Day 7 – Zinf’s Day Of Rackening
This evening, I checked the specific gravity of the Winery Series Old Vine Zinfandel that I started last week. Yesterday, the SG was 1.031.
This evening, the reading was 1.018 – good enough for me to rack into the secondary carboy. Before doing so, the bag of grape skins was squeezed and squeezed to get every drop of juice that I could out of it. This will maximize the colour and tannin extraction.
I don’t top up at this stage. I’m not worried one bit about air in the headspace as the fermentation is continuing and whatever air was in there has now been replaced by Carbon Dioxide coming out of the wine and escaping through the airlock. When I do rack again, it will be into a Mexican 5 Gallon carboy which are stouter and shorter than the other ones I have. They seem to require less water or wine to top up and must have a bit less total capacity.
Other than sometimes being hypnotized by watching the airlock bounce up and down, I’ll not give this Zinfandel attention for about another week. At that time, I may take a specific gravity reading out of curiosity, but that’s about it for about two to three weeks.
I like it when there is much activity going on in the carboy – all that gas zinging to the top and with force, that the little plastic thing in the airlock hits the top and goes “pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.”
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I enjoy that too.
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