Secondary vessel

Wine newby here, I will be starting a batch of Blackberry wine soon and it will be a oddball size. 4 gallons. Not worried about my primary vessel but wondering about secondary. Will a 5 gallon vessel be fine or will it have too much headspace? Do I need to maybe split it into two smaller vessels? Final question, plastic ok or glass for secondary?

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epc071 said:

Wine newby here, I will be starting a batch of Blackberry wine soon and it will be a oddball size. 4 gallons. Not worried about my primary vessel but wondering about secondary. Will a 5 gallon vessel be fine or will it have too much headspace? Do I need to maybe split it into two smaller vessels? Final question, plastic ok or glass for secondary?

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1. Yes too much headspace. You could split into a 3gal and a 1gal or four 1gals. Never seen a 2gal. Alternatively you could add a gallon worth of sanatized glass beads (or similar) to bring the liquid up to the neck of the carboy.

2. I do all my secondaries as 5 or 3gal plastic water jugs. The blue ones they sell at walmart. There is some argument over oxygen permiability, but i've never noticed a problem and dont bulk age in them.

Woot

Ok. Thanks for the advice!!