Avoiding sediment in last few bottles

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GYO Girl

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Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« on: October 31, 2012, 16:51 »
I am about to start my first 30 bottle batch of red wine from a kit.   I have already done two bulk whites and struggled to avoid picking up the sediment when racking into bottles.  I found that despite being as careful as I could, the last 6 bottles or so had sediment in the bottom.  I have done a couple of 5l batches of red before, and noticed how dark it is, so surely it must be even more difficult to see when the sediment is approaching? 

I don't want to find that half my bottles end up with a thick layer of sediment in the bottom, so what is the best way to avoid picking it up? 
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Daamoot

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2012, 16:56 »
I find racking it a few times helps with avoiding sediment.  It does take time waiting for it to settle/clear after each racking and you do waste more but I feel its worth it for the nice clear results  8)
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nobby400

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2012, 11:30 »
What you need to avoid the Sediment is a Bottling Bucket. I use one for Beer as well as Wine. Basically it's a fermenter with a tap at the lowest point possible, the tap should be able to fit a plastic tube to. The tube is long enough to reach the bottom of your bottles.

When you want to Bottle your Wine/Beer you siphon your Wine/Beer into your bottling Bucket avoiding as much sediment as possible and bottle via the tap and tube ASAP. 

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GYO Girl

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2012, 13:34 »
I did think that another racking or two would probably help, but I read somewhere that you should avoid more rackings than necessary as it introduces air which can cause oxidation?  Am I being over cautious here?  If not, that bottling bucket sounds like a really good idea as I do struggle to hold both ends of the siphon tube at once when bottling, and end up either picking up loads of sediment, or splling loads of wine and getting overflowing bottles.  I've always thought there has got to be an easier way!

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Daamoot

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2012, 15:08 »
Hey GYO girl.  I think so long as your careful you can limit the amount of oxidation during racking.  The main cause of oxidation during racking is when there are splashes or bubbles and to reduce these as much as possible you should tilt the vessel you are racking into and get the siphon hose end submerged as soon as possible.  I've never had problems with oxidation but then its normally 1gal batches of cider that get drunk pretty quickly.  If your planning to age any of your wines it may be best to avoid the extra racking.  Or you could bottle most of the wine that's definetly clear then just rack the last little bit and drink those bottles first?  The bottling bucket does sound like it would make the job far easier!  My GF would appreciate it as she hates me asking for help fillling 40 or so 500ml beer bottles.

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Kleftiwallah

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2012, 16:29 »

Obtain some clear plastic tubing and wrap a smidge of white electrical insulation tape around the bottom end (Leaving the 'ole clear)!

You can see the end of the pipe as it approches the sediment through any coloured glas and or red wine.  I increase the angle of the bottle delivering the wine as it gets near the bottom as well.

The less the difference in height between the 'from' bottle and the 'to' bottle will reduce the pressure differential making it take longer to syphon but less chance of lifting sediment.

Hope this helps.   Cheers,    Tony.
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thedadtony

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2012, 21:51 »
Hi G.G. Try putting the syphyon in only halfway down into the D.J. and hold it there with clothes pegs, then start syphyoning, slowly push the syphyon down  as the level of the wine drops. Hope that helps, cheers Tony.

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ilan

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2012, 19:40 »
no you need to rack all the sediment off use an agent like bentonite to help settle and clear the wine you can also filter the wine thro coffee fiter papers or several layers of fine cloth . If your demi jon has a layer of sediment in it then you stand more chance of picking up off taints than if you rack it of(and top up with more wine /or juice ) 
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GYO Girl

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2012, 09:17 »
Oooh, so many great tips, many thanks.  I have decided to try the bottling bucket method, but I hate wastage (!) so I'll see how much is left at the bottom and maybe try filtering the remainder.

I got an email yesterday from a friend whose mum has been clearing out her loft and found 6 demijohns and is offering them Free to a Good Home!  Guess who was the first to offer them a good home?  Me!

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AnnieB

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2012, 23:08 »
Really it is either makes sure that what you syphon off has no sediment at all and that only this goes into bottles. Which generally means a fair bit is lost. Or something like the Harris filter to trap whatever sediment does go through the syphon tube. Think these are around £20-25 (maybe more) however.

If the red wine is "heavy" it can still throw a sediment after racking and filtering.

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GYO Girl

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2012, 08:03 »
To report back on this, I ended up buying a "bottling" bucket.  It is brilliant and so easy, I can't believe I have been faffing about with silly syphon tubes all this time!

I still got some sediment in the last two or three bottles, but that was because I couldn't bear to let any go to waste so I tilted up the bucket when I got near the bottom and stirred up a bit of sediment - but still I got a much better result than trying to avoid the sediment layer with a syphon tube.

Thanks for all the advice.

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Swing Swang

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Re: Avoiding sediment in last few bottles
« Reply #11 on: January 15, 2013, 06:30 »
When using a syphon or attaching a permanent tap to the bottom of a tank try and arrange it so that it is is as offset ax possible -ie so that it draws at a tangent to the side - with a tap attach a small tube to the inside to do this. This will cause the contents to rotate slightly as they are being drawn off and the sediment will gather in the centre of the subtle vortex produced



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