Tag: lees

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Gross Lees vs. Fine Lees

Did you know there are actually two types of lees? Not only are there different kinds, but they are actually quite different from one another.

One kind of lees can spoil your wine in a very short time. The other kind has the potential to take a good wine and make it great by adding flavor compounds as well as smoothing out the mouthfeel.

Gross Lees

Gross lees in a ginger mead.
Gross lees after initial racking.

The gross lees refers not to how disgusting the stuff may be but the size of the debris. When you make wine from fresh fruit it is inevitable that some of the grape skins, seeds, and perhaps a stray stem or two will wind up in the bottom of your fermentation container.

It’s this chunky style lees that causes the most concern when it comes to determining how long you can let your wine sit before racking. The gross lees that can leave really funky flavors in your wine in short periods of time. Continue reading “Gross Lees vs. Fine Lees”

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Racking off the Lees

Racking is the next step, after the initial more vigorous fermentation.

What is racking?

Simply put racking is siphoning your wine off of the dead yeast, known as lees, into a clean container.

Racking wine off the lees involves siphoning from the primary fermenter to a secondary fermentation container.There are two reasons to rack your wine. First it helps clarify your wine but it can also prevent off flavors from the decomposing yeast.

Over time yeast and other sediment will precipitate out of your wine and settle to the bottom. The cloudiness will dissipate with each successive racking until you’ve got a nearly clear wine. Nearly because you do sometimes need to fine the last bit of cloudiness out.

Getting your wine off of the yeast as it decomposes can prevent off flavors. While some wines are aged on the yeast you really need to know what you’re doing to do this successfully. Continue reading “Racking off the Lees”