Racking

Wine racking is not about stacking your wine bottles on a nice rack. It is the process of moving wine from one vessel to another. Wine racking separates the wine from the residue particles. There are many reasons to rack wine, the main one being to remove sediment left after fermentation. It preserves the qualities of the wine, makes it clear, and enhances the flavor. Typically you siphon the wine from one vessel to another without disturbing the layer of sediment that has settled out on the bottom.

In our case, the Solaris had stopped bubbling several days ago so we decided to rack it today. I spent the morning sterilising the demijohns and any ancillary equipment using crushed Campden tablets dissolved in hot water. We have six 5-litre demijohns and one slightly smaller one. I transferred the Campden solution from one to another, waited 10 minutes, and then rinsed.  It took more than 1.5 hours to complete. 

I had bought a long section of plastic tubing yesterday at the garden centre as our materials ordered including the siphon remain stuck in Italy. I sterilised the siphons by letting them sit in the solution that we used to sterilize the stainless steel tank. I sterilised the rigid plastic tube by letting it sit in a demijohn while it was treated. 

Alex thought we should be able to simply open the valve at the bottom of the SS fermentation tank as the sludge was only about an inch thick and the valve is higher than that. In our case, the sludge had settled inside the valve, so when we tried to decant, we got sludge. 

Alex rigged a plastic rod onto the flexible tubing leaving the flexible tubing about 1.5 inches higher than the hard plastic. That kept the siphon off the bottom and at the right height above the sludge. But because our tank sits fairly low even on its feet, we could not rack directly into demijohns. Instead, we had to rack into a measuring cup and then pour into the demijohns. I hope the exposure to air didn't do too much damage. 

The wine smelled and tasted pretty good, by the way. We got about 14 litres.

The Brix read 7% and the S.G 1.027. As yeasts convert sugar to alcohol, Brix drops, slowly at first and then more quickly. If one is fermenting to dryness, as opposed to leaving residual sugar, Brix readings ultimately go below zero. If Brix stalls before a wine is dry, that means yeasts have stopped converting sugar to alcohol. So a Brix of 7 is good I think.

I am worried about the pH as it is a bit high at 5.  We probably should be adjusting it with tartaric acid. The ideal ranges for the must are as follows: Red wine: pH 3.4–3.7, TA 6.0–7.0 g/L, 22–25 ºBrix. White wine: pH 3.2–3.5, TA 6.0–9.0 g/L, 17–24 ºBrix.

The sediment, settled yeast, left behind

Nice colour and scent