Keln
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 6, 2006
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I'm starting to think self-designed brews are easier than kits. Anyways, I am doing a kit Chardonnay and it came to the day for first racking. It said the fermentation should have slowed down, which it had, but was still kind of active. Against my better judgement, I did it "by the book" and racked the wine anyways. Ok, so quite a bit of sediment had formed on the bottom of the container, thus I was very careful not to shake it up. After sanitizing everything well and letting it airdry, I started racking the wine. Right when I was almost done, I had an involuntary convulsion or something and shook the primary, kicking up alot of sediment. Rather then letting that little bit cloud up my otherwise nice looking batch, I stopped racking and eventually dumped it. I only lost maybe 6oz or so, no big deal. I poured some in a small glass first through a filter to taste it, and it was kind of bitter. It tasted like wine and wasn't a spoiled flavor exactly, just bitter.
So, I had my batch racked and ready to return to shelf. That was early yesterday afternoon. So far it still isn't doing anything. No bubbles or anything, it looks completely flat. Now, I have read that racking removes, besides general sediment, dead yeast right? Live yeast should still be suspended in the liquid right? Can racking shock the yeast enough to kill it? I don't think there were really any big temperature differences, and I used sanitary methods for everything, even siphoning.
I'm a bit concerned by the bitterness too, should I add some sugar and pitch a little more yeast? Or should I leave it alone a few more days? Yeast is Lalvin EC-1118 btw.
So, I had my batch racked and ready to return to shelf. That was early yesterday afternoon. So far it still isn't doing anything. No bubbles or anything, it looks completely flat. Now, I have read that racking removes, besides general sediment, dead yeast right? Live yeast should still be suspended in the liquid right? Can racking shock the yeast enough to kill it? I don't think there were really any big temperature differences, and I used sanitary methods for everything, even siphoning.
I'm a bit concerned by the bitterness too, should I add some sugar and pitch a little more yeast? Or should I leave it alone a few more days? Yeast is Lalvin EC-1118 btw.