Topping up Demijohns?

tescoisgod said:

Hi, I'm making my first batch of wine ever. I'm making elderberry wine, with a few blackberries and rowan in it, too. I've just strained it all into the secondary fermentor, 2x 1-gallon demijohns, but they're both about 2/3 full each.

I gather it's okay to have a bit of empty space in the demijohns, but after straining it in a few weeks, the space is going to keep growing... so, I'm wondering how to top it up. I don't want to do water, so could I just go buy a bottle of cheap wine and pour it in? What would happen if I went back in a few weeks, strained it, and then poured another bottle of wine in? Would everything be okay, or would the wine get screwed up from being thrown in a fermentor again?

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YooperBrew said:

You don't want to strain or filter. You always siphon, as to not aerate it. When you siphon, you siphon from above any sediment. You should always keep it topped up, either with the same wine or a similar commercial wine. Any headspace would have oxygen in it, and oxygen is deadly to wine! I'd maybe fill one demijohn (by siphoning, not pouring) and then keep the rest in a wine bottle to top up the demijohn when needed.

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tescoisgod said:

Thanks for the answer. So, oxygen is bad, siphoning to avoid oxygen is good. Is it okay to have the demijohns only 2/3 full, or is even that much oxygen bad for the wine? They were airlocked yesterday and they're bubbling away, but I could go get some wine to top them up if it would help.

Also, is it always okay to just add store-bought wine? If I add wine now, and then again in a few months, will the first wine added get old or messed up, or will it be okay as long as there's no oxygen?

Thanks for the help!

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