Hello friends! I am a beginner home brewer just looking for an answer to a simple question. I just went out to a Costco Wholesale shop in my area and bought a double pack of cheap wine kits for like 80 CAD to see if I like wine brewing! I just finished the first step/ process of primary fermentation and siphoned my first batch of wine into the carboy/ secondary fermenter and I thought hmm maybe now since my primary fermenter is empty it's a good time to start that 2nd kit and put on another batch. However although I have enough bottles to bottle my first batch when I siphon my 2nd batch into the carboy/ secondary fermenter it might take while before I get enough empty clean bottles to bottle my 2nd batch! So the question is how long is it okay to let my wine sit in the secondary fermenter? It might be a month or more before I actually bottle it!
How long is it safe to let wine sit in the secondary fermenter?
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I'm a beginner with wine, too... Never used a kit, only fruit ... Mostly stuff I've grown... Grapes, rhubarb, loquats, etc...
I've only done 1 gallon batches...
I find that I have to rack several times, as they keep dropping lees for quite a while... I still have some in the basement from last july/august that I may want to rack 1 more time before bottling. I check every month or so. If the lees are ~1/4 inch, I rack to a clean carboy and check again in month... Once there are no more lees, I bottle.
Make sure to minimize head space by topping up to neck w/ water or similar wine (or adding sanitized marbles to raise the level) and to use campden tabs every other racking to reduce oxidation..
I've only done 1 gallon batches...
I find that I have to rack several times, as they keep dropping lees for quite a while... I still have some in the basement from last july/august that I may want to rack 1 more time before bottling. I check every month or so. If the lees are ~1/4 inch, I rack to a clean carboy and check again in month... Once there are no more lees, I bottle.
Make sure to minimize head space by topping up to neck w/ water or similar wine (or adding sanitized marbles to raise the level) and to use campden tabs every other racking to reduce oxidation..
The wine I make ends up being about 6 inches from the opening of the 23L carboy do you think that's too much head space?
Erik the Awful
Well-Known Member
If you have an airlock on it, it's safe to let it sit. I typically rack my wines every two months, and I usually have four or five wines in secondary. Once they stop dropping sediment I bottle them. It usually takes a couple rackings.
madscientist451
Well-Known Member
Yes, that's too much head space. You have a couple of options:
-As already noted above, get a smaller carboy
-get the cheapest glass marbles you can find, sanitize them and drop them into the carboy to raise the level of the wine
-Buy a similar cheap wine at the liquor store in gallon jugs and top up your home made wine with that. (save the gallon jugs)
-Invest in new or used empty gallon jugs and rack your wine to those, you may still need to use the marbles for the last jug you rack to.
-You could go ahead and bottle the wine, but you might end up with sediment in the bottom of your bottles and you won't be able to make any adjustments to the wine after final bottling (or it will be a TPITA to adjust each bottle).
All those suggestions are good, 2 key focus items are 1" head space and 3rd racking add S02 to prevent oxidation. I am running out of bottle space good problem to have,, so i am doing a long bulk aging at 3rd racking. Nice to be running out of room with all the carboys
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
I agree that headroom can be a major problem - it allows for oxidation and even if the wine is relatively immune from oxidation, alcohol in the presence of oxygen where there are acetobacter present can result in vinegar. But another issue are the lees, the sediment. Fine lees are less of an issue but gross lees can create off flavors as the gross lees include dead yeast cells and those cells can rupture allowing the insides of the yeast to enter the wine. You want to rack if you have a fairly thick layer of lees (say half an inch or more). A dusting is not a problem.
TheBluePhantom
Brewing for sport
Once it stops dropping and stays clean it is bulk aging. With minimal headspace it can stay like that over a year.
Ty520
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From my understanding, small home batches aren't really susceptible to issues caused by sitting on the lees for extended periods. It's the immense pressure of large commercial batches that can rupture yeast cells.
For short-term relief with excess wine in storage I've resorted to the following two tactics with positive results:
TACTIC A. I bought a 3-gallon (15 litre) jug of spring water ($3) and used the water in a batch of wine. I bought a #10 bung with a hole in it (check which size your jug requires) and after sanitizing the plastic jug, filled it and capped it with the bung and an airlock. I made sure the Wine level was within an inch of the bung.
I kept it racked that way for two months and the quality to me was exactly the same as if I had racked it in a glass carboy with zero plastic taste. It's used to bottle drinking water after all.
IMPORTANT NOTE: At first I monitored it daily to make sure the bung held securely in place. The mouth of the jug is not designed as a well as a carboy to hold a bung so I worried about air leakage. I found a good fix. I looped a plastic tie around the neck of the jug and then secured it leaving a little slack but not enough for the tie to come off. I then squeezed two more ties between the jug lip and the first tie and used them to secure the bung in place. A quick yank make the bung absolutely secure.
Some posts I've seen say that water jugs are not a good long-term substitute because they degrade over time. I agree. I keep wine in it for only 2 months or less until I have enough bottles. At $3 a pop, I can buy a new jug for each batch or two of wine.
TACTIC B. Same idea as above but I use two-litre plastic soda bottles and a #3 bung with a hole in it. See photo.
TACTIC A. I bought a 3-gallon (15 litre) jug of spring water ($3) and used the water in a batch of wine. I bought a #10 bung with a hole in it (check which size your jug requires) and after sanitizing the plastic jug, filled it and capped it with the bung and an airlock. I made sure the Wine level was within an inch of the bung.
I kept it racked that way for two months and the quality to me was exactly the same as if I had racked it in a glass carboy with zero plastic taste. It's used to bottle drinking water after all.
IMPORTANT NOTE: At first I monitored it daily to make sure the bung held securely in place. The mouth of the jug is not designed as a well as a carboy to hold a bung so I worried about air leakage. I found a good fix. I looped a plastic tie around the neck of the jug and then secured it leaving a little slack but not enough for the tie to come off. I then squeezed two more ties between the jug lip and the first tie and used them to secure the bung in place. A quick yank make the bung absolutely secure.
Some posts I've seen say that water jugs are not a good long-term substitute because they degrade over time. I agree. I keep wine in it for only 2 months or less until I have enough bottles. At $3 a pop, I can buy a new jug for each batch or two of wine.
TACTIC B. Same idea as above but I use two-litre plastic soda bottles and a #3 bung with a hole in it. See photo.
