Homebrew Wine: Red Zinfandel (Update #2)

The last thing to have been done with the homebrew wine was to rack it to the carboy, add stabilizers and settling agents, and let it sit for a couple weeks to clear. That was on July 11.

Two weeks have passed, so it was time to rack the wine back into the primary fermenter and prepare for bottling. The racking process is very similar to how it was racked over to the carboy two weeks ago - except that instead of being able to use the spout on the primary fermenter for transfer, I had to use a piece of plastic tubing with a spacer on the end that goes into the carboy. The spacer minimizes the amount of sediment that the draw end of the tube comes in contact with, so that you don't have to micromanage the submersion depth of the draw end of the tube.

Of course, prior to racking to the primar fermenter, it had to be sanitized. Once again, half a gallon of water combined with an ounce of Potassium Metabisulfute was used as a rinse agent for everything that would come in contact with the product (fermenter bucket, inside of tubing used for racking, outside of tube that would be submerged).

Now that the wine is racked into the primary fermenter, I could bottle right away if I wanted to. However, I'm going to let it sit until tomorrow to give a chance for any sediment that hitched a ride during the racking to settle out. However, I think that the amount will be minimal, as I sacrificed what was probably a good half bottles worth by leaving it in the carboy. Better to leave some behind for the greater good than to let greed result in the entire batch possibly having too much sediment and never tasting quite right.

Stay tuned for the bottling update!