Looking back at racking histories

Year	Date pressed	Days in primary	Days to next racking	Days to next racking	Days to next racking
2016	10/1/2016	8
2015	9/19/2015	7	11	64
2014	10/5/2014	6	7	75	115
2013	9/22/2013	6	8	56
2012	9/29/2012	7	8	82	78

Holy mackerel.  

Turns out that I've had a language shift that's created a racking shift.  2012 through 2015 when we took the must out of the primary and into carboys it was active enough so that we left air-gaps and a couple days later, as things calmed, we topped them off.  In those years, 7 to 11 days after topping off, we racked the wine and I called that racking it off its gross lees.

2016, with a different varietal, when we went from primary to carboys we topped immediately, and I also dumped the bottom couple inches of must calling them (in my mind) the gross lees.  Whatever!  But it means that if we rack this weekend we'll be at 40 days where we'd previously been at a max of 11.  I'm fine with it - things are looking beautiful.

Last of the 2013 white, and first of the 2012 red bottled

Mike came over and we bottled the last cb of the 2013 Muscat.  This was the one we had topped off using glass beads rather than other wines.  Worked well - going to clean the beads in a jelly sack in the dishwasher.

I also bottled a 3 gallon batch of the 2012 Merlot so we'll have some recent red for the June new wine party.   While cleaning up I discovered that we have 8 gallons of the 2012 Cab Franc, not the 3 or 5 I imagined.  And we have 14 more gallons of the Merlot.  Going to be a whole lot of blending and bottling going on when we finally get to it.

2013 Muscat, day 206: first bottling!

Good morning, winemakers!

We bottled the first couple of cases of 2013 Muscat today.  Levels were good and we added no meta.  Zippy compared to the last couple of years, but then we did add a tad of tartaric acid early on.  I feel a little guilty about it, but then we didn't grow the grapes and they traveled who knows how long from the west coast and were stored for who knows how long at terminal market before they got to us.

More potassium bitartrate crystals in the CB - not nearly so much as at the last racking - and virtually no lees.

We intended to bottle 2 more cases but found that a lot of the stored empty's had crud, bugs or black mold in them - very disappointing.  New house rule: no empy's get stored without a power washing and meta dip.  I've scrounged around and come up with another couple of cases worth - might still get another carboy done today or tomorrow, and that'll leave us with one more.

Corked bottle

While bottling we had a mis-hap that we hadn't seen before - Lori put a second cork into an already corked bottle.  I heard her saying, Boy, this one is tougher than all the others...

2013 Muscat, day 72, Dec 2 2013: testing

I tested the third of the wine that had the least topping off when we racked off the gross lees in October.

• SO2: 30/35 ppm.  Leaving this alone.  That's about the same reading I got on October 9 from the CB with the middling amount of topping off.  I'm questioning whether the Titrettes need replacing - I didn't mark them for an expiration date.  Might not have wondered this if not for the acid test, below.  The only SO2 adjustment so far was on Sep. 22 when I added about 30 ppm to everything.
• Acid: Well, the chem kit I have was purchased 13 months ago.  Maybe I need to change it.  If that's not the case, then our acid is off the scale - somewhere above .75% tartaric / 4.8 ppt sulphuric.  I vote for changing the chemicals.  We were at 4.32 on Sep. 24.
• pH: 3.43.  Sep. 24 measurement was 3.38.

2013 Muscat, Dec. 1 2013, day 71: 2nd racking

Moving the racking along.

I decided to keep the individual carboys consistent and not blend them together this racking, even though they all were topped off with different quantities of prior years' wines.  My expectations were for pretty minimal loss - the lees seemed a half inch thick and had something of a shaggy, dusty look, rather than a solid muddy look.  And I planned to test and taste a little later in the day.

OK, so something happened that I'd never seen before.  Two of the CBs, which had an inch or two of ait in their necks, overflowed their target CBs of (theoretically) exactly the same size.    Either they aren't really the same size, or a hell of a lot of air whipped up the volume of the wine (and that just didn't happen).  As I'm writing this now I realize that the reason I needed as much topping at the last racking was that I went into these slightly larger CBs from smaller ones.  I hate the idea, but I'll probably go back and measure and label all of the vessels.  Drag.

The third CB went into one of the two now cleaned source CBs.  Got an expected amount of loss.  Instead of topping off with old wine I used glass beads to displace about 200 ml. volume.

KC₄H₅O₆

In cleaning the CBs I saw that what I took to be dusty was actually lots of potassium bitartrate crystals.  We've gotten this in our Muscat before when storing it for long periods in the fridge, and I've seen it in commercial wine, but I don't think I've seen it before in our carboys.  I don't think it has to do with the cellar temperature, which is no different than in past years, but with our raising the acid in the must with tartaric acid this year, which we haven't done before.  So maybe when I test SO2 later today, it'll be interesting to test acid and pH, too.

2013 Muscat, day 35, Oct 26 2013: lemon light

The light on day 35.

The wine is now translucent enough that what comes through it is lemon colored.

The glass beads have arrived, and given how little lees seem to be falling out of the wine it looks like we've got enough to avoid going into smaller containers or topping off with other wine at the next racking.

Heat's been on in the house the mornings of this last week.  Doesn't seem to be affecting the cellar much, but I should probably place some reflecting insulation in front of the wine to bounce away any direct heat coming from the furnace.

2013 Muscat, day 26, Oct 17 2013

11 days since coming off the gross lees, and maybe twice that long again until the next racking.  Slightest small bubbles in at least one of the carboys.  The color is shifting quite a bit, but still far from clear.  Moving from Apple and Eve to Martinelli's.

2013 Muscat, day 20, Oct 11 2013

Single line of c02 bubbles, and no action in the airlock.

A wee layer of sediment forming.

These pics were taken very close with a flash and don't give a true indication of color, but show pretty well how little fermentation is still happening and how little sediment is forming close to a week after coming off the gross lees.  The wine is more translucent than the pics suggest, but still far from clear.

2013 Muscat, day 16, Oct 7 2013

* 6:30: fine co2 bubbles. Cider color now in the top quarter of each carboy.

Kelly Chylinski of Presque Isle got in touch to answer my query re whether bentonite could / should be added when racking off the lees as Ivers suggests, rather than at a subsequent racking.  The answer: doing it coming off the lees would be fine.  No opinion given re which would be preferable.  And so we swing.

* 20:00: Cider color extends down to the middle rib of the carboys.  No other obvious change.

2013 Muscat, day 15, Oct 6 2013 - off the gross lees

We took the wine off the gross lees this morning.

Fine bubbling still happening in the wine about to be racked.

Coming off the gross lees.

1.5 liters of mud in the third cb we racked.

I'd been fretting about whether to fine with bentonite at this step or to wait, as we did in 2011, until the next racking.  (We did not fine in 2012.)  I finally decided to write Doug at Presque Isle and see how he weighs in on the topic.  Two other things let me cool my heels, too.  First, I found some 2011 bottles of Muscat that had flocculation in them (and that's what you would have expected the bentonite to prevent), whereas I don't remember seeing protein haze in other years' bottles.  I can't remember what the 2nd thing is right now, but I'm sure it was life changing.

We went from 5gal + 5gal + 5gal + 0.5gal to 5+5+5, but we did that by distributing 2.75 liters of 2011 (clear - I was forbidden to use the hazy) wine across the carboys to top up.  (It's mixing oz and ml to get there, but we essentially lost 1.5 liters to the lees in each of the large carboys.)  If I'd been a little more quick we might have had the old wine evenly distributed across the carboys, but as it happens the have .5, .75, and 1.5 in them respectively.  We'll combine them at the next racking to even things out.  And we'll watch them to see if the behave differently than each other: if they do we'll recombine them sooner.

Will check so2 a little later in the day when things are a little more settled.

* 21:30: kind of gratifying to see settling happening quickly.  The top four inches of each cb is apple cider colored, and everything below is more milky.

2013 Muscat, day 14, Oct 5 2013

The wikipedia article on Muscat of Alexandria says that Cleopatra drank wine made from these grapes grown on the island of Samos.

No significant changes.  Maybe a little banding of the color - the wine toward the neck of the carboy looking more like juice than sherbet.  Very fine co2 bubbles running up the glass.  A rare movement in the airlock.

Getting the wine off the gross lees should be this weekend or next.  We should probably seize the day while we have the time.  Doing it this weekend matches what we did in 2012 (day 15).   In 2011 we racked off the gross lees on day 11 (October 4) and we racked again & fined on November 13, 40 days and 40 nights later (day 51.)

Iverson (Iverson, Jon. Home Winemaking, Step-by-step: A Guide to Fermenting Wine Grapes. Medford, OR: Stonemark Pub., 2009. Print) fines during the first racking off the gross lees.  I kind of like that idea, though we've never done it that way before - it really pushes the schedule forward.  If we do that we'd use bentonite, and we'd prep it today / tonight to use tomorrow.

2013 Muscat, day 12, Oct 3 2013

* 6:30: slow, occasional bubbler action. Small bubbles running up the cb's but no froth in the neck except at the edges where the bubbles surface. Some of the creaminess of the color is gone, though the must is still completely opaque.

Last year we racked off the gross lees on day 15. Possible we'll do the same this year.  Good to see the color we were at when we did it last.

* 23:30: Stiller and stiller.  The most active of the cb's is one pop per minute or two.
We're a few days into a warm spell, and the next three will hit 80 F or so.  Happy it started after the big sugar drops happened.  Haven't been taking the cellar temp, but it ain't cool.  Laid new icepacks between the cb's this morning and again just now.

2013 Muscat, day 11, Oct 2 2013

* 6:30: The most active of the cb's is bubbling every 5 or 6 seconds, though you can see the constant stream of bubbles rising along the walls of each vessel.  Brix is at -1.3 in the one that I checked.

2013 Muscat, day 10, Oct 1 2013

* 6:00: Only the thinest collar of bubbles where yesterday there was still a shaving cream pie full of foam.  Still steady bubbling.

In 2012 we racked the Muscat off the gross lees on day 15, and lost about a full gallon of mud in doing so.  (Post is here.)  This year we'll be starting a few liters shy of last year, and will probably want to top off with some of last year's wine in order to land at 3 full 5 gal cb's.

I also took a peek back at last year's day 9 entry - brix reading was 0.1 lower than this year.  For all the fuss and muss attempting to slow the fermentation, when you don't have commercial equipment the grapes decide.  Or maybe we just need more fuss and muss?

2013 Muscat, day 9, Sep 30 2013

* 6:30: brix at 0.9, bubbling strong but foaming low, I decided to top off the carboys. Ended with 5+5+5+growler. Have arranged the cb's so I can stack ice packs between them.

* 21:00: One bubbler fouled and cleaned, all three firing steadily.  May test sugar level again in the morning for yucks, but things are on auto-pilot now.  Put fresh ice packs between the cb's.

2013 Muscat day 8, Sep 29 2013

A morning without measurements.  All of the cb's are going at their own rates, with the last of them - the one that got the tilted out lees - continuing to go whacky and foul the bubble.  Will clean that bubbler one more time, but if it happens again I'll try to draw dome of the must off to the other 2 cbs and see what the wild jimmies do there.  Will shoot for an afternoon brix reading.

Bubblers cleaned and burping.

* 15:30: Cleaned the bubblers of all three cb's - two of them, the first and third, were fouled with yeast & foam.  How much CO2 is still getting generated?  It took less than a second for the replaced bubblers to start burping.  If you click on the image and look at it full-sized you can see all the CO2 bubbles making their way up the side of the glass and into the foam.

For the heck of it I also wedged an icepack between the cb's.  I guess that means the middle one gets a double-dose?  Maybe I'll arrange then into a triangle.

*23:30: All ditto, looking very good, put some more ice packs between the cb's but did not take their temp or any other readings.  All three cb's bubbling strong.  Tomorrow might be a good day to further top the cb's and maybe transfer what remains in the gallon to a growler.

2013 Muscat, day 7, Sep 28 2013

* 0:30: Room 70, Must 70, Brix 5.5.  Giant drop in the last 18 hours.  Surface of the must is now back to fine fizz rather than the giant foam.  Will need to move the must to carboys in the morning.  For now have removed the paddle and swapped the ice packs.  Not expecting much temperature rise.

* 6:30:  Is it at this time every year that I say that the exact numbers I out down in these notes are not as meaningful as the trends and that I take the measurements in a consistent way?  Should be.

Room 70, must 68, brix5.  Or let's call it 5 for now.  After being as low id it showed this morning I decided to use the short scale (5 to -5) hydrometer, but that showed us clearly over 5.  So I decided to check both hydrometers with distilled water.  Short scale showed the water at 0.1 brix, regular (30 to -3) hydrometer showed it at -1 brix.  I could go back and adjust all the notes (no) or do a corrected chart (probably), but foe now calling it +5 seems fine.  Whatever the exact number, late today seems right for the transfer to carboys.

* 16:30: Well, with the room and must at 71 F and the brix at 4.5 on the short scale hydrometer, and the likelihood of not being around on day 8, I transferred the must from the tank to three 5 gallon carboys and a 1 gallon jug.  I tried to leave a good deal of space in each vessel so that the ferm could foam up without fouling the airlocks (and I'd use the gallon to top off when things died down) but in the last cb, which got more than it's fair share of the lees, the airlock was getting fouled within 30 minutes.  Made some adjustments.  Everything is cleaned and stowed.

2013 Muscat day 6, Sep 27 2013

* 6:00: Room 70, must 69, brix 9.
No bubbler action but a 25%, 3 brix drop in the last 13.5 hours.  The yeast is in a very thick, coating state.  It was sloppy getting the ice packs changed - a little must made it into the sack I keep them in - and the sack was so coated it was tough to hang on to.  (The sacks also always fill with CO2 - what's with that?.)  Also changed the paddle.

We're 106 hours in and at 9 brix; last year at 110 hours we were at 7 (at 97 h we were at 8 b).  We're slower this year, and a good deal cooler.  From hour 27 until 133 when the must went into carboys the temp averaged 72.8 in 2012.  The lowest temp reading during that period was higher than our highest so far this year.  How come?  We iced earlier this year; we're using a cooler temp yeast; there was a warm-spell during the 2012 fermentation week, though not until day 4 or 5.  Your choice, skill or luck.

Something I haven't seen talked about in any of the home winemaking books is the fact that brix readings in a hydrometer will change over the course of minutes with actively fermenting must.  In the first stages of active fermentation it seems to me that the hydrometer will sink in the sample after a few minutes as surface bubbles die away.  In middle stages where there's lots of CO2 being generated the hydrometer will rise in the tube - sometimes by a lot - as the bubbles adhere to the device and lift it.  For this morning's sampling, 5 minutes after having settled at 9 brix, the device raised to 15 brix.  Twirling it to shake off the bubbles let it back down.

2013 Muscat, Day 5, Sep 26 2013

* 6:30: The bubbler on the big poly tank is active for the first time - that cheered me as soon as I walked into the cellar.
Room 69.5, must 69, brix 13.  Drop of 1.4 or 2 brix in the last 11 hours, 10% of what was there.
Changed the paddle and ice packs.  Forecast is for an outside temp of 72 today.

At what brix do we want to transfer to carboys this year?  Last year we did it on day 7 at 4.9 brix.

*16:30: Had to jiggle the schedule around a bit, so we're early.  Room 70, must 68, Brix 12.  No bubbler action, but the foam is plenty active.  Left the packs in place but swapped the paddle (thank you Doyle).  

2013 Muscat, Day 4, Sep 25 2013

Hubba hubba at 5:30 AM

* 5:30 AM: Room 70, must 69, brix 15.  Love it!  Fermented off 25% of the sugar in 10 hours but the temperature of the must is slightly below that of the cellar.  The blessing of the ice packs?  The D47 yeast?  The phase of the moon?  Crickets in the house?  I vote for all four.  We're charting very differently than last year.  Maybe I can work that up later today.

Replaced the paddle and the ice packs.

(Actually, now that I look, the charting of the temp is very different, but not the brix.  Last year at 61 hours we were at 15 brix and 73.5 F; this year at 57 hours we're at 15 brix and 69 F.)

* 19:30: Here's a real puzzler: room 71, must 71, brix 14.5.
Virtually no sugar drop in the last 12 hours, after a 5 brix drop in the preceding  10 hours.  Is D47 that fussy about temp?  Was I just amazingly fuzzy-headed when I took the morning readings?  Surface foam & action much like the morning.  Can't quite figure it.  Put in a couple of fresh ice packs.

* 22:30: The cellar is still at 71 F.  Mihai brought over a fresh ice paddle and we added that.  It's pretty warm out - 64 F - and there's not a lot of hope for the cellar temp to drop.