How to rack - degas - fine etc.

[johnboy]

Hello everyone,

I've only ever tried winemaking once before and need a little guidance.

Once I've got the wine fermented out what are the next steps. Do I rack then fine. Is fining always necessary, what is degassing and how and when do I do it etc etc.

If somebody could guide me through getting it from the demijohn stage to the bottle stage I'd be really grateful.

The wine I'm going to try is Wurzels Orange Wine.

Cheers!

 

[snail59]

Once it has fermented transfer into a clean sterile DJ by syphon. :thumb:

Add a crushed Campden tablet and a 1/2 a teaspoon of stabelizer. :thumb:

Then add the finnings of your choise. :thumb:

Then give it a good shake (this is de gassing). :thumb:

Place in a cool place (below 10C if possable) for a week to clear. :thumb:

Then filter into bottles. :thumb:

Leave to mature for around a month or two (if you can ) then enjoy. :

If any of this is wrong I hope Moley will be along shortly to put me right :pray:

 

[Moley]

If any of this is wrong I hope Moley will be along shortly to put me right :pray:

No, that's prety good, but I'm just going to modify your running order slightly and elaborate with some pics lifted from my supermarket juices thread.

Hi johnboy, firstly, don't be in too much of a hurry, even if fermentation seems to have completely finished it won't hurt to leave it for another week for most of the sediment to settle out. With a Wurzel's I would usually rack around weeks 3-4.

If you have to move a DJ for racking, do it as smoothly as you can. You have been designed with a rotating wrist specifically for this task and if you have to turn a corner your DJ doesn't, contra-turn your wrist, this may occasionally mean that you have to turn 270° in the wrong direction.

When it's ready for racking you will need a freshly sanitised demijohn, syphon tube and clothes peg. The syphon tube should also have a rigid dipping tube with an upturned plastic cup on the end, you can buy these from Wilkinson's or any HBS.

That goes into the wine and is held just above the bottom by the clothes peg. Try to restrain the trailing part of the syphon tube so the dipping tube doesn't suddenly spin around and stir up the sediment.

Crush your campden tablet between two teaspoons into the receiving jar then suck on the syphon tube as cleanly as you can and drop it into your receiving jar. By lowering the little cup towards the gunk and gently tilting the jar as the level drops you can be left with just the sediment and hardly any wine.

De-gassing isn't essential, some people shake their wines for days, use spinning paddles in electric drills or vacuum devices, others don't bother at all. I give mine a few shakes over a 10 minute period. Cover the neck of the DJ with your well-washed hand and shake the jar, ease hand pressure to release the fizz, wait a minute, shake it again, release fizz.

I usually put my sorbate stabiliser in at this point, and then shake it a couple of times more.

With a Wurzel's or other juice wines which are intended to be quick wines I always add finings now and then put the jar away somewhere cool for a week. With longer-term country wines I just leave clearing to nature. Finings vary, follow the instructions on the bottle or sachet. I use ‘Vinclear’, an isiglass finings, £2.15 for 250ml, does about 20 gallons.

Bottling is the same as racking, squeeze the tube or fold the end back on itself between bottles, or get a little plastic tap from your HBS for around 50p.

 

[snail59]

There you go :thumb:

If any of this is wrong I hope Moley will be along shortly to put me right :pray:

No, that's prety good, .

Thanks Moley with your help im learning (slowly but im learning )

 

[johnboy]

Cheers guys.

That makes things a lot clearer.

Can't wait to get a few DJs on the go.

 

[Moley]

Sorry, I've just re-read and I am going to take issue with one thing Snail said, and that was “filter into bottles”.

Filtration is an advanced option. In my opinion it's very worthwhile if making white wines in decent volumes, the difference between bright and brilliant is remarkable, but it's not a substitute for proper clearing.

On bottling you will have a smaller quantity of lighter sediment and it's particularly important to restrain the syphon tube so the dipping tube can only move up and down and not side to side. You should be able to get 6 full bottles out of a full DJ but unless you can control that tube, or have a partner to look after the bottling end while you look after the mucky end, you will stuff up. I always run 5 bottles and then remove the tap and drop the tube into a litre bottle so I can ignore that end and concentrate on the sediment cup.

 

[johnboy]

So to begin with I can get away without filtering as long as I'm very careful with the sediment?

 

[Moley]

So to begin with I can get away without filtering as long as I'm very careful with the sediment?

Filtering should only ever be an optional extra, but sometimes it can make the difference between “great” and WOW!”

 

[johnboy]

thanks Moley

 

[texteditor]

Why dosen't anyone do crushed camden tablets? why are they tableted in the first case?
texteditor.

 

[Moley]

Why dosen't anyone do crushed camden tablets? why are they tableted in the first case?

You can buy sodium metabisulphite powder, it's just that 1 teaspoonful is equivalent to 10 campden tablets, so unless you've got some very small measuring spoons a CT is far more convenient.

If you're making wine in bulk, metabisulphite powder can be more useful, I dissolve 2.5 tsps in 250ml of boiled water (in an old finings bottle) and then use 10ml of stock solution in place of 1 campden tablet.

 

[danny]

After racking into a clean DJ do you put another an air lock on it or a solid bung?

Cheers

 

[Turbotez]

air lock is the best thing mate, apparently you could put in a bored bung with a bit of cotton wool in, but Airlocks are the way. :drunk:

 

[kingblue]

Great help on this thread for a starter guys thanks