Quick racking question

[brewman551]

I've made a few batches of beer, but I am getting ready to rack my first batch of wine to secondary for the first time. It's Yooper's Apple Juice Wine (Jack Keller Recipe) and has been in a bucket with a loose lid for ten days. I've stirred it daily to give yeasties some oxygen, so for this first rack, shouldn't I be able to just pour it in to the one-gallon glass fermenter using a funnel instead of getting out the racking cane / tube apparatus?

 

[lukebuz]

That's what I do....
I'd like to see if anyone disagrees.
Never had any issues yet...

 

[brewman551]

Thanks! For the other rackings at 60 days, you siphon with racking vane, etc?

 

[Arpolis]

Racking cane is used to do two things:

One: Help prevent sucking up lees/sediment collected at the bottom.
Two: help reduce oxidization.

When racking to secondary it is not too terribly important to use a racking cane unless your primary lasted several months.

 

[Talbotway]

Am I correct in understanding that the secondary is very minor fermentation s and safe to air lock or plug? I have two one gallon glass jugs that have been in racked once a week for last three weeks. Last wens day I swapped the airlock for a plug (cause I wanted to start two more batches). Am I ok? I don't see any activity and its not blowing the tops... I topped off with some juice/water mixture and watched 36 hours for activity but didn't see any. By the way my reading was right at 1 or maybe .999.

 

[Arpolis]

I usually let my wines finishing fermenting and mostly clear in primary and I bulk age is secondary while racking maybe once more time a few months later. Other rack to secondary when the gravity hits about 1.010 - 1.002 and so there is still some fermenting to go.

If you are at 0.998 - 1.000 then it may ferment a little farther. Depending on your yeast and overall alcohol content it may go as low as 0.990. So if you have it stoppered now just be carefull and check it daily for a about a week. If gravity does not change over that time then you should be good.