Hello.

I just racked my Vidal Blanc into the secondary. The SG had dropped from
its initial 1.085 to 1.020. I know I know, I should have transferred to
carboy before the SG dropped to 1.020, but work and graduate school got in
the way this week. The juice was in the primary for six days.

I noticed when I racked into the secondary that CO2 was being released
extremely slowly. Temperature in my house is approximately 72 degrees year
round, so I do not think this could be the culprit.

My question is, will this be okay? I hope that this batch of wine is going
to turn out well. Is the CO2 release so slow because the SG has already
dropped so much?

If anyone has any advice, I'd be glad to hear it.

John,
I personally don't understand the reason for this step although I see
it commented on as standard procedure all the time. I rack when the
wine in finished. If I had open fermenters that would make me do this,
but mine have lids so I never rack until the wine is finished, closer
to 0.995 or so.

I doubt you have an issue unless you lost a lot of viable yeast in that
rack. If that is the case your fermentation may fail to complete and
you would just need to restart it with fresh yeast. Your temp is good,
if anything it's high if you want to keep a lot of fruitiness in that
Vidal.

John Fouts wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I just racked my Vidal Blanc into the secondary. The SG had dropped from
> its initial 1.085 to 1.020. I know I know, I should have transferred to
> carboy before the SG dropped to 1.020, but work and graduate school got in
> the way this week. The juice was in the primary for six days.
>
> I noticed when I racked into the secondary that CO2 was being released
> extremely slowly. Temperature in my house is approximately 72 degrees year
> round, so I do not think this could be the culprit.
>
> My question is, will this be okay? I hope that this batch of wine is going
> to turn out well. Is the CO2 release so slow because the SG has already
> dropped so much?
>
> If anyone has any advice, I'd be glad to hear it.

I usually never take my wine to the secondary until the SG reaches 1.030 -
1.025... this may be wrong but has always worked well for me... can anyone
tell us why it should be taken out earlier???

Jim

"John Fouts" > wrote in message
...
> Hello.
>
> I just racked my Vidal Blanc into the secondary. The SG had dropped from
> its initial 1.085 to 1.020. I know I know, I should have transferred to
> carboy before the SG dropped to 1.020, but work and graduate school got in
> the way this week. The juice was in the primary for six days.
>
> I noticed when I racked into the secondary that CO2 was being released
> extremely slowly. Temperature in my house is approximately 72 degrees
> year round, so I do not think this could be the culprit.
>
> My question is, will this be okay? I hope that this batch of wine is
> going to turn out well. Is the CO2 release so slow because the SG has
> already dropped so much?
>
> If anyone has any advice, I'd be glad to hear it.
>

"John Fouts" > wrote in message
...
> Hello.
>
> I just racked my Vidal Blanc into the secondary. The SG had dropped from
> its initial 1.085 to 1.020. I know I know, I should have transferred to
> carboy before the SG dropped to 1.020, but work and graduate school got in
> the way this week. The juice was in the primary for six days.
>
> I noticed when I racked into the secondary that CO2 was being released
> extremely slowly. Temperature in my house is approximately 72 degrees
> year round, so I do not think this could be the culprit.
>
> My question is, will this be okay? I hope that this batch of wine is
> going to turn out well. Is the CO2 release so slow because the SG has
> already dropped so much?
>
> If anyone has any advice, I'd be glad to hear it.

Same problem here, fermentation started fast (and started at SG 1.090) and I
transfered to secondary about a week ago (approx SG = 1.027ish) now it's
only bubbling every 64 seconds, I'm going to check the SG later but was
hoping to find out what the Maximum SG is at the finishing stage, i.e. will
it be ok if it's at 1.000 or less or does it have to hit 0.990 to be ok? I
may have to get some more yeast in there depending on SG but the recipe
(from Jack Keller) says it should take around 6 months to bottling.

Ceri Jones wrote:
> "John Fouts" > wrote in message
>
> Same problem here, fermentation started fast (and started at SG 1.090) and I
> transfered to secondary about a week ago (approx SG = 1.027ish) now it's
> only bubbling every 64 seconds, I'm going to check the SG later but was
> hoping to find out what the Maximum SG is at the finishing stage, i.e. will
> it be ok if it's at 1.000 or less or does it have to hit 0.990 to be ok? I
> may have to get some more yeast in there depending on SG but the recipe
> (from Jack Keller) says it should take around 6 months to bottling.

Not sure if that's the same situation - slowing down after a week since
moving to secondary is pretty normal, it should be done or close to it
at this point. Dry wines normally get to 0.990-0.993 depending what
you're fermenting, above that you'll have some sugar left in the wine.
That's not necessarily bad if it works for the wine style, but you'd
have to stabilize the wine by adding sorbate in that case. Just measure
the SG to see where you are, without data it's just speculation really.

Pp

"pp" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Ceri Jones wrote:
>> "John Fouts" > wrote in message
>>
>> Same problem here, fermentation started fast (and started at SG 1.090)
>> and I
>> transfered to secondary about a week ago (approx SG = 1.027ish) now it's
>> only bubbling every 64 seconds, I'm going to check the SG later but was
>> hoping to find out what the Maximum SG is at the finishing stage, i.e.
>> will
>> it be ok if it's at 1.000 or less or does it have to hit 0.990 to be ok?
>> I
>> may have to get some more yeast in there depending on SG but the recipe
>> (from Jack Keller) says it should take around 6 months to bottling.
>
> Not sure if that's the same situation - slowing down after a week since
> moving to secondary is pretty normal, it should be done or close to it
> at this point. Dry wines normally get to 0.990-0.993 depending what
> you're fermenting, above that you'll have some sugar left in the wine.
> That's not necessarily bad if it works for the wine style, but you'd
> have to stabilize the wine by adding sorbate in that case. Just measure
> the SG to see where you are, without data it's just speculation really.
>
> Pp

Hi, sorry it took so long to get back to you, it's been hectic here.

I measured it just now (before dropping my hydrometer and getting glass and
lots of little balls all over the kitchen!) it was 1.010, so a way to go
yet.

My recipe is from Jack Keller's site
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/recipe2.asp
Blackberry wine (4)
So itis meant to be sweet but it's also meant to take about 5 1/2 months to
complete (before bottling), and it doesn't look like it's going to take that
long.

When it reaches the stage of being approx right by way of SG should I leave
it as long as the recipe suggests or go by the SG?

Thanks again
Ceri )

Ok, taking the lid off the fermentation bucket seems to have helped! Since
replacing it it's perked up and is now pliping once every 16 seconds or so.
I think it was an issue of not enough oxygen for the yeast (I did put the
airlock on early according to the recipe I put it on after a few days
whereas it suggested to "cover and leave for a week" or somesuch).

Thanks again
Ceri )

"Ceri Jones" > wrote in message
...
> Ok, taking the lid off the fermentation bucket seems to have helped! Since
> replacing it it's perked up and is now pliping once every 16 seconds or
so.
> I think it was an issue of not enough oxygen for the yeast (I did put the
> airlock on early according to the recipe I put it on after a few days
> whereas it suggested to "cover and leave for a week" or somesuch).
>
> Thanks again
> Ceri )
>
Or, perhaps the cover was not completely sealed before it was removed and
replaced??

Ceri Jones wrote:
> "pp" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> >
>
> Hi, sorry it took so long to get back to you, it's been hectic here.
>
> I measured it just now (before dropping my hydrometer and getting glass and
> lots of little balls all over the kitchen!) it was 1.010, so a way to go
> yet.
>
> My recipe is from Jack Keller's site
> http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/recipe2.asp
> Blackberry wine (4)
> So itis meant to be sweet but it's also meant to take about 5 1/2 months to
> complete (before bottling), and it doesn't look like it's going to take that
> long.
>
> When it reaches the stage of being approx right by way of SG should I leave
> it as long as the recipe suggests or go by the SG?
>
> Thanks again
> Ceri )

I would follow the recipe in this case - it looks like it's meant to
end up sweet, so perhaps this is as fars as the yeast can take it?
Fruit wines often taste better with some sugar. The recipe says nothing
about adding sorbate so that again is an indication that the yeast is
supposed to die off before all the sugar is fermented.

As for the timing - follow the recipe there too. End of fermentation
doesn't mean the wine is ready for bottling, it needs to sit and be
racked several times before it clears up.

It's generally a good idea to follow a recipe the first time you're
making it to see what the intended result is. You can modify that in
later attempts but it's hard to do modifications without any data.

Pp

"pp" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Ceri Jones wrote:
>> "pp" > wrote in message
>> oups.com...
<snip>
>> Ceri )
>
> I would follow the recipe in this case - it looks like it's meant to
> end up sweet, so perhaps this is as fars as the yeast can take it?
> Fruit wines often taste better with some sugar. The recipe says nothing
> about adding sorbate so that again is an indication that the yeast is
> supposed to die off before all the sugar is fermented.
>
> As for the timing - follow the recipe there too. End of fermentation
> doesn't mean the wine is ready for bottling, it needs to sit and be
> racked several times before it clears up.
>
> It's generally a good idea to follow a recipe the first time you're
> making it to see what the intended result is. You can modify that in
> later attempts but it's hard to do modifications without any data.
>
> Pp
>
Thanks so much for your help, I tend to be a worrier and so when it's not
going exactly how I expect it too I tend to... well worry.

When I had the lid off today it smelled much mellower than it did during
primary, a bit more subtle and less like "falling down water" as my dad puts
it.
So I guess with 4 3/4 months (approx) of aging will help no end.

John Fouts wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I just racked my Vidal Blanc into the secondary. The SG had dropped from
> its initial 1.085 to 1.020. I know I know, I should have transferred to
> carboy before the SG dropped to 1.020, but work and graduate school got in
> the way this week. The juice was in the primary for six days.
>
> I noticed when I racked into the secondary that CO2 was being released
> extremely slowly. Temperature in my house is approximately 72 degrees year
> round, so I do not think this could be the culprit.
>
> My question is, will this be okay? I hope that this batch of wine is going
> to turn out well. Is the CO2 release so slow because the SG has already
> dropped so much?
>
> If anyone has any advice, I'd be glad to hear it.

1.020 is fine for a transfer, I use to do mine at 1.000-1.010 without
ill effects.

When you transfer, it takes a while for the ferment to pick up, so the
slowing of CO2 release right after the transfer is normal. After a day
or 2 at most, it should return back to the healthy rate. If not, then
you've lost most of the yeast in the sediment left behind. You can try
adding yeast nutrient and failing that, restart the ferment. I'd wait
with that until you're sure the ferment has stuck though.

Pp