Question about a bucket lid

So I have a wine kit (Vintner's Reserve ) , a 6.5 gallon carboy, a 5 gallon carboy, and a 6 gallon bottling bucket without a lid. I plan on using the bucket for the primary, then move to the 6.5 carboy for the secondary and then the 5 gallon carboy for the last phase before bottling.

My question here is about the lid for the bucket. In the instructions it says to "Cover the primary fermentor" for the first phase. I have a brand new HDPE #2 plastic Home Depot bucket lid that I was going to sanitize and use to cover the first phase. Since the wine won't be coming in direct contact with the lid do you all think this would be okay?

I think that yiu will be ok with the lid. I'm no expert on plastic apllications, but HDPE seems to be used for food.

However, i wouldn't use your 6.5g carboy for secondary, it will have too much headroom. You want as little headroom as possible for secondry! I would suggest using your 5g and get yourself a 1g demi john.

Dicky

For a wine kit you need a larger than 6 gallon bucket, about 3" of space above the liguid for blow-off. "Cover" means loosely, I set (not close) my lid on top and cover the airlock hole with a napkin. The lid is only to keep big stuff from falling in. Yeast need oxygen at the primary stage.

You also need a 6 gallon carboy, not a 5 gallon or a 6.5 gallon. It is not easy to divide your ingredients up into 5/1 gallon batches, but it can be done.

Bottling can be done right from the 6 gallon carboy.

The instructions said that headroom was only important for the third phase and not to top up in the second phase. So oxidation is a threat even with an airlock before degassing?

Trokair said:

The instructions said that headroom was only important for the last phase before bottling and not to top up in the second phase. So oxidation is a threat even with an airlock before degassing?

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Not as much, but you still want to use the 6 gallon carboy as per the directions. A 6.5 gallon carboy is too big for secondary for a 6 gallon wine kit. Of course, a 5 gallon carboy is one gallon too small, so that won't work for a wine kit.

So I guess my next question is how long can I leave this kit in my refridgerator before it goes bad? Its been in there for two weeks already and it will be at least another 3 before I can get ahold of even one 6 gallon carboy.

Kits last some time, assuming that you haven't already started it.

Dicky

Still sitting in the box in my fridge. Guess I'll hold it then and go get myself 1 or 2 6 gallon carboys. Thanks for the info everyone.

It doesn't need to be in the fridge.