[Reebevoli]

Hello! I have been brewing a blueberry wine and have recently gone from the primary fermentation bucket to a secondary fermentation carboy (after ten days in the primary fermenter). The fermentation is going along very well, although I am a bit concerned that I waited a bit too long to rack because my hydrometer reading was 0.996 when I transferred it to the carboy (even though the airlock is still bubbling about once every 20 seconds or so and I can still see bubbles racing up towards the top). This is less of a concern to me, however, than the buildup of lees that I have seen almost immediately since I've racked into the carboy (I racked the wine 2 nights ago). I have heard that the contact of the wine with the lees for an extended period of time can have a negative impact on the flavor of the wine. I have included pictures of the buildup and of the bubbling, which seems to me to be an indicator that fermentation is still actively occurring (maybe my hydrometer reading was inaccurate?).

Also, when I was setting up my must I admit that I was overzealous in my addition of potassium metabisulfite, adding 8 campden tablets rather than recommended 6 for 6 gallons of must (obviously I waited for 24 hours before I pitched my EC-1118 yeast). When I racked my wine to the carboy I added probably 0.3 gallons of spring water (previously unopened) to top off the carboy. I will probably wait about 6 weeks before I rack again (unless I need to get the wine off the lees, in which case I will do it sooner, but also don't want to oxygenate my wine). When I rack in about 6 weeks, do I add more campden tablet;  if so how many?

And yes, I realize that I'm probably being paranoid. I've just put a lot of hard work into this wine to mess it up at this point.


Entire carboy


Bubbling top


Lees!!!

[joe_meadmaker]

Hi,
I'm certainly no expert, but I can give you some input based on my experiences.  I don't make wine, but I do multiple batches of mead a year.  With 5 and 6 gallon batches I usually do 2 weeks in the primary (bucket), and then rack to a carboy.  I'll then let the batch go in secondary for about 3 months to make sure that fermentation completely finishes.  I've never had any issues from the batch sitting on the lees for that amount of time.  So I don't think you have anything to worry about.  If you were planning to age it for a year, then I would recommend racking it first.  But 6 weeks, no worries.

The question on campden tablets is more difficult.  There's not a set amount of sulfites that should be added at the various stages of your batch.  Instead it is determined by certain factors of the wine.  I would recommend doing some research but here's an article that gives a pretty good overview: https://morewinemaking.com/articles/SO2_management.  If you don't have equipment for testing the wine, the article recommends 25-50 ppm during transfers, and then 40-50 ppm at bottling.  I've used potassium metabisulfite in mead before and tend to stick to the lower side of recommended ranges.  But again, it depends on the wine.  Hope that helps a little.

The wine looks great in the pictures.  Cheers!