Total beginner

[WoolyBooger]

I am a homebrew guy, but I bought my wife a Riesling kit and corker for her birthday so that she can share the joys of making what you drink.

My questions: Can I use a 6.5 gallon glass
Carboy as a fermenter for a 6 gallon kit? I have never made wine and I don't know how active the fermentation will be. I plan on using a blowoff tube just in case. Will this work or do I absolutely need a larger fermentation vessel? Is there anything else I need to know prior to beginning?

 

[HBngNOK]

As a 3 kit "expert", I've used the 6+? gallon fermentation pail that came in my beer making kit for the wines I've made, and had no issues. The kits have fizzed like soda pop while fermenting, but made no krausen. Not exactly answering what you asked, just sharing my newbee wine making experiences...

Fred

 

[BainbridgeBrewer]

I've only done 1 kit so far. It was an Reisling Ice Wince kit. Like HBngNOK says, it fizzed like soda pop but no foam or krausen actually formed. I think you'll be just fine.

 

[davis119]

I am a homebrew guy, but I bought my wife a Riesling kit and corker for her birthday so that she can share the joys of making what you drink.

My questions: Can I use a 6.5 gallon glass
Carboy as a fermenter for a 6 gallon kit? I have never made wine and I don't know how active the fermentation will be. I plan on using a blowoff tube just in case. Will this work or do I absolutely need a larger fermentation vessel? Is there anything else I need to know prior to beginning?

I got my sis a reisling kit and used my home brew stuff. with no issue. There isn't a fermentation like beer. But ours didn't turn out very good. We still have alot left. I don't think I degassed enough. Id buy the degasser want thing that goes in a drill.

Good luck. Home u get to enjoy it in 4months lol

 

[ACbrewer]

6.5 for primary? or secondary/bright tank? for a primary you should be ok. Wine (especially kits) has a lot less foaming than beer. A blowoff is still a good idea.

For the secondarying that it will require, you want a carboy the same size as the batch as you will be leaving the wine without any protective CO2 blankent and expose it to air (o2) if you follow the directions.

Open up the wine kit box and read the instructions.

 

[BainbridgeBrewer]

The kit I made was only a 3 gallon kit. For primary and secondary I used my 5 gallon carboy. After the primary and degassing I shot some C02 into the carboy to purge out as much oxygen before putting the airlock back on. If you have kegging supplies you could go that route.

 

[WoolyBooger]

Thanks for the quick responses. We will be brewing this weekend. For the secondary, I was planning on just transferring to my bottling bucket, cleaning and sanitizing my Carboy, and racking back into the 6.5 gallon Carboy. Would I be better off racking to my 5 gallon Carboy and putting the rest in a sanitized gallon jug?

 

[davis119]

Thanks for the quick responses. We will be brewing this weekend. For the secondary, I was planning on just transferring to my bottling bucket, cleaning and sanitizing my Carboy, and racking back into the 6.5 gallon Carboy. Would I be better off racking to my 5 gallon Carboy and putting the rest in a sanitized gallon jug?

I used my 6gl car boy. But mine wasn't that good.....
have u read the directions?
I feel u may be disappointed by the process. . I was.
There is no "brewing " involved
add juice add water add something else then forget about it.

II know that's not helpful. Just a heads up

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the quick responses. We will be brewing this weekend. For the secondary, I was planning on just transferring to my bottling bucket, cleaning and sanitizing my Carboy, and racking back into the 6.5 gallon Carboy. Would I be better off racking to my 5 gallon Carboy and putting the rest in a sanitized gallon jug?

It's not in the secondary very long, and you degas after you rack, so it might be ok. For a good quality (expensive) it, I'd probably err on the side of caution and either get a 6 gallon carboy for secondary, or use the 5 gallon + one gallon jug. That would make it hard for degassing, though.

 

[markm2151]

I've made about 10 wine kits so I'll throw some of me knowledge in here.

Get yourself one of these plastic buckets:

The one on the right. It's essentially an over sized paint bucket, holds about 7-8 gallons.

For this first kit, a Riesling is not going to ferment that actively, but if you plan on doing red wine kits, I absolutely recommend the white plastic bucket for a few reasons.

During fermentation, all those hungry yeasts need oxygen. If you use a 6.5 gallon class carboy you're drastically reducing the amount of oxygen that can get into the wine. During fermentation, oxygen is your friend. Usually once a day for the first few days I will actually take a big cooking spoon and stir the fermenting must to get more oxygen to the yeast.

Second, cleaning a plastic bucket with the huge opening on top is drastically easier then cleaning the "gunk" out of a 6.5 gal glass carboy.

Finally, if you move to red kits, whole juice kits, juice kits with skins, or ever plan to ferment on oak, the head of the fermenting must can get quite large and active.

For your first kit you should be fine with the glass carboy as your primary fermentation vessel. Make sure you have a blow off value, don't put an airlock on it, you don't need it until secondary fermentation. But if you plan on doing more kits, get the plastic bucket.

Mark

 

[ACbrewer]

OP - if you can get a 6 gal carboy/better bottle for the 2ndary/brightening/clearifying stage, I'd rocomend it. If you can't you have 2 options - 1 split the batch as you've described. Option 2 is 'topping off' It is done through either filling with good clean water til you get to the neck, OR taking similar wine to what you are making and filling with that. Obviously .5 gallon of wine is like 2.5 bottles, so maybe water would be better - yes your wine will be a bit weaker, but it is valid.