Fermenters Forum

Primary Fermentation

WARNING: Sanitize EVERYTHING completely with a "One-Step" solution or potassium metabisulfate.

NOTE: Try to avoid any metallic objects in the wine making process to prevent oxidation. Wooden objects also may contain bacteria. Plastic is the safest alternative.

NOTE: It is generally recommended to use previously frozen fruits. More juices will be available in them.

1. Add the fruit to a muslin or painter's mesh bag and tie it off. Crush fruits with a potato masher. Add water and other ingredients to the sanitized plastic, food-grade container.

2. Wait approximately 24 hours to add the yeast.

3. After adding yeast, do not use an airlock unless called for by the recipe. During the yeast's first 48-72 hours, it requires exposure to oxygen to reproduce rapidly and increase the density to a population suitable for rapid fermentation. Cover the top of the primary with a tight woven fabric that has been sanitized and elastic band such as muslin. If there is a hole for an airlock, insert a ball of sanitized cotton or muslin here to keep insects and dirt out.

4. Stir daily with a plastic (wooden can contain bacteria), sanitized stir stick.

5. If the primary fermentation does not complete after the first 72 hours, attach an airlock. Continue stirring daily.

Secondary Fermentation

When do I transfer my wine? This is typically done at around 1.010 SG, but check the recipe to be sure.

WARNING: Check the SG daily with a hydrometer!

The Fermentation Process
What happens during the time it takes to get to the correct SG? As yeast ferments, it produces carbon dioxide and alcohol. During the initial vigorous fermentation process in the primary, carbon dioxide is released and fills the space above the wine to protect from oxygen. As the fermentation slows, sulfur dioxide will continue to protect the surface, but will eventually escape because it is a gas. At this time the wine is susceptible to oxygen and should be placed under an airlock to complete the fermentation process.

How to transfer properly?
1. Begin by throwing the solids in the mesh bag away.

2. Get the lees (sediment) into suspension through stirring with a sanitized plastic spoon. The lees are very important because they contain many live yeast cells that have settled in. If they are not transferred, fermentation will become very sluggish or stick.

3. Pour the liquid and lees through a sanitized funnel into the sanitized glass carboy. If the funnel has a strainer, it is OK to throw the gross (large) lees away because the fine (small) lees containing the yeast will filter through. To avoid great amounts of exposure to oxygen, tilt the funnel so that the wine runs down the side of the secondary carboy instead of free-falling through the air to the bottom.

NOTE: Occasionally the must is just perfect for the yeast and fermentation stops at SG 1.000 after just a couple of days. This is OK. Transfer the wine and place an airlock on immediately.

When is fermentation finished in my secondary finished?
This typically occurs after about four weeks. Fermentation is pretty much complete when the bubbles stop coming out of the airlock. Testing with a hydrometer should show a SG 1.000 to assure that it is indeed completed and not stuck. Move on to the next step.

Racking the Wine (siphon off of the lees)

How often should I rack?
Always allow at least three weeks before racking. I recommend four. Racking can be done as often as 30 days or as infrequently as three months. Wine is actually improved the longer it sits on the lees.

Why can I not leave the wine on the lees indefinitely?
After three months it may enter the danger zone caused by dead yeast cells breaking down and rotting (rotten egg smell). Off odors, off flavors, or hydrogen sulfide gas will form.

When can I bottle?
After the lees are entirely gone (2-3 rackings) AND the SG is 1.000 or lower.

How do I rack?
Always make sure to sanitize everything with sulfited water or "One-Step" sanitizer. Use a racking cane and tube and do not let the wine splash into the new secondary (run it down the side). Because the sulfites from the potassium metabisulfate or campbden tablets losing their protective qualities and are released through the airlock over time, it is necessary to add these to the receiving secondary before racking into it at every other racking.

Finishing the Wine

Stopping Fermentation
Why stop it intentionally? Maybe you want to stop the wine before completely done fermenting to rush the process or because you would like it sweeter without having to sweeten later on. It is easier to control the sweetness, however, by allowing it to dry completely and re-sweeten, but stopping can be done quite easily.

The process
All yeast have a point at which the alcohol they produce will eventually kill them off. We are not allowing the yeast to get to that point rather, we are killing them off ourselves before they can convert all of the sugars to equal parts of alcohol and carbon dioxide.

1. Stop the yeast from being effective:

Create a hostile environment for the yeast to survive in: Add a campden tablet which includes potassium (or sodium) metabisulfate that creates a hostile environment for yeast and a toxic environment for other micro-organisms. It does not by itself halt fermentation, but rather slows it.

2. Stop the yeast reproductive process:

A. Potassium Sorbate (brand name sometimes Sorbistat K) is a stabilizer and should always be used in conjunction with campden because it works better with sulfites than without and works better than sulfites alone. Potassium sorbate disrupts the reproductive cycle of yeast and causes the population to decrease. Add ½ tsp per gallon.

NOTE: Potassium sorbate will impart a slight taste in wines that may grow over several years.

B. Sodium Benzoate sold as stabilizing tablets work similar to potassium sorbate and should also be added with the campden tablet. Use one tablet per gallon of wine.

NOTE: Sodium benzoate adds sodium to the wine.

C. Wine conditioner is the last option and is a combination of non-fermentable sugars, potassium sorbate, and potassium metabisulfate.

In all cases, add the campden and potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate to a couple of cups of wine to dissolve it fully. Add to the wine and stir thoroughly. Wait ten days and rack again before bottling because some lees will continue to fall out of the wine as the final yeast die off.

Oaking With Wood Chips

NOTE: I have never attempted this before.

Types of Chips: White Oak or French Oak only.

Quantity: 3 oz/5 gallon carboy

The Process: Place the chips in a cloth bag with a couple of marbles. Tie with a string. Boil in water for five minutes. (Sterilizing the marbles and removing harsh tannins from the oak). Drip dry until cool enough to handle. Stuff into the carboy after racking, but before topping up. Taste after six weeks. If the flavor is not what you want, continue aging.

Time Frame: French Oak – 2-3 months; American White Oak – 3-4 months

Clarifying Wine

NOTE: I have never done this before except in a kit that called for it.

Why if this required? Occasionally a wine may not clear over time due to a pectin or starch haze, or metallic contamination from using copper, zinc, iron, or aluminum utensils. It could also be finely suspended particulates from the fruit, excessive tannin, or dead yeast cells. These may settle out over time, but could add off-flavors to the wine. If it has not cleared within three rackings - 60 days apart, there is a problem (6 months).

First Remedy: Wine should be fermented between 60-70 degrees. If it is cloudy, place in a cooler location…i.e. 10 degrees cooler. It should clear within 30 days (unless caused by pectic or starch hazes)

Last Resort: Fining agents are added. If it still does not clear – it may be bacteria and is ruined. The fining agents will change the taste somewhat.

How do they work?: The suspended particles are either + or – electrically charged. If materials are introduced with the opposite charge, they will bind together as a larger particle and sink to the bottom. To be productive, the wine should be chilled and at a low pH or the particles will not have a strong enough charge.

Which wines are most susceptible? Red wines typically have natural tannin and will not suffer from protein haze, but white wines could. Commercial whites are routinely protein stabilized with bentonite fining and red wines are not. Young red wines typically get cloudiness from pectin or a negatively charged particle.

Degassing Wine

NOTE: I did not do this with my first wines and some had a slight fizzy taste after several months. Lack of degassing was the problem.

Why do I need to degass?
Wine often absorbs carbon dioxide (a byproduct of fermentation). This can happen when the bubbles slow to about one escaping the airlock every 15 minutes. The positive pressure of CO2 between the wine and airlock pushes equally on the wine and the liquid in the airlock. Some of that CO2 is absorbed into the wine. This may cause a fizzy wine when poured.

The process
It is recommended to use a sanitized plastic dowel, spoon, or paint stirrer (will not absorb bacteria like wood or cause metal oxidation problems) to mix the wine vigorously for two minutes and replace the airlock for about 30-45 minutes. Repeat this process several times until there is no more CO2 gas being given off. An electric drill helps greatly.

I broke a plastic hanger and left a curved end on it to fit into the one gallon carboy. I then attached a cordless drill to it and stirred with this method.

Post-degassing: Let the wine sit under airlock to “recover” for a couple of months before bottling. The taste will tend to “flatten” for a couple of months after the degassing process.

NOTE: Small bubbles are sulfur dioxide, large bubbles are carbon dioxide.

Filtering

NOTE: I have never done this.

A brilliantly clear wine is more appealling than a cloudy or hazy one. The cloudy or hazy wine may taste fine, but it does not look finished. This is why virtually all commercial wines are filtered. Sterile filtration is the ultimate act of clarifying a wine, leaving it sparkling clear,and pleasing to look at and virtually incapable of refermenting.

Filtration removes yeast, bacteria, and grape or fruit debris from the wine. This not only renders the wine instantly clear , it also makes the wine more stable because yeast or bacteria that could feed off residual sugar have been removed. As a result, the amount of SO2 and other chemical preservatives can be reduced.

There is another side to filtering a wine. As wine ages, certain flavor compounds combine and settle out and leave a sediment. This process smoothes the wine's flavor and "bite" and is a desirable thing. Filtration removes these compounds right away, long before they can ever become sediment, but filtering can also remove compounds that give subtle and complex flavors to the wine. Thus, there is a trade-off.

Because filtration removes the small particles in the wine, if there are too many such particles the filter will clog and cease working. Very young or very cloudy wines will clog a filter too quickly to clear much of the wine. A clogged filter surface stops the flow of wine and can shorten the life of a powered pump filter. Therefore, you should only filter a wine that is almost clear already. It should have been racked at least twice, fined and racked again.

In fact, filtering is literally the last thing you should do to your wine before you bottle it. If you are going to cold stabilize your wine, do it before filtering. If you are going to bulk age it, do that before filtering it. Indeed, you should even add your crushed Campden and potassium sorbate (or sodium benzolate) to the wine before filtering. The Campden is especially important as filtering introduces a certain amount of oxygen into the wine. Because sulfites are antioxidants, their presence during filtration protects the wine from oxidation. You should have at least 50 ppm of sulfite (one crushed Campden tablet per gallon) before filtering.

There are basically three filtration systems. By far the cheapest type is a gravity flow filter. A filter body, containing a filter pad, is connected to the lower end of a siphon tube and the siphoning action pushes the wine through the filter. Wine leaving the filter flows directly into bottles. While inexpensive, this type of system is slow in the beginning and becomes slower still as the filter pads collect dead yeast and other particles from the wine. The second type is a hand pumped filtration system. A hand pump is used to push the wine through the tubing to the filter unit. This is faster than the first type requires two people to operate--one to steady and pump the unit and the other to switch bottles. The third type system is any number of powered pump filtration units. Typically, a powered mechanical pump pushes the wine through a filter or creates a vacuum which pulls the wine through the filter. These units are fast, efficient and much more expensive that the first two type systems.

Almost all filter systems come with three sizes of filter medium. This medium is typically a filter pad, but can also be a cartridge.

The coarsest pads or cartridges, usually called number 1 pads or cartridges, remove very large particles only. Use of this particular filter does not result in brilliantly clear wine and I have never found a reason to use one of them.
The medium pads, usually called number 2 pads, will remove haze-causing particles from red and white wine without stripping too much color and flavor. After a wine has gone through a number 2 pad it will show a significant change in clarity and brightness. Number 2 pads are the ones used for most wines and the only ones to use on red wine. These pads must be used before using a fine (number 3) pad.

Number 3 pads are for sterile filtering. One pass through these pads will remove 80% of the yeast cells in the wine and two passes will reduce the yeast population to the point where further fermentation is unlikely. They will leave wine as clear and bright as water. However, these pads are so fine that they are capable of removing both color and flavor compounds from wine. Delicately flavored wine can be ruined, and red wine can be stripped of color and left pink. These pads are used mainly on white wines that contain residual sugar.

Bulk Aging

NOTE: I have never done this.

The biggest mistake the home winemaker makes is bottling his or her wine too early. When fermentation and clarification are complete and no new lees form, the wine is finished except for aging and bottling. Wine ages best in bulk because it takes longer for bulk amounts to be affected by temperature changes than for bottled quantities.

Two things quickly deteriorate the quality of wine. Heat is the first and greatest enemy of wine. Sunlight is the second. Wine ages best in the dark at 50-60° F. A cellar is the best environment because it is cool, dark and subject to the least amount of vibration and temperature fluctuation. Absent a cellar, an interior closet as far from the central heating unit and washer/dryer as possible is the next choice.

Bulk aging is the aging of wine in the secondary container in which it was made and with the airlock in place. This usually means carboys of 6-1/2, 5, 3, 2-1/2, 2, or 1 gallon sizes. The larger sizes are preferred, but I don't know any home winemaker who makes all of his or her wines in 6-1/2 and 5-gallon batches.

Full bodied red wines should be bulk aged for at least a year. Two years is better and three years is ideal. Few people achieve the ideal.
Light red and rose' wines should be bulk aged for at least six months. A year is better.

Full-flavored white wines should be bulk aged for at least six months, but a year is better.

Light, fruity white wines should be bulk aged for at least three months, but six months is even better.

Bulk aging in a carboy has one distinct drawback. You can't make any more wine in that particular carboy until the aging is complete. Even if you have four 5-gallon carboys, having one sitting idle for a year or two aging wine reduces your winemaking capabilities by 25%. Somehow, that seems wasteful.

Many stores sell drinking water in 5-gallon plastic bottles. The water costs $4 or so and the store requires a $6 deposit on the bottle. These bottles are made of food-grade plastic and are ideal for wine undergoing bulk aging. If you use bottled water anyway, this is a pretty good deal. If you're willing to forfeit the deposit, you can acquire 5-gallon aging bottles for only $6 each. Be advised, however, that some people are of the opinion that oxygen can permeate this plastic and oxidize wine thus aged. I have looked in vain for scientific evidence of this and have not yet found it. Use your own judgement.

The only drawback in using the 5-gallon plastic water bottles is that their mouths are bigger than glass carboys and you may not be able to find rubber stoppers big enough to seal them. A number 9½ robber bung fits most of these bottles. However, you may have to trim a thin edge of the top off as it tends to curl inward and prevent the bung from seating. An alternative is to cut a square from a quart-sized zip-lock freezer bag (thicker than the standard sandwich bags) and secure it over the top with a strong rubber band. Be sure to top up to within an inch of the top to reduce the threat of oxidation. Should a malo-lactic fermentation set in during bulk storage, the gas given off will escape under the rubber band but air will not enter the same route. It works well, but be sure to sterilize the plastic covering before putting it on the bottle.

Corking

Do not cork a screwtop bottle.

Mushroom corks are good because they can just be pushed on (consumer within 12-18 months)

Superior grade straight corks (Consumed within 5 years)

Extra first grade straight corks more dense than straight grade for wines to be stored greater than 3 years (commercial quality)

Synthetic straight corks are the best seal and will last many years (Use with a bench or floor corker)

Size: #9 is standard unless the corker mangles them…use a size #8

The process: Bring water in a pot to a boil, take off of the burner and place the corks in for 1-3 minutes with cover on. This will sanitize and soften the cork. Do not over soften or it will be difficult to cork and could deteriorate in the bottle.

Post-corking: Place the bottles upright for 1-2 days so that the corks can re-expand and create a seal. Place them on the sides then to prevent the corks from drying out and compromising the seal.