Some questions

I have tried to read a ton of stuff on wine making, but I am still hazy on a few things. So here's a series of questions, if you can answer at least some of them, I would greatly appreciate it.

1. My carboy is one of those 5 gallon plastic water jugs you get a Loews. I also use empty plastic milk containers as 1 gallon carboys. I heard that oxygen can get in at a microscopic level. Will this microscopic oxidation affect the taste?

2. What if I store the wine in plastic bottles, will oxidation occur over long periods of time?

3. My friends have been giving me their empty wine bottles to store wine in. Can I just reuse the corks, or do I have to buy a new cork to make sure the bottle is airtight? Can I use a rubber stopper or balloon instead?

4. Does yeast need some level of oxygen to be able to do its work? I think I read that some people fit their carboy with a napkin for a few days before fitting an airlock.

5. I just bought a hydrometer a few days ago, but I want to use it for a grape mead I started a few days ago. Technically, if I can replicate the same ratio of grape to honey to water a I did in the carboy, I can estimte the intial reading, right?

6. are corn sugar and granulated sugar the same?

7. If I use potassium sorbate in conjuntion with campden tablets to stop fermentation, will this affect the flavor? What are the chances that someone is allergic to one of these chemicals?

8. For my next batch I'll be starting with grapes. Is the extra effort worth it in the end as opposed to used welch's?

Thanks, this will really help me clear up a few things :fro:

1. Yes- you don't want to age wine in plastic water bottles. Glass can be very cheap- I use 4 L Carlo Rossi wine juges for one gallon batches. A 5 gallon glass carboy is expensive, but will last you forever.

2. Yes.

3. When you bottle the wine, you'll want to use new corks or else buy and use screwtops which will close tightly.

4. Primary fermentation, when the yeast need and use oxygen, usually is over in the first 5 days or so. After that, oxygen/air is deadly to wine and will ruin it. You want to keep the wine topped up so that there is minimum airspace in the carboy after the first 5 days or so. You want to siphon (rack) the wine from container to container, and to bottles, to avoid splashing and oxygenation of the wine.

5. Maybe, if the honey is the same and the juice is the same.

6. No, but very similar. Corn sugar is made from corn, table sugar made from sugar cane, or beet sugar.

7. Sorbate has a taste, in my opinion. I would use as little as possible if you need to sweeten after fermentation is over. You won't have much luck stopping an active fermentation- it's like stopping a train. It's easiest to wait until fermentation is over by stabilizing with sorbate and sulfites, and then sweeten to taste. Or use wine conditioner. It has sorbate and sugar in it already.

8. Wine grapes make good wine. Table grapes do not. If you were planning on using table grapes, I'd skip that and use Welch's.

very helpful, thank you!