Racking Homemade Mead, Wine, and Cider
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
- Racking your wine, cider and mead. We go over how to rack, when to rack, and why to rack your homebrew wine, cider and mead.
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This definitely is one of the videos beginners should watch!
My guess is the term "racking" came from the vintners practice of storing their wine in the bottle in the racks with the neck facing outwards and down so that any solids fell to the cork end. Then once a year they would carefully uncork the bottle allowing the solids to vacate before tipping the bottle upright to then mount a new cork and laying it down again.
Could be.
HISTORY LESSON. It was usual to serve mead or mead
variats at banquets and other festivities and particularly at weddings. For a whole month after the nuptials mead was drunk from which originated the term the 'honeymoon'.
www.mentalfloss.com/article/54075/where-does-term-honeymoon-come
I have been watching and rewatching your videos as I prepare to make my first cider. Going with apple juice from the store for my first go. I appreciate the tips and tricks. I think I get the process. Ferment, rack to get the crud out, let sit for a bit, bottle. I will look up more complicated things later. Thank you.
Is it okay that I sometimes rack to a pitcher, remove the fruit, spices, lees, resanitize, and rack back into the primary vessel?
Absolutely. We do that all the time.
I just racked my first mead attempt. I'm so excited to see things progressing.
Congrats!
I have written you numerous times with comments and questions .... ok, MOSTLY questions. To your credit, you have tried to answer and you have responded, well, faster than light!! Many thanks for that. As I learn about this, I've discovered that the racking process really takes some careful organization to get things sanitized, to avoid siphon tube dripping all over the place, keeping things neat. It just seems like we all need to find a system that works best for us and that takes time. But what REALLY helps, I mean REALLY helps is that you shoot your videos and you don't edit out the ugly details. Sure, there is prep and post clean up. But watching your videos helps to capture the basics so I can go off, stumble, make messes and figure it out. I know you've been doing this for a long time, but you make it look easy, you make it look like WE can do it. And it turns out .... I think I can!! Keep up the great work. And how you respond so fast with such good information kinda freaks me out!!! By the way, trying to figure out where to post this comment, which video, really was a bit of a crap shoot. It doesn't actually apply to any specific recipe - just home wine making in general. Rock on guys!!!
Thank you. It's nice to hear!
Learned a valuable lesson from one of those just under a gallon carlo rossi wine carboys... They dont allow your racking cane to get into the corner of the carboy...lost like 2 cups...
yes, we say that all the time, you get more loss with them, the siphon just doesn't sit all the way to the corner.
I use a squeeze style auto siphon which has a long tube to draw the brew up with, it allows me to get anywhere in the vessel as it’s not rigid like my racking cane. The closer I get to the yeast cake however the more it can start to agitate the lees so I tend to only use it for racking into secondary. Works much better for maximising yield and is cheaper than a racking cane at my local brew store
Good info for newbies. Thanks y'all.
Well im from Brazil and gonna try to make it my first mead, i need to improvise some elements, cuz we dont have here but im looking foward to learn more of this art of brewing! Thx so much both =D
Just made my first cider with the help of your videos, thank you for the clear instructions!
Glad we could help!
awww ... i was expecting WiBOL lol
Wbol nearly cost us a fermenter and a gallon of brew.
Love you guys’ videos! Finally inspired me to start brewing my own mead a month ago, something I’d been wanting to try for ages but was cluesless as to where to begin 😂
Thank you so much for the great advice! By any chance do you guys have a video on bottling? I’m slowly buying up the gear and I upgraded to a siphon with a bottling wand, however I realized when it got here that it’s not spring-loaded…
Thanks again and have an awesome weekend!
Lots of our videos show bottling. Any “finishing” video shows bottling. We do plan on making one just to show bottling though.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thank you so much! I've been following for a few weeks and watched few brews start to finish, but I'm wondering if I'm missing something cause now that I've tried it everything seems so easy haha
Very helpful! Love you guys and your videos!
Our pleasure!
Racked my first mead today 43 days. but my is still pretty cloudy, How old is that mead in your racking video, looks very clear.
OMG the tube on the auto siphon is such a pain to clean, you'll make a million bucks if you come up with something easier to clean.
The one in this video? That's almost a year, but it has been clear for months, we just added oak to it a month or so ago.
Mitsu, I clean my siphon tube by putting it in my sanitation water with the cane and siphon and pumping it through the tube until I'm satisfied that it's clean. Don't say anything, but I'll also blow air through the tube to get the bubbles out... 😛
Thanks Jeff, I'm so dense, didn't think to clean the whole thing together Duh
Can mead be cold crashed like beer to clear the liquid?
Of course!
After the final rack into a bottle or whatever container you’re using how long can you expect it to stay good for? Also once you open that bottle can you put the top back on and leave it for an extended period or should it be used within a certain time period due to oxygen being introduced. Just found your channel and I’m loving it. Thank you guys good info!!
We get years out of them easily. Once you open it, drink it sooner, like weeks.
I just bought a siphonless fermenter from northern brewer…. And I also use a conical fermenter with a collection jar by fast ferment on Amazon … Works WONDERS. NO MORE SIPHON. No more whispys!!! 👍😬
Is it plastic? If so… watch your seals, they will leak.
you mentioned to rough rack when using fruit how would I know when to do that?, I have a gallon of your basic mead recipe with the raisins and orange peel that's been fermenting for one week, should I rough rack soon? and no, before you ask I haven't gotten a hydrometer yet:)
No need to rough rack that mead. I only do it when I need to keep fermentation going but want to remove fruit or spices. The basic mead has nothing to worry about.
@@CitySteadingBrews I am following that same recipe myself, but I am trying it with golden raisins and blood orange peel; and by the way, you guys are freaking awesome :D
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks you guys are awesome
Good How-to. Know the basics - do them well. :-)
Why is it called "racking"? Seems a strange word to use to explain moving a beverage from one vessel to another by siphoning it.
Good question. I will get back to you on that!
Best I cpuld find is that barrels of wine were kept on racks and the wine was moved from barrel to barrel ising a siphon, moving it from rack to rack too, so perhaps that’s the origin.
People are talking about barrel to barrel..its not , I think the original meaning is if you have your fermenters full , instead of bottling straight from them you siphon off to let it settle in barrels and put them on the racks (racking) , then get your fermenter going with a new brew .
@Lance Hobbs wine was made in barrels and placed on racks in wine cellars.
It's because spelling decantang
Dacenting
Decaning
Decanting is harder then racking
Good stuff. Do you usually recommend doing a cold crash before racking to help "stuff" settle out more? Or is the difference negligible? Thanks!
Totally up to you. We rarely do mostly out of space issues. It does help but most of ours clear naturally on their own.
Great info, as usual. Clear, concise. Good job
Much appreciated!
@@CitySteadingBrews I like this new, short-form instructional video. :)
Could you do a video on racking with only one person? I would like to see the operation from removing from sanitizer to the end. Thank you.
It's just the same thing. It's much easier when not on camera in a limited space.
I don't know if this will be helpful, but I'll toss it out there. I made some banana strawberry wine. I decided not to use a mesh bag - I probably should have. Needless to say, the first racking was a challenge with all the stuff floating around in the liquid. My solution was to place a mesh bag inside of the wide mouth receiving jug so that the top of the bag was out of the top of the jar. I put the wand in, racked and gently lifted the mesh bag out. It caught all of the junk that the siphon picked up. I did the same thing with a peach mead and it worked like a charm. Clean up is always a challenge but I would rather do the clean up when my brew is racked and safely sitting with an airlock rather than try to mitigate the junk while I'm racking. As I still consider myself a rookie, I'm sure with experience racking will be easier for me than it is now. And in the future I think this will be less of an issue because I think it would just be easier to use the mesh bag for the fruit and sink it with a fermenting weight to keep it from floating to the surface. But since there's always going to be some junk at the bottom, I might continue racking with the mesh bag.
Thank you !!!
You are very welcome!
Very informational as always :)
Could you do one about adding acid blend / lemon juice to wines?
I've been following you for a few years as well as a few other channels and have made several of your recipes my self. My problem comes when I try to make wine from some fruit that you guys have not covered. I tend to just ferment the fruit it self as I don't understand how much and when to add lemon juice. Looking online immediately gets super technical and is mostly about controlling grape wine fermentation
Technically speaking it’s not necessary for fermentation. It’s tyere to enhance flavor and acid balance ib the wine so it can simply be added to taste.
Nice video!!!
Thanks!
I got all excited and thought we were going to see Wibble (or however he spells it) make a return. But Old Skool Paint Can is awesome too.
EDIT: Also, thank you for reminding me that my autosiphon needs a replacement, my seals are shot.
Wbol almost cost us a gallon of mead and a fermenter... so...
@@CitySteadingBrews I understand Wbol's retirement from active duty then!
Another great informative video, could we possibly get some different ideas for best practices for racking brews that aren’t clear.. or have large amounts of particles fruit... I’ve personally had many issues, many of my solutions have been let’s say aggressive... any tips on difficult brews would be awesome as a follow up video??
Time. Most all brews clear in time.
Looking to try black tea for my tannins in my muscadine wine this year. I know you've used tea in the past. So, I wanted to get your input on how many tea bags you've used per gallon?
One. But don’t put teabags in the wine. Make a cup of tea and add the tea.
@@CitySteadingBrews👍... thanks
i know you guys have lists of items in your descriptions, but do you guys happen to have a link to just the bottling wand you use? i can't seem to find just the wand. thanks, you guys are so informative!
a.co/d/a9XI8yo
Thankyou ---will try to diy Something similar --I think it stops the jar exploding with co2?
It lets gasses escape and keeps bugs out :)
Yeah racking
Do you have a video on green wise organic apple juice? Could I use that to make cider or wine as is? I'm learning a lot from your channel by the way and thank you so much! Jimmy in Tampa
We have about 340 videos... I don't recall exactly which cider we used, but... we did a video on cider. Here's a link: ua-cam.com/video/yWikcIGl3Pc/v-deo.html&ab_channel=CitySteadingBrews
If you're ever curious to find a video on our channel, just use the magnifying glass right on the channel page and search. It's soooo much easier than digging through. We actually did a video on that too, lol: ua-cam.com/video/flaDl09OeRU/v-deo.html
@@CitySteadingBrews thank you, I wanted to try to do something with my 1 glass gallon Greenwise and free organic apple juice, as is. What did you do with your apple juice from that container? Did you ever ferment it?
How many times should you rack? Can you rack once, let it age, then bottle without racking again?
Thanks love the videos
Technically you don't need to rack at all if you don't want to, but also technically, bottling is just racking, so...
Seriously though, I say rack as many times as you feel necessary, usually once from primary, and once before bottling is all we do.
@@CitySteadingBrews Awesome! thanks for the response
You said this one word...lease...or something like that. What's the stuff left on the bottom of the jug? The leavings you don't want... what's that word?
Lees or trub in beer making
Lees, yes.
Okay. You're saying LEES. Thank you. I've heard that word over a dozen times, but have never seen it in print.
NOW I KNOW. THANK YOU.
Hi really love the channel. I would like to ask a question please.
When racking with the auto syphon how do avoid creating bubbles and air in what you are sucking up? I just had to abandon a good amount of elderflower wine as bubbles started to get into my racked brew, worried about the wine oxidising and turning into vinegar! I must admit, I forgot to tilt the demijohn on its edge!! Many thanks, Mike
It shouldn’t be introducing bubbles. Maybe reduce the height difference a little or make sure your seal is working properly.
@@CitySteadingBrews thank you!
I recently did a 5 gallon batch of simple cider. 5 gallons juice, full packet Fermentis SafCider AB-1…O.G. 1.058, added water to bring down to 1.045 for a +/- 5.9% end product. I racked into (5) 1 gallon carboys and flavored them all differently. While doing so, it seemed like it was degassing in the siphon tubing causing a bubble that significantly slowed racking. I figured since it wasn’t oxygen, I’d be ok pumping the siphon a few more times mid-rack to blast the bubble through. Have you guys ever experienced this? I was using a bottling wand so I could stop while switching secondary vessels if you think that had anything to do with it. Would love your insight, keep up the great work!
I'd just let that sit a bit longer, lol. But no, have yet to see it so full of gas that it interrupts the racking process!
@@CitySteadingBrews it fermented down to 1.000 and held for two days so I figured it was ok to rack. Guess I could have let it sit for a full week, maybe degas a little more.
First off you guys are Fantastic! Many years ago i loved to brew beers. Now as a beekeeper I decided to make a big batch of mead, seeing how I have lots of honey. So on 10-29-21 I Threw together 15 lbs honey, 2.5 lbs frozen dark sweet cherries from walmart, 5 oranges, about 50 raisins, filled the 5gal glass carboy to the start of the neck. and added a packet of m05. My first reading was 1.130. On 11-12-21 reading was 1.036, and last reading 11-19-21 was 1.020. After watchin a few of your vids headspace seems to be a concern for me now. Im guessing i have 4 gals of drink at the moment. When it comes time to rack im afraid my headspace will be to large? Any advise for me on my situation? All the fruit is floating and theres lot of sediment at the bottom. It has a nice blood orange tint to the liquid. i only have one other 5gal carboy, nothing smaller. Please help this beekeeper save his first mead.
what no reading, ohhh the madness!!!!! JK, thank yall for the videos!!!
What if my yeast stop moving after I have racked the mead? Should I add some more yeast to get them active again? I racked after about 2 weeks of fermentation. Thanks for so much sharing great content!
You shouldn’t rack until fermentation is done. If you are racking early to remove fruit solids then it’s best to gently scoop out the solids then do an auto siphon style rack so as to leave as much of your yeast colony intact. Also remember that bubbles, movement or any other visible indication of activity isn’t as reliable as a gravity reading to tell you what your brew is doing.
I know this is a year old but hoping I might get an answer... from anyone anyway
I'm making my first batch of mead, not ready to rack yet but was going to start practicing before I bottle it for real. But my partner had the idea that using a large syringe & tube to suck up a bunch of the mead, then transfer to a bottle to rack would be an easier alternative (he has the idea that using the tube/siphon method racking into separate bottles is going to make a big mess--im guessing due to his own issues with having to drain gas from a car and making a mess of it) but I figured i'd humor him since he's convinced I'm goin to make a mess too 😏) but it's not a method I see ever used or suggested. Would this alternative idea of syringe&tube transfer not be advised for some reason? I'm still learning the intricacies of mead making so i didn't know if this siphon method is just the norm or if other methods are not encouraged for some reason. Thanks!
I'm extremely curious as to what the beverage is that you oaked... Also, this covers racking to a T. 👍
That was the leftover from our hulls vs nothing test!
Would you two consider writing a mead/wine making book? I have read through many wine making books now and in many cases the basic, such as off-gassing/racking/SpGr, are overlooked as assumed knowledge. I have family that has wanted to get into this and gave up early on because there wasn't as much as a glossary for consultation on the terms used.
I've been working on one for a while now... it's a slow process sometimes.
@@CitySteadingBrews can't wait for it. I'd truly buy one.
amazing! videos! thanks so much for all the advice. Once racking cider from demijohn to 2nd fermentor container with bubbler, should that second fermentor container also be a glass one? im struggling to find a wide mouth fermentor with bubbler in the UK. any help would be awesome, thanks!
I prefer glass. Plastic, if made for alcohol is ok… but glass is better.
Do you have any advice on a recipe for huckleberry mead
Follow one of their mead videos. One that uses fruit! This is rough at best, but here goes! 3lbs huckleberry, 2 to 3lbs honey of choice, and yeast of your choice. Lalvin EC-1118 is my choice, but these guys have other great recommendations! Don’t forget your gallon of water! SANITIZE EVERYTHING!!! Lol! Hope this help point you in the right direction. Happy brewing!
Our Pyment, or many of our other fruit mead recipes would work well with huckleberries substituted.
Just got my hands on a racking cane. Having issues with it though. Just pump and nothing happens.
Make sure you have elevation between the two, and you may need to pump a few times to get it going.
@@CitySteadingBrews yeah did that. Had a huge difference in height. Was pumping away with just water to test it as I didn’t wanna risk pumping air into a brew.
Might have to check the seals on it. Maybe it could be that?
Hole in your rubber?
@@micahestep7679 ………the internet has ruined my brain 😂
Yeah I’m gonna check all the rubber to make sure there’s not faults.
Not relevant to this video, but I have a question about something I havent seen you guys talk about.....maybe Ive missed it, but I am curious about Yeast stressing. I made my first mead recently, it was your Metheglin recipe, it turned out really good, but has an odd after taste, which Im sure will lessen with time. I had a local home brewer taste it and his immediate reaction was that I had stressed the yeast. His suggestion was that I introduce my nutrients in stages over a 3 or 4 day period. As I have learned everything I know about mead making from city steading, I would like to hear your advise and see if you had any other helpful insights on the subject as well. Thankyou for all that you do. Yall are amazing.
When making a melomel, when should you remove the fruit? Does it differ depending on whether the fruit is in primary or secondary?
In primary, remove it after fermentation. In conditioning, a few weeks should be all you need.
About how long should I leave it racked? Just until its clear ?
You mentioned racking to remove the fruit. How long should I wait before removing the fruit?
Does your wine need to stay at a certain level in the bottle, after racking? IOW, if I leave wine behind in each racking do I need to be concerned about the lowering levels of wine? If so, what do I fill them back up with?
We try to have as little headspace as possible. Smaller containers or adding sanitized marbles are great ways to do it.
So pouring introduces air into the wine ---ok thankyou ----can you clarify what the weird object on top of wine bottle is ??
An airlock. It lets's gasses escape but keeps bugs out.
I bought an auto siphon from fermtech and the tubing it came with won’t fit into racking cane. What should I do? 😞
I have a very odd situation. I racked 3 gallons of peach mead into 3 seperate 1 gal carboys. In the 3rd i had too much headroom so i topped off with some beautiful Golden Oolong Tea. Within 2 hours the gallon with the tea has Cleared up tremendously and has a significant lees cake!!! What the heck is happening in there???
You diluted it and the tea is just binding to some of the proteins and clearing out. But... you have a possibility of refermentation if there's still sugars in there.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thank you!!! I might do this on purpose next time lol!
Sooo....(great videos BTW) I racked my cider a couple of days ago. Fermentation nearly done. I want to achieve a little more alcohol content so gonna add a little more sugar and yeast in an effort to keep fermentation going another week or so. I have OG (1040) from day 1 but how do I work out alcohol level as I will have interferred with the sugar levels etc? Also is adding sugar and yeast after 1st rack a bad idea? It's pinching yeast as we speak. Have a great day.
Matt
We have a video on this... ua-cam.com/video/NpBZctKaPis/v-deo.html
Speaking of racking... I'm curious about something. I just back sweetened and racked a red grape and cherry juice wine directly prior to pasteurization. When the wine started heating up it started to rise up the neck a little bit Bubble and foam. Am I correct in assuming that the remaining yeast had one last feast? I kept the wine at 160+ degrees, for over 15 minutes and corked them with a hand removable cork. That being said, have I in effect... carbonated my wine ever so much?
More likely it was just gas escaping.
Stupid question: is it really the TOP of the destination container that has to be above the bottom of the source container or is it the bottom of the siphon tube has to be below the bottom of the source container?
$*^&! :)
Thanks for the great racking demo. Maybe a dumb question but… why is the oxygenation bad? My first fruit wine I had a fair amount of difficulty racking it and think I splashed too much moving from primary to secondary.
Oxygen can cause off flavors or activate acetobactors which are the critters that make vinegar :)
Can you ferment anything out of condensed milk, like fermenting honey into honey mead?
I wouldn't. I can only see that going really really badly.
@@CitySteadingBrews I see, thanks!
How long does one rack it for? I don’t think you said.
What size is your siphon and tubing? My siphon and tube fit together but the liquid doesn't fill the tube and I end up needing to continue pumping or just pour into the next container. Any tips?
You pump until it fills it and flows on its own.
We showed it off n the video.
@@CitySteadingBrews Yeah, I can't get it to fill even if I pump it like I'm trying to make it happy...
I think my tubing has too wide of a diameter, and I'm tempted to siphon it manually
@@D3fcon141 Sounds to me like your seals are completely not working at all. Autosiphons are very simple things, but when they break, they just don't work at all.
Been watching all your videos! Decided to start with store bought juice plus sugar plus yeast (wine yeast from amazon).
My apple cider tasted gross! It tasted more like beer 🤮. How do I fix it? Back-sweeten?
My cranberry pineapple was DELICIOUS!
Started some others but bubbles stopped after about a week. Added more sugar. Shook. We will see...
Is this good? Did I ruin my wine?
First... please follow a known recipe when starting out. Just randomly putting things in there won't always have a great result! ua-cam.com/video/XHtWgNBM8A8/v-deo.html&ab_channel=CitySteadingBrews
Adding more sugar to a brew CAN make it referment, depending on what the recipe is and what yeast, or it could just make it a lot sweeter, and do nothing. Again, please follow recipes in the beginning. Without readings or recipes, I'm sorry, I can't be of more help.
Hi there guys I’m in the process of making a banana mead and I have few questions. I’m sticking to the recipe of the beginners mead you guys made however I am replacing the orange peele with banana flesh and peele. I was wondering for a 1 gallon jug ball park how many bananas would you suggest and once that is sorted how long to leave for until i should remove the fruit and do my first rack. Thanks guys really loving the videos 🙌
Bananas change everything completely. This wasn't a banana mead... the orange peel was just one tablespoon. I'd have to work out the recipe fully to give you an appropriate answer, but... leaving bananas in a brew could be difficult since they turn to mush and I worry about mold forming.
Thank you so much for the reply guys ile rethink the whole thing and do another recipe from your videos I might have to invest in one of the boil bags I’ve seen you guys use. Cheers 💪🏽
Yeah if you’re new to brewing stick with known Recipes to learn how it all works is my recommendation.
Awesome videos! Thanks. I'm wondering, how does degassing not oxygenate the wine? Also when and what step is best to add potassium metabisulfite?
Degassibg is ketting gas out so there realky isn’t any oxidation happening. We don’t use potassium metabisulfite.
@@CitySteadingBrews do you use anything to preserve before bottling? what do you recommend using and at what step? Sorry I haven't brewed in 12 years and see a lot of different opinions out here. Thanks
@@michaelcross1469 we do exactly as we show in our videos. Naturally let it finish fermenting and we bottle and store them. That’s it. I would rather not add more preservatives to our food as it harms the gut biome. Call it personal preference but it works for us.
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks bunches!
Anytime!
ive got a few questions. first i followed your Beginner Mead making with two exceptions, first i used clover honey and i didnt have any orange peel, how much is this going to effect the mead. Second instead of using hole or chopped fruit could you use Fruit Preserve/Jam for fermenting. thank you and have a nice day.
Well, you left out some flavoring and acids, and a touch of nutrients... it should work, but it will taste different, of course. We did a Strawberry Jam Wine ua-cam.com/video/x-gGUwg3Mjg/v-deo.html&ab_channel=CitySteadingBrews
Fantastic channel you guys have here! I recently started (on 8/14) what was supposed to be a gallon of fig melomel using 3 lbs of honey and 2lbs of fresh figs (not in a sack) to feed a full packet of EC-1118 yeast. Due to a calculating error, I was only able to use just over a half gallon of water. Also, the fresh figs are quite buoyant and have formed a hearty cap, which over the first night escaped through the airlock(!). After removing a small amount of liquid and cleaning things up, I’ve continued submerging the cap once a day to keep things wet (swirling doesn’t seem to saturate things sufficiently) and consequently introducing oxygen into the mix.
I’m wondering a few things: (1) I was considering moving things to a 1.5 gallon fermenter and adding 0.5 gal of water to avoid an overly sweet mead - is this a good idea?; (2) if I leave it as is, how long should I continue messing with the cap? I get nervous interrupting the process but want to prevent any drying out; and (3) how I should go about racking this, considering the abundant small seeds may get through (or clog) a filter on my siphon and the fleshy texture of the figs makes them quite absorbent so I worry they may sequester a significant amount of product.
Sorry for the long-winded comment. Thanks in advance and keep up the good work!
I don’t think it will be sweet with that yeast. More likely it will go dry. You may want to do multiple rackings as figs get everywhere! As for the cap… you’re doing the right thing. I would say three weeks should be enough time before removingg the fruit, but really you want to leave it until fermentation is complete if you can deal with keeping the cap wet that long.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thank you kindly! It's my first ever attempt, so nerves are high. Would you suggest that I move things to a 1.5 gallon fermenter and add water to achieve the "full gallon", or just stick with the setup as is? Kicking myself for starting before I got my hands on a hydrometer.
@@cameronschwalbach9716 addibg water will dilute it and could restart fermentation in the right conditions.
What’s the best way to reduce headspace?
Have the right size container. Barring that, sanitized marbles work well.
Great channel ! I have a question. I have seen on other channels that they top off the carboy when racking. Do you do this and if so how do you calculate ABV? As this would change the specific gravity. I have never seen you top off
I don't do it because it's just diluting the brew. Now some will add another wine or cider to do that, and if they're similar enough, sure, it's viable and doesn't alter the ABV.
Do you worry about having too much headspace?
why should you not pour it? what is the problem with oxygenation?
Oxygenated alcohol can create off flavors and can turn it into vinegar depending on the ABV
I’m having issues with my dragon breath mead the fruit is big. I’m thinking of using Darica’s fruit removal with tongs then siphon. Dose that sounds right
Sure, just sanitize first.
Any syphon? I don't find a link. I'd like to get one with the bottling stopper tube thing.
Auto Siphon: amzn.to/3KenZ8A Bottling Wand: amzn.to/3kaGd0m
hello! I found your videos recently and I love them! if I started a batch of apple wine a few days ago but I forgot to wash the carboy and only used boiling water to sanitize my equipment, should I dump the batch and start again? I know home brewing is safe, but I don't want to risk anything from my own naivety. Also the airlock popped off after the first 24 hours and was probably off for a few hours until I noticed, is that okay or will it go bad?
Yup it could go bad, but it’s too soon to say. Let it go, worst case you have to dump it if there’s an infection.
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks so much! I will continue to watch it and see what happens.
@@sethrichard77So… What happened? Vinegar taste? thanks
@@SeanDon14 nope! Turned out great!
Do you have any tips on straining fruit skins so they don’t clog up the end of the autosiphon? I tried cheesecloth but it made the suspended co2 fizz and the siphon loose suction.
You can put the fruit in a bag when making the fermentation.
@@CitySteadingBrews true! Duh! Lol. Just a plain blueberry melomel is my favorite with fruit in primary and more in secondary. Blueberry skins are the worst! Thank you! I’m ordering me a bag today.
@@CitySteadingBrews I ordered the set of bags from y’all’s website! Thanks again
@@donnybilbo8006 thank YOU!
I followed this process for my wine with Oak chips. The chips turned out to be more like shreds of oak not big enough chips to remove before racking. The oak shreds that were floating in the wine ended up in my secondary and then managed to get into my bottling wand and clogged up the end of my wand making difficult to bottle. Do you have a suggestion for how to get the smaller oak chips from ending up where I don't want them to be? I did try to strain what I could see floating, not very successful. I don't want to toss the oak bag to purchase bigger oak pieces but any new purchase of Oak I'll stay away from this small stuff. Do you have suggestion for vendors to purchase Oak?
Well... larger pieces are more consistent for extraction and we do have a vendor for oak pieces: barrelcharwood.com/
As for how to keep them from getting into your siphoning.... maybe a piece of cheesecloth around the siphon hose?
When can I taste my mead? The one I made is now about 3 weeks old and has very limited airlock action!
Anytime.
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks!
When I rack I get extra air space between my mead and the airlock. Is that airspace okay? Or do I need to top off with water?
If you too off with water you are diluting your brew. A little space is fine, you just want to minimize if possible.
How often do you need to rack a mead?
We usually do twice. Once after fermentation and again before bottling.
(First Timer)What should I do if I suspect my yeast wasn’t super active/healthy? (2 wks of cider primary and it just bubbled a bit for few days)
It's probably fine, have you checked gravity readings? Depending on your recipe it could be done.
Thanks. Waiting for my hydrometer to arrive from Amazon. Will let you know.
Thanks again
Is it an issue if there is an air pocket within the siphon? I feel like I may be oxygenating my brew during this stage
Try to avoid that. Probably not a problem for onee or two.
@@CitySteadingBrews the auto siphon is in the mail, I promise! I’ll hold off until then. Good to iron these things out during the practice run with water
After you let it sit and clear up for a little while do you need to rack again?
Yup.
@CitySteadingBrews awsome :) I just racked a 18% blueberry melomel did with d47 (as we all know, yeast cant read 😅) for the 2nd time and I think I tried to save too much toward the bottom, last night I could see my phone screen through it and now it's back to not see through through but got alot of the sediment and Lee's out I think :)
The best laid plans of mice and men
Have you guys ever made a melomel that was drinkable in two weeks? I just recently racked my own recipe and it was surprisingly delicious. It hit 10.5% abv and within a day of racking there was already a bunch of sediment or lees in the bottom. There's still a few bits a fruit that made it through the siphon in there too up top. When would you rack it again? Would you be concerned about stalling at this point, since it wasn't completely dry and shouldn't be to yeast tolerance yet?
I don't even test them at two weeks usually. Four is a pretty good bet though.
Sounds like you racked too soon. Don't rack until fermentation is complete. Racking CAN cause it to stall if you do it too soon. ua-cam.com/video/hsOd9rWRcSU/v-deo.html&ab_channel=CitySteadingBrews
Alright, hope you don't mind another question or two lol i watched the video you linked again. I had fruit solids and half a vanilla bean in a standard 1 gallon carboy. I wanted to check on it to make sure the vanilla wasn't making it bitter and I figured I'd remove the fruit solids and check the taste while in there. After seeing the gravity and tasting it, I was impressed. So I went ahead and racked to the 1 gallon wide mouth. I guess what I'm really looking for, is stalling it necessarily a bad thing if I like the flavor profile this early? I'm going to check in a few days to verify fermentation continued.
@@trevormartin8497 stalling means it MIGHT restart fermentation or it might not, meaning it COULD explode once bottled. You ALWAYS want to let fermentation complete before bottling.
That's what I was thinking. Definitely don't want bottle bombs. Think I got it from here. Thanks for the help and the wealth of information you two put out!
@@trevormartin8497 anytime, happy brewing!
What's wrong with more oxygen at the racking stage? Won't the yeast just eat it and continue their thing?
The yeast should be done before you rack. Adding oxygen at that point can cause vinegarization or oxidation.
@@CitySteadingBrews ah, cool, so the order of operations is 'stabilize gravity' then 'rack.' But then, why rack? If it's done, I think I'd be happy drinking it right there. (I haven't started my first brew yet, stuff's in the mail)
Have you made any of the meads in the elder scrolls book?
Also how much for a bottle of the viking blood?
We have not, and we cannot sell our meads.
@@CitySteadingBrews bummer, most of them look very tempting lol
We looked at them and decided against making them as written :)
I recently racked a couple of carboys that had fruit in them, and found that a lot of the small pieces still got pulled into the siphon. Is there a good way around this without having to filter it through something and risking aeration?
We've put cheesecloth or a brew bag over the end of the tubing.
Ah brilliant, thanks for replying!
Love the videos as well, have really helped me getting started!
Splasproof Funnel with strainer
So I've been watching a bunch of CSB videos over the last couple weeks, and am now back into brewing. Thanks for that!
I pretty much agree with everything said in this video, except one...maybe two. I don't agree that racking to secondary helps with clarity at all. And I would argue that contact with lees hastens the metabolizing of undesireable flavours/odors, so that I can get to bottling faster. (Excepting of course, really long ferments or with some particularly troublesome strains of yeast.)
So unless I have bits of fruit in the recipe, some other ingredient that floats around in the fermenter, or primary fermentation is going to be more than a couple of months, I don't rack to a secondary. Primary, bottle, done. Thoughts? Is this simplification going to bite me?
Maybe I just haven't yet ran across the CSB video that addresses this. If so, I'm sure I'll get there eventually.
You need to leave it on lees for a very long time for mead to have adverse reactions. Racking helps to clear simply because you are removing sediment that can and does get stirred up.
What is that strange glass or plastic object sitting on top of your wine jar ? Water in it ? weird !
An airlock.
I just made my first acerglyn, done 4week of fermentation, I rack it to remove, oranges slide, cynnamon stick & clove. but after I did the racking my headspace goes double. did you have any tips on that? is it going to do oxygenation? (yes I give it a swirl after racking to fill the room with co2
Use a smaller vessel if you can, to minimize headspace, or, use sanitized marbles to fill the space.
thank you
I bought this siphon and it suck’s a lot of air. How do I prevent it from happening? Hopefully I didn’t ruin my brew
Check the seal? Also... use as few pumps to get it going as possible. Make sure your source is higher than the destination.
@@CitySteadingBrews this was the first time using it. it’s brand new and I went from counter top to the floor
Could be faulty?
@@CitySteadingBrews the gasket barely touches the tube. I don’t see a better rated one on Amazon. In assuming you have never had a issue with this brand
We have not, but anything can have a faulty unit.
how much honey and water in a 6 gallon carboy?
We have many videos showing recipes for making mead. There’s really no one answer to this question.
too make mead can you use a 5 gal bucket ..
If you prefer, yes, just scale up most of our recipes all but yeast. Just use a whole packet of yeast.
When i am racking ? ( sorry english is not my fist language) can i back sweeten my brew?
It’s best to wait until your brew is done to back sweeten unless you are ok with it possibly fermenting more and then it is technically step feeding.
@@CitySteadingBrews thank you weary mutch . Love your stuff and thanks for responding so fast . I am brewing right now . So in Dutch i would say . Bedankt voor jullie hulp en veel brouw plezier!!!!
I have terrible trouble with racking canes. I bought a cheap one and had a continuous stream of tiny bubbles coming from the black rubber gasket. I threw that one out and got an expensive racking cane and had the exact same problem. Is there some hack to make the seal better?
Hmm, interesting. We've not had that kind of problem. Are you pressing it to the side of the tube or anything to make the seal not fully seat?
@@CitySteadingBrews I didn’t give up quickly. I held each cane in every possible position. I could always stop the bubbles for a moment, but they would always start up again and aerate my mead. The thing that would sort of work is to backfill some mead into the tube above the seal. That would stop it for a while, only a while. Have I just had bad luck and this is an uncommon problem I’ve had twice?
Tube/line too big for the cane possibly ???
@@ghoppr71 Yes, but not obviously so. I’m not trying to stick different size tubes together. I’ve only used what was provided.
@@brocknspectre1221 Yes, my tube for my bottling wand is bigger to accommodate the wand, it's a bit bigger than the cane and sometimes, I have issues with the vaccum not sealing when I bottle unless I push it further on the cane itself.
Hi, I had extra honey from my bees this year and I am having a go at making mead. I have two different mixes going at the moment. They are merrily bubbling away. Its been two weeks since I started them and now see a layer of lees on the bottom of the fermentors. Should I rack them to clean fermentors or just leave them alone? Does the lees have any effect on the finished product? Thnaks for the great info and methods of brewing mead.
Rack when fermentation is complete. Doing it early can stall your brew.
Thanks for the quick response. Shortly after posting my comment I found the video you directed me to and it answered my questions. Looking forward to more vids from you🙂
HELP! I'm making my first mead, don't shout at me, but I got excited and didn't take a gravity ( I didn't realise it was comparative and thought I could just measure it at the end :( I was dumb ok ! ) but its been 14 days since I started, the airlock was bubbling and the liquid was fizzing like a coke in a glass, with the little bubbles up the side. now its completely stopped bubbling and I see no bubbles. only some of the raisins and orange peel has settled to the bottom, along with a fairly thick layer of yeast at the bottom. im brewing in a wide mouth kilner jar that I got from a friend that they used to make kombucha in, so im afraid to take the lid off and stir it or add nutrient because I think ill oxygenate it, I can't shake it or swirl it aggressively enough without getting it all over the airlock and the inside of the lid. I'm a noob in a real newbie mess! help me guys!
You can take a reading. It’s possibly done.
No need to add a thing by the way!
Rumor has it, the room is still not painted
Nope, still not.
On screen elevation, and you can't let WBOL come out and play? What's wrong with you!
Wbol caused stability issues and we nearly lost a whole fermenter…
OCFA
What does that mean?
WHY are you transferring wine into another jar ? is that what racking is ?---moving wine into another container ? but WHY ?
VERY ELABORATE PUMP why not simply pour it out ?---
It helps to keep the sediment put. Pouring is a bad idea, oxygen can turn wine to vinegar and/or create off flavors.