Is secondary necessary?

[ErickJ]

So i have been wondering if the secondary fermentation is necessary? Whats the point? Can i get away with only primary? Whats the difference between primary and secondary? How do i know when to cease primary and begin secondary?
Thanks for the input.

 

[Gavin C]

So i have been wondering if the secondary fermentation is necessary? Whats the point? Can i get away with only primary? Whats the difference between primary and secondary? How do i know when to cease primary and begin secondary?
Thanks for the input.

Yes.

It gets the wine off the lees after the initial extremely active fermentation subsides. (Usually a week or two)

Primary vessels have lots of headspace. Buckets are often used.

Secondary vessels have as little headspace as practical so are sized to match the batch size. Winemakers also top up with wine or must to eliminate headspace. Carboys are often used.

As lees again accumulate during fermentation, additional rackings to additional secondary vessel are carried out over time.

Typically Na-meta or K-meta are added at racking to prevent oxygenation of the wine at racking.

When the wine is deemed finished and ready for bottling it can be stabilized if desired and bottled.

Other steps are of course needed like degassing etc but that is beyond the scope of your question.

Hope that helps a bit

 

[IslandLizard]

Oops... I was thinking you were talking about beer.

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Listen to Gavin C!