racking 1 gallon jugs of wine

You can get much smaller racking canes that self siphon. No need for a baster. Don't worry about the splashing. Sometimes it is good to get some Oxygen in there. I think there is often an over emphasis on protecting wine from oxygen. Just manage your sulfite levels. I've gone through the extremes of putting in 30ppm with each racking, and now only put it in at crush and bottling. And, if you're planning to drink it all in the near term, I would think the splashing and sulfite is less of an issue. Tomato, huh?

Good to know. I'll look to augment my equipment a little then. Your experience on the sulfite levels is helpful - when you put it in "at bottling" does that mean you add it before you rack it from the jug to the fermenter? I would think that sulfur flavor would be a risk at that point - maybe the action of bottling is splashing enough to bring it down below taste thresholds?

Thanks,

--Jeff

Yeah, not by planning - I was at the canning phase for tomato juice when the bottom of one of the jars blew out into the entire kettle. I could not use it for canning anymore, so rather than throw it out, I added sugar, let it cool, pitched some yeast, and let it go. Unfortunately I had added salt to it before the accident, so it may only be good as a cooking wine. But it still beats throwing out 5 gallons of fresh made tomato juice.

At present, I have a 3 gallon carboy topped off with it and a 1 gallon jug 3/4 full. They are both clear as can be - the 1gal jug had some mold on top which apparently has committed suicide (it is gone now - maybe it sunk). I was going to keep the 1gal to top off the 3gal on future rackings. There is some sediment at the bottom now, which is why I asked those questions about racking.

As for flavor - it's not bad. Very interesting. It picked up the flavor of the seeds, which I would equate to having a "tobacco" flavor to them. It's too early to tell at this point.

--Jeff

The sufur taste and smell dissipates after a couple days.

It will even after it is bottled? I thought it had to escape into the air. Or are you saying to hit it a couple days before bottling instead of the day-of?

--Jeff

Regarding bottling: As an ex-brewer still possessing the old set up, i rack carefully(minimal splashing) into a bottling bucket and bottle from there via the spigot...

Jug to Jug - Clear tubing. Jug to bottle - clear tubing and bottle filler.

A racking cane - huh?

Steve Oregon

Sulfite at appropriate levels is tasteless, you should never know it's there. If you measure pH you can use it appropriately; if not you can guesstimate based on tartness.

The lower the pH for the most part, the tarter the wine. Lower pH lower doses of sulfite. As long as you don't exceed 0.8 PPM molecular by more that 10 PPM free you will never taste it. The archives are full of sulfite posts and will give you more detail.

An easy way to rack small quantities is to get hold of a nasal canula, the tubing has a very small ID and is good for racking small quantities.

Joe

Steve:

How do you prevent the tubing from disturbing sediment without the solid support of a racking cane? I find the tubing end curls in unpredictable ways and it's pretty much impossible to deal with it at the bottom of the container. I've got a regular size plastic racking cane and cut it down to fit nicely into a gallon jug, and that works fairly well - the main issue is seeing the bottom tip of the cane.

Pp

Hi Pp:

You making any port this season? Have 5 gal of Cab and ~60lbs of plums in the freezeragain for more plum port.

Re: racking The tubing comes off a roll at the hardware store and has a curl set into it.

When slipped in the jug or carboy they find the edge of the glass right away and stay right there untill I scoot them down. Never had one that was straight yet!

Take Care, Steve Oregon