My First Wine and it's Lees Question

[bama2112]

My first wine attempt, strawberry, 5 gallons. Stayed in primary for 6 days, transferred to secondary and it's been in there for 2 weeks today. As you can see from the picture, I have almost 3 inched of lees in the bottom, is this normal? There's no more bubbling going on so I think the fermentation is done, not keeping the lees suspended.

-I've read that if you have excessive lees, you should not let it sit on it, racking it immediately to keep from introducing a bad taste. True?

-When I removed the fruit bag, I squeezed it to get the juice out. Should I have only let it strain by gravity from the bag?

-Go ahead and rack it?

-With this amount of lees I'm obviously going to have an issue topping it off. Do they make a quality strawberry wine that I can use as a topper? I don't want to have to add Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill!!!

 

[malkore]

1. IMO, you racked a little early...I say this because you didn't post a gravity, just '6 days'. Time really means nothing to yeast. Its ALL about gravity readings. Normally you don't rack a wine until it's under 1.010 (assuming its not a sweet dessert wine). Racking really early means more lees in secondary...

2. so, you'll have to rack to tertiary, WHEN its DONE fermenting and reaches your expected target final gravity (or really close). at that point you could also add finings, sorbate, sulfilte, etc.

so leave it be for now until its done. the lees are not going to funk up the wine in only a week or two...really it takes MONTHS to autolyze the yeast and start developing putrid flesh aromas.

I have seen commercial strawberry wines (not boones...gross) at better liquor stores..not so much the grocery stores and BMC shops.

strawberries shouldn't affect a wine if the bag was squeezed. usually its the seeds or the skins of fruits that contain weird compounds like tannin that might negatively affect the final flavor.

 

[bama2112]

1. IMO, you racked a little early...I say this because you didn't post a gravity, just '6 days'. Time really means nothing to yeast. Its ALL about gravity readings. Normally you don't rack a wine until it's under 1.010 (assuming its not a sweet dessert wine). Racking really early means more lees in secondary...

Thanks for the reply Malkore. Sorry I forgot to include O.G. The O.G. was in fact 1.010, this is why I racked it a day earlier than the recipe suggested. I'll check the S.P. tomorrow and see what it says, then go with your recommendations further.

 

[Yooper]

I rack whenever needed- whether it's two weeks or two months. That wine needs racking. That's WAY too much in the way of gross lees.

 

[bama2112]

Thanks Yooper. Going to rack it this morning.

If I can't find a good quality strawberry wine to top it off, what would ya'll recommend using?

 

[DoctorCAD]

Thanks for the reply Malkore. Sorry I forgot to include O.G. The O.G. was in fact 1.010, this is why I racked it a day earlier than the recipe suggested. I'll check the S.P. tomorrow and see what it says, then go with your recommendations further.

WAAAAAAY too low for a starting SG, should have been over 1.080 or so.

 

[bama2112]

WAAAAAAY too low for a starting SG, should have been over 1.080 or so.

My mistake, that was the S.G. when I transferred it to the secondary. It's been a crazy Friday already.....

Original S.G. was 1.086.

 

[DoctorCAD]

My mistake, that was the S.G. when I transferred it to the secondary. It's been a crazy Friday already.....

Original S.G. was 1.086.

That's MUCH better...

 

[bama2112]

Racked my strawberry this morning. After moving the carboy yesterday I had to let it sit overnight to settle again. The picture below shows the amount I had to leave behind from the racking. I was lucky that when I made the original batch it made 6 gallons, so I had to use the entire extra gallon to top off the 5 gallon carboy, plus a small amount of a strawberry zinfandel that I found at the liquor store.

The S.P. at this racking was 0.990. Tasted it and it tastes like a very dry white wine. No real flavor of strawberry. Is this normal? Tasted pretty good though I must say!!

 

[bmckee56]

Without a recipe to go by it is hard to say why your strawberry flavor is not coming through. I use a whole lot of strawberries from my garden and also add a large can of strawberry puree to my 6 gallon recipe. Racking to early can cause some problems, but I don't think this is related to flavor loss in your case.

With strawberry wine, you want to limit the number of racks at this point. Oxidation in strawberry wine produces a brownish colored wine. I have experienced this first hand and try to limit toe O2 exposure. Get a sufficient amount of Pot-Meta into the wine to help protect it, but don't over do it. One campden tablet per gallon is sufficient.

Strawberry seeds are very small and I do not think squeezing would cause you much of a problem, though I prefer to just allow the bag to drip by itself. De-gas the wine as often as you can (use a vacuum pump if possible) as this will allow the wine to clear more quickly. Strawberry wine will need at least 1 year in the bottle to develop well. Others may disagree, but mine have benefitted from at least this much time. Over 2 years and your wine will be going down hill (again IMO).

My previous wines have been no higher than 1.075 initially. You do not want to much ABV or it will mask the flavor of the strawberries. Sweeten your final wine by steeping strawberries in a mixture of water and sugar, cooling and adding small amounts until you reach your desired level of taste.

Good luck.

Salute!

 

[bama2112]

Thanks for the info bmckee56.
So should I have added the campden tablets today when I moved it from the secondary into the fresh carboy? That's something I've been unsure about, when to add them. I was under the assumption I was to add them prior to bottling to stabilize the wine.

Hey, I see you're from around where most of my family is. They're in Newcastle. In fact, I was born there and replanted early to Alabama. I want to get back up there, with dreams of purchasing the old original family house (built 1820).

 

[Yooper]

Some winemakers use very little (if any sulfites). I use them, since they work as a preservative for the wine, as well as an antioxidant. I don't have an SO2 meter, so I guestimate the sulfite as one campden tablet per gallon at every other racking. That's a wild guess to try to keep the sulfite at 50 ppm. It works very well for me.

 

[bmckee56]

Thanks for the info bmckee56.
So should I have added the campden tablets today when I moved it from the secondary into the fresh carboy? That's something I've been unsure about, when to add them. I was under the assumption I was to add them prior to bottling to stabilize the wine.

Hey, I see you're from around where most of my family is. They're in Newcastle. In fact, I was born there and replanted early to Alabama. I want to get back up there, with dreams of purchasing the old original family house (built 1820).

I am about 40 minutes from New Castle, PA. I get up around that area every so often to visit some friends. If you ever come back this way for a visit, let me know and we can enjoy a brew together.

As for the pot-meta additions prior to bottling. It is recommended to check your so2 levels to ensure the wine will be protected in the bottle. To do so, you need to purchase a kit to check the free so2 in the wine and adjust it prior to bottling. This kits are not extremely accurate, but will get you in the ballpark.

Here is a link to get the item above: http://www.southhillsbrewing.com/product_detail.asp?category=19&product={CD5BFCA0-4CE5-430C-8955-F0E2F2250518}

Salute!