Hi all -

This is my first attempt at making wine with Concord Grapes grown in
my yard. I am using a beginner's wine making kit, and and a very
general recipe for Concord grapes.

I was not too sure of how much grapes I started with (didn't have any
scale), but I ended up with about 5 gallons of liquid from the crushed
grapes (but with possibly too high a proportion of grape skins and
pulp to liquid -- I didn't add much water).

Also - I didn't use fermentation bag (although I have one) for primary
fermentation (recipe/instructions didn't call for doing that),
although I see several instruction sets on line say to use one. The
skins and pulp are in the liquid, and mostly floated to top.

I am pretty sure this is now at end of primary fermentation period -
it started at 1.090 SG and now is at 1.010 (after about 8 days), and
have seen quite a few different variations on what the next step would
be.

Here are the questions:
1. Some instructions say transfer to secondary by pouring wine from
primary to secondary through a funnel which has a cheese cloth/
strainer on it. (And then rack in about month, using siphon.)

I read other instructions which said to pour free juice into
secondary, and then press skins through nylon strainer bag.

Finally, other instructions said to rack using siphon hose into
secondary container.

Which of the above would be best as next step?


2. For secondary fermentation, I have a 5 gallon carboy with plastic
air lock. A few sites said I should put some wine aside to top off.
But I don't have another container and another air lock, can you put
the top off wine into a mason jar (or something similar?


3. What to fill airlock with, water or sulfite solution? I've seen
someone say that sulfite solution in air lock adds bad odor, and that
water is sufficient. Others say use sulfite? What's the way to
decide which to use?

Thanks for any advice.