[MattyAHA]

i have a 14 gallon more beer conical that i have tried to sell for a few years with no luck, so i decided to use it to make wine, my main question is how long should wine be left on the lee's before i dump it?

[HopDen]

You want to separate the gross lees from the wine after 30 days in the conical. After that it depends on your style of wine. If it is a dry red, you can either stir the fine lees back into solution for a softer mouth feel, again dependent on style. If you decide to re-suspend the fine lees (not the gross) it is a once a day process for a month and then taper off to once a week for one year. Be sure to stir softly so as not to introduce too much, if any, O2 but you must stir to fully re-suspend the lees. I know it seems like a lot of work but it really does make a difference to the final product.

If you don't want to bother with that much work, I will rack about every 3 months for a year then rack 1 or 2 times after that for a total of 18 months of maturation. This is what I do and it is loosely based on Daniel Pambianchi in his book; Techniques in Home Wine Making ISBN 978-1-55065-236-9

I hope that helps!

What type of wine are you making and is it from juice or grapes?