Racking Wine At Home With Wine Siphon

One of the most important steps in wine making, apart from fermentation, is racking wine. For first time home wine makers, this "racking" term may be a foreign concept. So what is racking? And why do you need to rack a wine?

Racking is essentially a procedure where you siphon the wine from one container to another container. The purpose of doing so is to filter off the sediments or particles that are at the bottom of fermentation's container. This procedure is often repeated two to three times prior to bottling.

So why do you need to be concerned about the sediments?

The sediments and particles at the bottom of the containers are actually dead yeast! Initially, when wine yeast is introduced into the juice, they multiply quickly and can be 200 to 300 times more than the original packet of yeast that you put in. As sugar gets converted into alcohol, the amount of sugar decrease and there is less food (sugar) for the yeast to consume. Thus, the yeast will eventually die off and drop to the bottom of the container. The sediments and particles floating around your wine are the dead yeast.

So when do you start to perform racking?

The first racking is usually done within 1-2 weeks of fermentation. This is the period where most of the fermentation has taken place and the fermentation has slowed down and stabilized. The wine will still froth and bubble, but it is not so intense as compared to fermentation during the first few days. Very often, you will observe that the wine is very "cloudy" and there are particles floating around in the wine. This is the perfect time where you will perform racking to remove these unwanted particles.

After the first racking has been done, the air-lock is put back on the container and the wine is left to sit for another 2-3 weeks before you rack the wine again. There are no hard and fast rule to racking and the procedure should be repeated until the wine has completely cleared up and become free from sediments.

Racking can be extremely easy and painless if you invested in an auto siphon or a siphon pump. You will only need to set it up properly so that the siphon does not suck up the particles at the bottom and the siphon will do all the work in transferring the liquid.

Lastly, during your first racking, you will also need to add sulphites and finings into your wine. Sulphur based products such as campden tablet or potassium/sodium metabisulfite are added to kill off any bacteria in the wine. The sulphites also stabilize your wine, preventing any new yeast from growing or multiplying. Finings are products such as bentonite, gelatin, kitosol, etc. These products help to clarify your wine and reduce the time need to repeatedly rack the wine.