Wayne Harris wrote:

I thought I understood this. But, in my
infinte dumbness, I have discovered that i
truly do not.

I am trying to gain a better understanding of
the definition of
primary and secondary fermentation.
Specifically, what defines the seperation
between the two. I have read some, and in the
last year, i
have made 5 5-gallon batches. All of these were
with different recipes.
So, I understand the basics. Primary
fermentation is open to the air,
and yeast converts sugar to alcohol. After some
period of time, or some measurement, the wine is
racked off the lees into an airtight container
to continue for several weeks. I am specifically
leaving MLF out of this for right now. I guess
my question is this, what to most of you use as
an indicator for when to transfer wine wine from
primary to secondary.

* A fixed period of time?
* A Specific gravity reading?
* A leveling out of the SG at a certain level?

What are we looking for here?

Sorry for the newbie question, but this has been
bugging me for a bit now.

For my red wine production from grapes, I ferment
in primary until cap sink which is usually about
10 days to two weeks. It is essentially through
fermenting at this point. After I press and put
in carboy, I rack off the heavy lees in a couple
days. Most of the time, I will only do one more
racking before bottling.

For my white wines from juice of the grape, I will
typically put in a large enough carboy to allow
for a head of foam and attach an airlock right
away. After fermentation is through, I rack to a
smaller clean carboy.

I think most everyone has slightly different
procedures and some may choose to get into a holy
war debate over which is best.