Racking the Strawberry

Having given the Strawberry another 11 days after it seemed to have got to the edge of its target gravity, I decided it was time to wrack it to the secondary demijohn. Like the Merlot, I decided to take a gravity reading anyway, which was again easiest from a picture:


The gravity was really hard to read, but it definitely wasn't any lower than the 1.008 I had measured last time.

Day	Time per bubble (secs)	Gravity
0	infinite	 
1	8	 
3	4	1062
6	1.5	 
12	50	 
19	103 (after hydrometer reading)	1.008
30	103 (after hydrometer reading)	1.008

In fact, I even thought the gravity might be 1.009, so I'm not sure if that suggests a misread last time, or perhaps the gravity has dropped with the clearing of the wine. Speaking of which, the wine was already very clear, and was noticeably lighter in colour than the Merlot, which was a very dark red.

Anyway, onto the racking. I had sterilized the demijohn that had previously contained the Merlot, as well as the tubing, a grommit and an airlock. I placed the wine on the side in the kitchen, and positioned the empty demijohn in the washing up bowl on the floor. (I actually placed the washing up bowl on top of my wine making tool box so that the tubing would reach to the bottom of the demijohn.) I again sinned by sucking to get the wine going, and away it went, again without so much as a sip of win for me. :-( As it got near the end, I very gently tipped the demijohn in order to get a little more of the clear wine off the top of the sediment.



I tried to pour a little of the remaining wine from the nearly empty demijohn into a glass to taste, but as soon as I moved the demijohn the sediment mixed with the clear wine to turn it very sludgy. I was impressed at just how much the wine had cleared, and how well the stiff tubing had taken the wine from above the sediment without disturbing it.

The instructions suggested mixing the stabiliser with a couple of tablespoons of water and then adding it to the primary demijohn. As I was wracking to a secondary to remove much of the sediment, I actually added the stabiliser into the empty demijohn before wracking the wine into it. As instructed, I then added the Strawberry flavouring to the wine. This took the form of a small clear sachet containing a surprisingly small amount of red liquid. Unlike with the Merlot, the instructions then told me to add the finings straight away, before shaking the demijohn vigorously for a few minutes. I must then shake it on at least 6 occasions over the next 24 hours, before leaving it a few weeks to clear. I wondered whether the difference between this and the Merlot (where I hat to add just the stabiliser and shake the contents regularly over 3 days before adding the finings and then leaving to clear) was a genuine difference, or just lazier instructions given with a cheaper kit where it wouldn't make much difference, and might be being made by a less professional brewer.

I found after a few minutes of shaking, the wine stopped fizzing when I removed my thumb.


I replaced the airlock and placed the demijohn back in the brewery, with the intention of shaking it a few times over the next 24 hours.