"Art Schubert" <na@> wrote in message
news
> Thanks, Tom
>
> >Still, it isn't a bad idea to do so every 2 or 3 days - at least for
> >the first couple of weeks...
>
> Any concern about introducing oxygen with each stirring?

Not as long as you don't whip it into a froth! Besides, it's new wine, and
still fermenting. It's saturated with CO2. That diminishes how much oxygen
it can pick up. Also, you'll want to degas it at some point.

> >The carboy should be pretty nearly full at this point, and under airlock.
>
> Actually it is still under airlock from the ferment ("primary" in the
> same carboy) and has not been opened yet. I haven't racked it to a
> smaller one. I have gotten the idea that racking from a "primary" is
> mostly for the purpose of getting the fermenting must off of the gross
> lees while the ferment is still active enough to produce more CO2 and
> not get stuck.

Yeah, that's about it - unless you're doing sur lie aging.

> In this case, being just juice, I left it alone from the start. Wrong
> move?

Not really, but what are you going to fill all that headspace with? Now
that the main fermentation is over, you want to minimize the surface area
because that's where all the spoilage organisms grow.

Once you get the wine through ML you won't need to worry about H2S problems.
(Maybe it's far enough along that you don't have to now, but let your nose
be the judge of that.) Then you can sulfite and top the wine up and let it
sit for 6 months or so, stirring every couple of months, before letting it
finally settle clear in preparation for bottling.

Tom S