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Head Space in Secondary & sediment from primary

Hello,

Couple questions from a guy who just did his first siphonings from primary to secondary. First, how much head space do you leave in the secondary? Also, I have a couple of things of "strange" things that happened during the transfer. The batch of apricot wine (1 gallon) had tons of sediment (about

2 inches" upon transfer to the secondary. Should I rack it again in a couple days? The other batch I transferred was a 1 gallon batch of Raspberry. That had very little sediment (on the bottom), but has a foam that formed at the top in the secondary. Is that OK? This batch always had a thick foam all during primary. I just want everything to go as well as possible.

Thanks,

-- Eric

Reply to
Eric P.
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Generally, an inch of headspace is recommended, but if it's still actively fermenting, you might want to leave a little more room.

I believe it's generally best to avoid overhandling your wine. Every time you rack, you expose your must/wine to oxygen. A little air exposure is ok, but too much can ruin it. You also run the risk of contamination.

The amount of sediment depends on how the yeast flocculates and settles. Some strains settle to form compact lees, others leave a lot of sediment. The amount of sediment is also influenced by the amount of solids or pulp in the must.

The amount of foam is also greatly influenced by the strain of yeast you are using. Temperature and various other factors also come into play. Don't worry about the foam unless it's spewing over like a volcano. If that ever does happen, moving the carboy to a cooler location will reduce the problem.

At this point, the best thing you can do is to make sure the airlock is tight, then kick back and have a beverage. Worrying too much could lead you to do some things that would be detrimental to the wine/must that's in progress.

Greg G.

Reply to
gregmg

Thanks for the re-assurance. I will let it do its thing.

--Eric

Reply to
Eric P.

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