One Step No Rinse CleanerBob, I second Joe's advice. Sterility is neither attainable nor necessary in winemaking. Cleanliness, however, is. Wine has been used throughout history to disinfect drinking water, so...
I agree with Darlene. 2 weeks is a bit long. Actually there is a simple way to tell when to move it. Start your fermentation. It will get to going real strong and all the crushed fruit will tend to rise to the top and form what is called a cap. You need to stir this back down in the juice 2 times a day. If you do not, it will start to dry out and mold will start growing on it. Not good! Do not worry about O2 getting to it while you stir it. At this stage there is not enough alcohol in it to have a serious oxidation problem and the yeast need a bit of oxidation to reproduce and build up a good colony.
Then the fermentation will slow down. When it slows down enough, the crushed fruit will stop rising to the top. When this happens, it is time to move it to sealed carboys. This is an indication that fermentation has slowed to the point that it will not keep a good enough CO2 blanket on the wine to protect it. This may be in as few as 3 days or many as 7 days.
Ray
