First batch of wine and beer

grant040464

Good news, I've just tried a taste of my first batch of wherrys, its great, perhaps a few more days to clear completely, but tastes real good. My question is about my first lot of wine though.

I have a 6 bottle kit of Youngs Sauvignon blanc just about through its first fermentation. The kit instructions sat to add the stabiliser in, then the finings and agitate at least 6 times over a 24 hour period then leave 7-10 days to clear.

My 2 questions are, does it need the airtrap on during this time or just a normal bung? The other thing I'm not certain about is it doesn't say to tramsfer the wine into a second demijohn at any stage during this process, yet I'm sure other kit instructions suggest this. If doing a transfer, will help in the cloudiness/clearing process then I'd do this.

I'd be very grateful for any advice from you seasoned brewers.

HBO_Staff

You can continue to use the airlock and bung as this will seal the vessel, but allow anything to vent if needed, although as it is towards the end of fermentation not much gas will be coming off it now. The Youngs kit does not recommend using a second vessel (other than for air removal), instead it suggests allowing the sediment to settle at the bottom of the vessel and then syphon over into bottles leaving it un-disturbed. The manufacturers believe this is enough, you could always syphon into a second vessel and allow to settle for another day or two before syphoning if you prefer, as this will minimise disturbing the sediment by leaving it behind twice.

grant040464

Thanks for that, I'll go with your advice, I'll use a second vessel and will let you know how it turns out. Fingers crossed.