racking off primary
 

I think I killed my wine. I did five gallons of merlot using
concentrate. My starting sg was1.080. After I racked, there was
about 1/2 gallon headspace. I top it off with 2 quarts of grape juice
and now my sg reading is 1.0. I added 5 crushed campden tabs. With
this reading does this mean 0 alcohol content or can I save it?

racking off primary
 

On Mar 6, 11:23 am, wrote:
> I think I killed my wine. I did five gallons of merlot using
> concentrate. My starting sg was1.080. After I racked, there was
> about 1/2 gallon headspace. I top it off with 2 quarts of grape juice
> and now my sg reading is 1.0. I added 5 crushed campden tabs. With
> this reading does this mean 0 alcohol content or can I save it?

You may be missing a digit, but if you went from 1.080 to 1.0
(assuming 1.000) then your ABV should be around 10.5%. Still assuming
you meant 1.000, then your ABV would be even higher than that since
you topped off with grape juice and then took the reading. I'm
guessing your reading before the addition was 0.990 with a .5 gallon
addition of 1.080 juice to bring it to 1.000 gravity in the end. That
would mean that before the addition, you were at 11.8%ABV.

--Jeff

racking off primary
 

On Mar 6, 12:17*pm, Jeff > wrote:
> On Mar 6, 11:23 am, wrote:
>
> > I think I killed my wine. *I did five gallons of merlot using
> > concentrate. * My starting sg was1.080. *After I racked, there was
> > about 1/2 gallon headspace. *I top it off with 2 quarts of grape juice
> > and now my sg reading is 1.0. I added 5 crushed campden tabs. *With
> > this reading does this mean 0 alcohol content or can I save it?
>
> You may be missing a digit, but if you went from 1.080 to 1.0
> (assuming 1.000) then your ABV should be around 10.5%. Still assuming
> you meant 1.000, then your ABV would be even higher than that since
> you topped off with grape juice and then took the reading. I'm
> guessing your reading before the addition was 0.990 with a .5 gallon
> addition of 1.080 juice to bring it to 1.000 gravity in the end. That
> would mean that before the addition, you were at 11.8%ABV.
>
> --Jeff

what kind of pump did you go with? I was thinking about this one:
http://morewinemaking.com/view_product/17305/103271
I'd love to hear someone's thoughts.

was:racking off primary, now:morewine pump
 

Wayne Harris wrote:

>
> what kind of pump did you go with? I was thinking about this one:
> http://morewinemaking.com/view_product/17305/103271
> I'd love to hear someone's thoughts.


Wayne,

I bought this pump about two years ago and think it's great. It handles
hobbiest sized batches (20-30 gal.) with ease in short time, and has
plenty of "head" (power) to move wine between containers or to pump up
to a bottling tank. It's strictly a juice/wine pump, not for must of
course. I haven't used it to drive a filter, but 30 psi should work well
enough, I think.
Compact, affordable, easy to set up & clean out, I think it's a good
entry level utility pump.

--
Mike MTM, Cokesbury, NJ, USA

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racking off primary
 

> wrote in message
...
>I think I killed my wine. I did five gallons of merlot using
> concentrate. My starting sg was1.080. After I racked, there was
> about 1/2 gallon headspace. I top it off with 2 quarts of grape juice
> and now my sg reading is 1.0. I added 5 crushed campden tabs. With
> this reading does this mean 0 alcohol content or can I save it?

Assuming the wine was dry when you racked, it would have contained
about 10.6%ABV. Adding the grape juice would have caused about
a 10% dilution leaving you with about 9.5%ABV presently in the wine.
Barely adequate. The added sugar may cause the ferment to
restart, so leave it under airlock for a while to see.

racking off primary
 

On Mar 6, 12:23 pm, wrote:
> I think I killed my wine. I did five gallons of merlot using
> concentrate. My starting sg was1.080. After I racked, there was
> about 1/2 gallon headspace. I top it off with 2 quarts of grape juice
> and now my sg reading is 1.0. I added 5 crushed campden tabs. With
> this reading does this mean 0 alcohol content or can I save it?

I'm not quite sure why you added grape juice to Merlot, if it was
Concord juice the taste of the Merlot will be altered. It's not good
practice to add sugar (from the grape juice) and sulfite and the same
time IF you want the grape juice to ferment out also. If you do and
it isn't active try racking with splashing, it will get some oxygen to
the wine and reduce the sulfite level. If you like it as is leave it
alone. I would agree that a little less than 10% alcohol is not a
good place to be for stability also.

Next time consider topping with wine, store bought if necessary.
There are box wine out there that are not awful.

The wine isn't ruined but it has been altered, taste it and repost if
you don't like it.

Joe