Racking?

[Intelekt]

I would just like to say thank you to everyone in this forum for helping me out with info, plus the wealth of knowledge here is amazing :hat:

Right my question is about racking, well when to rack really, I'm under the impression that my TCs and WoWs are ready to be racked when they stop bubbling and begin to clear. Is this correct?

How long is too long to leave them on the sediment?

Would taking them off the sediment reduce the amount of yeast in there and slow or stop any fermentation?

I'm up to speed on most things but this racking time thing has always eluded me as recipes just say to rack and don't actually teach you what to look out for and make your own judgement :shock:

Thanks
Ade :hat:

 

[oldbloke]

TC doesn't need racking until it's done and ready to either bottle (when you just bottle unless you're batch priming), or to be put away for bulk maturing/malolactic fermentation. It'll be clear at that point, unless you used cloudy juice, and the gravity will be under 1.005, possibly under 1.000.
Wines don't desperately need racking until the yeast runs out of sugar and starts thinking about eating the dead yeast cells (something to be avoided), or if there's something else in the sediment that might give off flavours. So some of mine get left as long as 2 months, even more. If fermentation is about done, rack and leave to clear, otherwise don't bother, mostly.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Could you prime TC using AJ rather than sugar? My guesstimate is that about 1/2 litre of AJ would contain about 50g of sugar, which I think should be about right for one gallon. Would that work?

 

[oldbloke]

Yep, it'd work fine, but you'll need an extra bottle of course.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Yep, it'd work fine, but you'll need an extra bottle of course.

A very welcome bonus :thumb:

 

[Intelekt]

TC doesn't need racking until it's done and ready to either bottle (when you just bottle unless you're batch priming), or to be put away for bulk maturing/malolactic fermentation. It'll be clear at that point, unless you used cloudy juice, and the gravity will be under 1.005, possibly under 1.000.
Wines don't desperately need racking until the yeast runs out of sugar and starts thinking about eating the dead yeast cells (something to be avoided), or if there's something else in the sediment that might give off flavours. So some of mine get left as long as 2 months, even more. If fermentation is about done, rack and leave to clear, otherwise don't bother, mostly.

Thanks once again :hat: