Did you add like 15 packets of yeast? This is really strange. Let it sit for a month or so and see if that compacts more. I'd think you won't get down to 1-4" compaction (normal) with it looking like that already. Really weird.

RyanK2 · 10-30-2009, 05:40 PM

Upon further review of your photo, It looks like the must is still really cloudy. So, umm.. you're going to end up with a lot more sediment then you already have. Tell us your recipe.

Khirsah17 · 10-30-2009, 06:32 PM

Haha, well apparently I'm different.

The recipe wasn't anything special. I just bought a ton of wine grapes that were imported from California. I destemmed them into a bucket, smashed them good with my feet, then strained it out into the containers. I didn't put any grape skins into the glass jugs. Added Campden and pectic enzyme, then 1 packet of rehydrated yeast 24 hours later. Pretty basic from what I understand. It's in my fermentation fridge at about 70F.

I'm not by it right now, but as of yesterday it seemed like some of them were still bubbling and I could see activity in the wine. Is the must supposed to look that cloudy? My Chardonnay looks like swamp. Is it going to be a problem if it sits in there for more than 10 days in the primary?

RyanK2 · 10-30-2009, 08:00 PM

No, I've let mine sit on the lees for as long as 2 months before with no noticeable side effects. You need to let it sit as long as you can stand it to let that stuff settle out. It's possible if it is still fermenting that the entrained CO2 has some of that sediment in suspension. Just let it rest.