White wine question, going into terciary

[jflongo]

I have some pino grisio going, and some pino noir, so I'm out of carboys. I need to transfer my pino grisio one last time for final clear. What would you guys do, transfer the pino grisio into a bottling bucket, clean out the carboy, then put it back in? Or just leave it in the current carboy, and bottle from there in a few weeks, all additions have been added already, per instructions. They just say to put it in another for final clearing. The last pino grisio(different manufacturer) didn't have me do that.

 

[cmiller356]

Personally, I'd rack it into a temp container (I.e. a gallon milk jug that's been cleaned and sanitized.) and if you want it to do the final clearing in there. If not then clean the carboy and then rack it back into the carboy. You might wait a little bit to rack back into carboy, and when you do you can bulk age it in that. But I'm still an amateur so let's see if my advice holds up to the pros!

 

[Yooper]

There really isn't a "tertiary"- it's all just "secondary", or a "carboy".

Anyway, generally you rack whenever you have lees 1/4" thick, or after 45-60 days whenever you have any lees at all. After 60 days with no lees, the wine can usually be bottled.

An extra carboy is handy, as some wines will be racked 4-5 times if they drop alot of lees or take a while to clear. If you don't want to invest in an extra carboy, you could use some sulfites to help prevent oxidation, and rack to another vessel, clean and sanitize your carboy, and rack back and top up. That's the only thing I can think of.

 

[jflongo]

Maybe I'll just leave it where it is, and see if I can get my hands on a 3rd carboy soon. According to the instructions, they want it racked again after 8 days, for final clearing, then leave it for 14 days then bottle. It's been 11 days now. If I can get a carboy soon, then I'll rack it, and test it for clarity a week or so after racking it again.

 

[Yooper]

Maybe I'll just leave it where it is, and see if I can get my hands on a 3rd carboy soon. According to the instructions, they want it racked again after 8 days, for final clearing, then leave it for 14 days then bottle. It's been 11 days now. If I can get a carboy soon, then I'll rack it, and test it for clarity a week or so after racking it again.

Yes, kits are funny that way. They all tend to produce good results, but some require more futzing about than others. I wouldn't so much worry about it, but until you have more experience it's pretty good practice to follow the instructions.

 

[jflongo]

This is my 3rd time making Pino Grisio, but this time I'm using a different version, that is supposed to be even higher quality. I'm guessing that is why they want it racked again. Maybe I'll grab a better bottle 6G carboy and use that, so far I just have 2 glass carboys and plastic buckets, it would be nice to have a BB one as well.

 

[jflongo]

I just bought a 6 gallon BB, so problem solved Lesson learned have at least 1 more carboy than the amount of wine you are making at the same time. I will probably even buy another one in the future, but this is good for now.