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. :rockin:
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. :rockin: