Reason for secondary, and stirring the sediment

I brew a lot of beer, but my wife and I are just on our second batch of wine (from a kit) . I usually take a RDWHAH approach, and don't even use a secondary for my beer. I keg straight out of the primary and use the keg to clear the beer.

However, with wine, I see that after transferring to the secondary and finishing fermentation, you are supposed to stir up the sediment before stabilizing. What is the purpose of this? What happens if you don't?

The way the clarifier a work, is by the charge of the particle. There are two separate bags in your clarifier (usually). One is positive, the other is negative. The instructions might say that the more particles in suspension, the better it works.

I've experimented stirring up the sediment and not. As long as the wine is relatively cloudy, there is enough for the clarifier to grab onto and start working.

Bottom line, even if you stir it up, it will clear.

So its really just a matter of clarity, not of taste then? Why clarify at all if a filter is used?

On another note, Will having a wine sitting for an extended period (4 or 5 weeks) on it's yeast bed and oak chips cause flavour issues such as tannins, or is that only when skins are used?

rhoop said:

So its really just a matter of clarity, not of taste then? Why clarify at all if a filter is used?

On another note, Will having a wine sitting for an extended period (4 or 5 weeks) on it's yeast bed and oak chips cause flavour issues such as tannins, or is that only when skins are used?

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The clarifying agents can help dead yeast cells drop, overdose of tannins, etc....but in kits they are specifically added as part of the timeline for kut completion. I rarely use clarifiers when making non-kit wines, other than bentonite at the start, sometimes....and with time and proper racking technique the wines always clear.

Oak chips can impart tannins for sure, as will skins/stems/seeds.