I racked my frist kit wine yesterday and was a little suprised. As a brewer, I was used to seeing yeast settled in the primary. When I racked the wine (at 1.010 - day 6), the only sediment I had was the wood chips. Should there have been more ?
Gee whiz info here...Now that it is in the clear carboy, I can see plenty of action inside, including fizzing and slight foaming. 66F. How long should I keep it here before the next racking/fining addn?
My thought is that kit wines, which have very little suspended solids other than the yeast, probably don't need to be racked until fermentation has slowed or stopped and the yeast has mostly dropped. That would usually be around SG .995, though if things were working slowly and a heavy sediment formed, it might be a good idea to clear out the sediment. Even then, a stuck fermentation sometimes results, so I tend to wait 'til it's over.
Generally, you don't need to rack until there's something to rack _off_ of. Sometimes racking is done to aerate or dissipate gases, but I don't think that's your case.
Kit wines have little sediment at day 6. Fruit wines made from scratch will have more particulates and they will settle. I assume you followed standard procedures and started it in a bucket and you were racking to secondary. Some will say to start in the secondary and ferment from day one under an airlock. If you do this with a kit wine, you do not need this racking. But I like to use the bucket. It allows air contact when the yeast are reproducing and it is more traditional.
Ray
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