? about transferring from primary to secondary

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

brian-s

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2014
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Location
Scranton
This is my first attempt at wine making.

I've completed the primary fermentation of 5 gallons of pineapple wine in a brew bucket. I have a fine mesh filter funnel that I poured through, and was able to get about 4 gallons into the carboy before the coarse lees clogged the mesh.

Am I stuck throwing away the gallon that's left along with the lees? Ideas?

Thanks in advance.
 
You can pour the dirty gallon into 2 liter pop bottles and throw it in the fridge. Lees and sediment will fall into the depressions at the bottom and you can siphon off the clear liquid back into your secondary. Should be only a few days in the fridge to compact the sediment.

You can get a bit more out if that and top off with a white wine or juice.
 
You can pour the dirty gallon into 2 liter pop bottles and throw it in the fridge. Lees and sediment will fall into the depressions at the bottom and you can siphon off the clear liquid back into your secondary. Should be only a few days in the fridge to compact the sediment.

You can get a bit more out if that and top off with a white wine or juice.

Ah, thanks for the suggestion, sounds like it just might work.

I started this on 2/15 in the afternoon. 15 cans of frozen concentrate pineapple, bottled spring water to 5 gallons, added invert sugar to SG of 1.100, 1/2tsp of tannin and 1/2 crushed campden tablet.

Pitched 71B-1122 at 8am on 2/16 after activating it, covered loosely, checked and stirred every other day. Ferment temp was a steady 69F, and today my SG was at 0.998. After transferring the 4 gallons, I'm not seeing any airlock activity. I think all may be going according to plan here :)
 
Next time use a siphon. Do not disturb the carboy or bucket. Siphon from above the lees. You shouldn't leave much behind.

Or dump the crud out of the strainer, strain some more and repeat until you get as much as you can.

As to the airlock. Most of the active fermentation and gas release is already done, you might not see any more bubbling. You are good so far.
 
Next time use a siphon. Do not disturb the carboy or bucket. Siphon from above the lees. You shouldn't leave much behind.

Or dump the crud out of the strainer, strain some more and repeat until you get as much as you can.

As to the airlock. Most of the active fermentation and gas release is already done, you might not see any more bubbling. You are good so far.

Thanks for the info. I've been doing quite a bit of reading in different forums, and I've seen those who prefer to siphon as well as those who say that the funnel pour / screen method is best in order to transfer the fine lees in order to finish the fermentation prior to racking the first time. The latter method made sense to me, so I chose the latter. I didn't count on having such thick particulates though...

That dump / pour / strain / repeat method that you mentioned would try my patience way too much :)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top