Hey all,
My name is Noah. I'm a first time winemaker. I've been lurking for awhile-- long enough to start a 5 gallon batch of Apfelwein. Can't wait to taste that!
Any way, I have poked around the forum and while I have found answers to similar questions, I still have my own.
I received a Master Vintner kit (this is my first go at the hobby) for Christmas and on 4/26 I started my first batch of Pinot Grigio from a Master Vitner kit.
My questions revolve around the rack between secondary fermentation and bottling... the clearing rack?
Question 1:
I racked the wine into my Big Mouth Bubbler (6.5 gallon capacity) and had a lot of room in there. The instructions say to ensure that the carboy is full to within 2 inches of the airlock. It says to add a similar finished wine and not water. I read that some people use grape juice, some actually use water, some use wine from a previous batch, some use clear marbles. Unfortunately, I was mid-process before I realized that I needed something to fill that space. I ended up buying a 1.75ml bottle of Pinot from the store and it used it all. I'm a bit mad because there is so much wine that I didn't make in my batch now. Granted this kit isn't exactly an advanced kit, but now my batch has a decent amount of store bought wine.
TLDR: Should I buy marbles for future batches or can I rack into a 5 gallon carboy?
Question 2:
Question regards backsweetening
Yes, I know Pinot is pretty sweet as is, but I'm a tinkerer. If I wanted to backsweeten using wine conditioner would I do it at the bottling stage? My idea is to backsweeten a (2) 1/2 gallon growlers to experiment. Will that work?
Thanks in advance.
Noah
My name is Noah. I'm a first time winemaker. I've been lurking for awhile-- long enough to start a 5 gallon batch of Apfelwein. Can't wait to taste that!
Any way, I have poked around the forum and while I have found answers to similar questions, I still have my own.
I received a Master Vintner kit (this is my first go at the hobby) for Christmas and on 4/26 I started my first batch of Pinot Grigio from a Master Vitner kit.
My questions revolve around the rack between secondary fermentation and bottling... the clearing rack?
Question 1:
I racked the wine into my Big Mouth Bubbler (6.5 gallon capacity) and had a lot of room in there. The instructions say to ensure that the carboy is full to within 2 inches of the airlock. It says to add a similar finished wine and not water. I read that some people use grape juice, some actually use water, some use wine from a previous batch, some use clear marbles. Unfortunately, I was mid-process before I realized that I needed something to fill that space. I ended up buying a 1.75ml bottle of Pinot from the store and it used it all. I'm a bit mad because there is so much wine that I didn't make in my batch now. Granted this kit isn't exactly an advanced kit, but now my batch has a decent amount of store bought wine.
TLDR: Should I buy marbles for future batches or can I rack into a 5 gallon carboy?
Question 2:
Question regards backsweetening
Yes, I know Pinot is pretty sweet as is, but I'm a tinkerer. If I wanted to backsweeten using wine conditioner would I do it at the bottling stage? My idea is to backsweeten a (2) 1/2 gallon growlers to experiment. Will that work?
Thanks in advance.
Noah
