How long to settle?

[Ounitron]

Ok, racked to secondary at 8 days, there was still a slow fermentation going, but I'm more concerned with yeasty flavor than not enough alchohol at this point. Fermentation continued for about two days after and then died completely (the airlock settled back onto the upward tube). About how long is wise to wait before you rack it a second time? It's got quite a little sediment at the bottom now, but it's still about the complexion of orange juice. Ironically, it kind of tastes like orange juice... with honey and a shot of mild vodka. If it gets better with age, i really expect to be happy with this. I wouldn't be upset to drink it now. General happiness aside, i would like to rack it again, just to get the yeast out of it?

 

[fatbloke]

There's generally no reason to worry, irrespective of whatever you may have read about autolysis causing off flavors etc.

Just let it do its thing. You might want to check the ferments has finished, by taking hydrometer readings (3 identical results across about a week). Then if you have the fridge space for it, you can cold crash it for a week, which usually helps to clear it quicker or if you're happy the ferment has finished and you're feeling really impatient, then just get some wine finings and clear it with that.....

 

[nestowa]

I'm an extreme newbie and am having the same issue. I racked it almost a month ago, 14 days after start, but it hasn't cleared and the fermentation looks like it has stopped. I don't have space for a cold crash, so, I'm not sure what to do. I don't know if I should rack it again or not?

 

[Riverat]

Patience patience (and a good record of hydrometer readings) without a lot more info such as detailed recipe, yeast used, development observations....no one is going to be able to give much more advice than chill. These sound pretty young and a month or so and not cleared doesn't sound like a problem in and of itself.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Some of my stuff clears up really quickly but other stuff takes six months to a year to settle out and now and then you get something stubborn that even resists Sparkolloid or bentonite...

But there's wisdom to what Riverat says, if your hydrometer readings are still changing (even just a tiny bit), your yeast is still doing its thing and it's possible it won't settle out till it's good and done.

There's not much point to racking often unless it's dropping a lot of sediment, if you can't see anything settled out on the bottom, racking won't get you ahead.

 

[Ounitron]

I got a weeks worth of congruent hydro readings out of it ( 1.05 FG, dessert wines eat your heart out) re-racked it... at which point it took back off, and is now fermenting happily away in my secondary (tertiary?). FML. It's already back up to as much sediment as it had before. It proabably needed to happen though, 1.05 is still really sweet. Although I'd eat the honey raw, so "too sweet" is a relative term for which i have no perspective. I'm tempted to try and stop it, i'm sitting at about 9% abv estimated (i had to ballpark my OG based on ingredients, i didn't have a hydrometer yet) which is really a good place for what I want alchohol-wise. My luck though, i'll just end up borking it up in the end run, so back under the stairs it goes until it gets done doin it's thing. Maybe...