Topping up with sugar syrup?

[KiRbY29869]

I saw a thread similar to this the other day but it didn't quite have the answer. I made a strawberry wine about a month and am going to be putting it into tertiary. There is a lot of lees in the bottom and am going to be about half a gallon shy of a full carboy. I'm not worried about losing flavor/color because I used 25lbs. of strawberries for 5 gal. It's at 12% alc/vol. and I don't want to lose that by topping off with straight water. If I made a sugar mixture and racked on to that:
1.Should there be enough yeast to start again? - should only raise the whole by maybe 10 points or so.
2.Shouldn't leave nearly as many lees as there are now? - won't have all the peices and parts of the strawberries.

Am I right in assuming these or am I missing something. Thanks in advance.

 

[Yooper]

The answer to both questions is "maybe". Maybe the yeast are still able to restart fermentation, depending on the yeast strain and the health of the yeast. If it's a champagne yeast, which will ferment up to 18% or more, it should go if the yeast are not too pooped out. It also might not restart, leaving you with a sweetened wine.

If fermentation restarts, you'll have more lees to deal with, but not as much as with the strawberries still in there. You still might have a lot, though, and will have to rerack when fermentation stops again. (Which then may mean you want to top up). You may want to just consider racking to a smaller carboy, and then not have to top up. I always have a wine bottle with a stopper and airlock with the "extras" for topping up. You can also use sanitized marbles to reduce headspace, if it isn't alot.

 

[KiRbY29869]

I think that I'm going to rack it and see where I am at after that. I wish that I had a 3 gallon carboy but I don't. If there isn't too much headspace I'll just use water and if there is a lot I'll use the sugar water. If I do use the sugar water route then I will be sure to post how that works out here for anyone else that might need to do this in the future. Thanks Yooper for the quick response.

 

[KiRbY29869]

Nevermind the amount of lees in the bottom was very decieving. After racking it the carboy was filled up to a level that is fine. Maybe next time I'll rack it first before i worry about things that I don't have to do.

 

[ms8miranda]

Darn!!! I was looking forward to hearing how it worked out!