Wine kit multiple rackings?

[whoaru99]

I've made a few wine kits but this one seems a bit different. I don't recall as many racking steps.

The instructions in this Master Vintner "Old Vine Merlot" kit call for three rackings.

Don't see any grape skins but there are thee different packs of wood chips.

Primary ferm > secondary ferm
Secondary ferm > clarifying
Clarifying > bottling

Do y'all normally do all three or combine one or more?

 

[lumpher]

I never rack my wine more than once. Oxidation is a problem that kicks in at that point.

 

[Johnny2]

Add k-meta, if you are scared of oxidation. It's not going to. Rackings are needed to have a clear wine, I do at least 2 for a dry and 3-4 for a sweetened (including botling)

 

[Midway Island]

I've made a few wine kits but this one seems a bit different. I don't recall as many racking steps.

The instructions in this Master Vintner "Old Vine Merlot" kit call for three rackings.

Don't see any grape skins but there are thee different packs of wood chips.

Primary ferm > secondary ferm
Secondary ferm > clarifying
Clarifying > bottling

Do y'all normally do all three or combine one or more?

 

[Midway Island]

Some kits that are up in the $150 range are delicious when finished, I usually go a few more weeks between rackings on kits, if proper sanitation techniques are being practiced the rackings will assist in the clearing process, bentonite is added at the beginning stage so if the wine is what I call murky, time and another racking will assist in clearing.

 

[whoaru99]

Yes, this is one of those more expensive kits so want to work at making it right.

Another question is fermemter size.

In the past I used a 7gal Fermonster and had zero problem, but I want to get a batch of beer going too where I'll need the headspace of 7gal fermenter.

I don't recall seeing any appreciable krausen on previous batches of wine so I'm wondering about doing this 6 gal kit in a 6 gal Big Mouth fermenter. The wine level would be roughly at the shoulder of the container, then there would be maybe a few inches of tapering space up to the airlock.

I think it should be OK based on previous fermenter activity, but looking for some other opinions that a big krausen on wine kit is unlikely.

 

[whoaru99]

Actially got krausen up to the stopper and air lock. Caught it just in time before it went up into the airlock. Gently stirred it down but it came back quickly (none came up into the airlock though).

Put in some Fermcap-S to see how that goes.

 

[whoaru99]

The airlock was a purple milkshake this morning even with the Fermcap. At least it was contained to the airlock itself and an easy clean up.

Hard to know if the Fermcap helped or not. Maybe would have been a big mess without it?