Specific Gravity ?

[Bobbybeef]

I am making satsuma wine my SG is coming down i read that when the SG hits between 1.020 & 1.030 others say it has to go to 1.00 at the present time which has been 4 days fermenting it has come down to 1.020 my solution is in a 5 gal bucket with the fruit in it and i have a bubbler on it every morning and evening i spray everything down with san and stir it then put the top back on.

 

[bernardsmith]

Sorry, Not entirely sure I understand your post. Are you asking whether you should rack the wine now or wait until the gravity drops closer to 1.000? If you rack too early you may be racking off too many of the active yeast cells that you need to complete the fermentation. The issue is also that if you wait too long to rack and active fermentation has ended then the wine is no longer protected by a blanket of CO2 and so if you have a great deal of headspace above the wine you may be asking for problems associated with oxidation. Racking when the gravity has fallen to 1.010 - 1.005 is typically a good time to rack.
Of course, if you are asking about something else then I apologize as I failed to grasp your question.

 

[Bobbybeef]

Sorry, Not entirely sure I understand your post. Are you asking whether you should rack the wine now or wait until the gravity drops closer to 1.000? If you rack too early you may be racking off too many of the active yeast cells that you need to complete the fermentation. The issue is also that if you wait too long to rack and active fermentation has ended then the wine is no longer protected by a blanket of CO2 and so if you have a great deal of headspace above the wine you may be asking for problems associated with oxidation. Racking when the gravity has fallen to 1.010 - 1.005 is typically a good time to rack.
Of course, if you are asking about something else then I apologize as I failed to grasp your question.

I am thinking i am going to wait till my batch gets to 1.0 then i am going to strain it and put it in a 3 gallon carboy and let it finish its fermentation does this sound right ? Its hard to explain what i want to do when i dont know what i am doing hahha

 

[bernardsmith]

aha... Others on this forum may offer a different approach but I would argue that you really do not want to let the gravity drop to 1.000 (specific gravity is measured to 3 decimal places after the 1. The measurement is a convention. Water has a given density of 1.000 and other liquids' density is measured in reference to water. Specific gravity as measured in comparison to the density of water is absolutely a convention and the convention is that it is listed to 3 decimal places after the 1). because at that point there may not be sufficient CO2 protecting your wine. So, if you are ASKING , then I would suggest that you rack while there is more sugar to be fermented. But if you are simply stating what you plan to do, go for it, This is your wine and you are your own boss.

 

[Jeff Wilson]

I’d second the 1.005-1.010 range to target for all the above reasons. I wouldn’t worry about trying to be too exact, a 1.002 vs a 1.008 won’t make any noticeable difference IMO.

Thought I’d expand a little, however, on why not to wait too long to transfer.

Oxygen is good/necessary for the yeast while it is actively fermenting which is one of the main reasons for stirring regularly in the primary to introduce O2 (the other main reason is to ensure floating fruit does not have enough time above the must to grow mold). While the O2 is being used by the yeast, it won’t negatively impact the must.

Certainly, if you left the must in the primary well after fermentation ends, the CO2 will eventaually slow, stop, then dissipate and the wine is exposed with no protection. But in reality, you’re going to move to the secondary which is were O2 exposure is more likely to occur if you wait too long.

If you wait until your SG is 1.000, most of the yeast is done so the ferment is already weak. You’ll likely notice significantly less enthusiastic bubbling (in other words, far less CO2 production).

The simple act of filtering out the solids and transferring into the secondary will introduce a lot of O2 (unless you are super careful and doing so under introduced inert gas such as nitrogen or CO2).

Additionally, racking can temporarily stunt the ferment under normal conditions. If the must is already in a weakened state, it might be some time before the air gap in the secondary fills with CO2.

You want your wine to be active enough to make the journey with enough horsepower to keep the ferment going so your secondary airlock is fairly quickly bubbling every couple seconds at least.

One other item I’ll point out (unrelated) is that it sounds like you‘re sanitizing every time you open it to stir. This isn’t really necessary. Kudos for being anal on the cleanliness but you’re just adding work to what should be just 30 seconds of open-stir-sniff-admire-close. Oh, and don’t bother with the airlock in the primary. You need the lid to keep the fruit flies and other contaminants out (or towel/cheesecloth + rubber band) but, personally, I just use a loose lid, flip and place upside down, stir, and replace. Just my two cents.

 

[Bobbybeef]

It was 1.010 this evening so tomorrow morning i am gonna strain the satsumas out and rack into a glass 3 gallon carboy i am gonna taste it and if its not sweet enough i am gonna add some sugar water does this sound about right for back sweetening or am i supposed to wait to back sweeten when i put it in bottles ?

 

[bernardsmith]

It's not so much at what point in the process is the time to add more sugar if YOU want the wine to be sweeter, it's far more about what YOU need to do to stop the yeast viewing any addition of sugar as theirs to ferment. What wine makers generally do is allow their wines to age and that means they will have transferred it twice or three times (or more) thus removing more and more of the yeast colony with each racking (transfer)... and that means that they can safely and effectively stabilize their wine with the addition of K-sorbate AND K-meta to prevent the REMAINING yeast from fermenting the added sugar. This you can do weeks, months or years before bottling but you CANNOT add sugar before you add the stabilizing chemicals.
Commercial wineries might use microscopically tiny filters to remove yeast cells but such filtration requires wines that are perfectly clear. Any particulates still in the wine will block those filters. Such filters are called sterile filters (less than half of a nanometer).

 

[Bobbybeef]

Well i racked it and its still bubbling i filtered it twice and it looks good.

 

[Bobbybeef]

how do i know when to put it in bottles ?

 

[bernardsmith]

That's easy. You don't bottle while yeast is actively fermenting (and you don't bottle before a wine is clear) but the secret is to monitor changes in gravity. If gravity has not dropped across three measures over about a week or so then you can be fairly confident that if the gravity is at 1.000 or lower the yeast are no longer transforming sugar into CO2 and alcohol. If gravity is still dropping - even crawling lower - the yeast is still active and bottling is courting disaster.
That said, if you are carbonating a wine you still want the yeast to have completely quit because they have no more sugar to ferment and then you add a very specific measured amount of sugar to produce a very specific measured amount of CO2 to produce a very specific amount of pressure. Failure to treat that rule with great respect will result in bottle bombs - and flying shards of glass can result in very, very serious injury if not worse.