Timing: How long from last stir of primary to first rack?

Complicated question with no simple answer. Here are the rules I live by. (Unless I decide to break them.)

1) If I am fermenting juice with no pulp (such as white grape or straight mead) I would rack when the fermentation slows down and SG drops below 1.015

2) When fermenting pulp where skin contact is not important (most fruit wines) I would rack after fermentation dies down AND the cap falls.

3) When fermenting on skins where skin contact is important (most red grape wines) I delay the racking as long as possible but not so long that it endangers the wine from oxidation. Some will go so far as trickling CO2 into the primary to maintain a protective gas layer beyond where natural fermentation is sufficient. Others will use a floating head primary. I will sometimes put plastic rack down on top of the juice as a separator sort of like a floating head. Even so When the fermentation drops down to 1.000 I move it to secondary.

4) If the fruit has seeds that may add off flavors I will often try to get the wine off earlier than indicated above.

This may not be the hard and fast rules you might hope far but wine making is not a hard and fast type of activity the the rules work for me.

Ray

Thank Ray, that is all valuable food for thought.....I wonder though, you make no mention of how long before your rackings you perform your last daily (or bi-daily) stir of the primary...that is the heart of the question I was trying to ask....do you have any rules you follow on that?

Sean

Hello.

For1 gallon demijohns I transfer the contents of the primary rather than racking to the secondary. I always use a straining bag to hold the fruit etc that I am using (or have strained into the primary for non fruit recipes) and by and large find that I usually have a few ml left in the primary with any heavier bits once transferred. That way, there's little in the way of gross matter getting in to the secondary.

When I rack to secondary (for 5 gallon batches where I can't currently safely lift and pour from primary) I give the whole lot a stir then wait till the wine is still again, then rack. My thinking is that that way the heaviest bits will have a chance to sink, but there should be a healthy dose of sedimentary yeast still in suspension.

Jim

If there is a cap, I stir 2 or 3 times a day. I stop or stir no more than 1 time a day after the cap has fallen. If there is no cap because I am fermenting juice, I stir once or twice a day. Incidentally, many consider that the cap falling is the signal to rack. I would not argue with this.

Ray