Racking Wine Question

[Jsbeckton]

I am a long time brewer with just a couple of 1G wine kits under my belt and would like to try a WineExpert trinity red 6G batch next. My question has to do with equipment as I have two ~7G car boys that are great for beer but apparently not so much for wine. If I go buy a 6G carboy for wine that will still leave me with only the one properly sized carboy so once it's in there I can't move it anywhere without moving it twice to allow me to clean out the carboy and move it back.

I plan to primary in buckets until fermentation is mellow and then move to the 6G carboy at about 1.010 or so and then not bottle until after 90 days. Is that too long to leave on the lees and if so does anyone else rack twice to use the same vessel? I do have CO2 so I can try to keep exposure to air at a minimum.

I guess another option would be to split between a 1G and 5G carboy which I also have.

Thoughts?

 

[lukebuz]

Do you backfill with water to get 6Gallons? If so, just fill to 5 gallons. Or, make all 6, 5+1...and use the 1 for topping off. Otherwise, don't stress about xfer into a bucket mid transfer, it won't hurt it. If you aren't stupid, 10 mins in a bucket won't ruin wine.

 

[DoctorCAD]

90 days is right about the time to rack, either to bottle or to sit another 90 days.

Id vote for 90 more days, you will be suprised how much clearer the winw will be, and hit the wine with k-meta at racking to protect it from oxygen, then no worries about transferring to bucket and back to carboy.

 

[Jsbeckton]

Thanks for the tips. Would it be ok to do the primary fermentation in the 7G carboy as long as I leave the airlock off or is it still better to do that in a bucket?

 

[Chef-Ryan]

Here is where american brewers will hate me.. i speak in litres. For white ferments you use 1L to ferment .85L of juice.. i guess that would translate to 1Gallon carboy can ferment 0.85Gallon with 0 problems. reds you need a bunch more space because of cap management. that being said my math is often based on tonnes of grapes, and I'm just getting coffee into my system.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Thanks for the tips. Would it be ok to do the primary fermentation in the 7G carboy as long as I leave the airlock off or is it still better to do that in a bucket?

A 7 gallon carboy for primary SHOULD be OK, but to be safe, put the carboy somewhere that you can catch any overflow of foam. Some ferments will be gentle and some will be violent, its hard to say which yours will be. No airlock!!!!!

Personally, I have done primary in both, and prefer the bucket just for ease of stirring and cleaning and watching, etc.

 

[mrchaos101]

Thanks for the tips. Would it be ok to do the primary fermentation in the 7G carboy as long as I leave the airlock off or is it still better to do that in a bucket?

I have done this with no problem (if you must). Just use a clean long spoon and get air into it.. mix up good. Yeast needs O2....is why a lot of us do it in a bucket and just cover with a cloth. Bucket I think would be best but use what ya got.

 

[ACbrewer]

I'm guessing this is a juice kit, and not grapes? If it is juice, you can use the carboy, but the bucket is probably better, although how big is the bucket? at least 7g?

if it is grapes/fruit use the bucket as mrchaos pointed out stiring in O2, plus you have to get fruit in and out.

I've done the 1gal/5gal split for a wine, actually it was a 1.5L and 2.8g split for a 3gal ice wine, but same idea. just brought them back together for bottling. The ice-wine turned out hot, but that seems to have been an issue before the splitting iirc.

I think Yooper says "60 days or 1/4 inch of sediment which ever comes first" as a rule of thumb for racking the wine. Since I normally make 'short time' wines, I don't know.

 

[Jsbeckton]

Yeah, I have a ale pale which is only 6G so I would prob just split between two Home Depot buckets. I racked to carboy a after 5-6 days when the wines was at 1.018 and 5 days later there is already a good 1/2" sediment so I guess it's already time to rack again?

This was a kit, not fresh juice.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Don't over-rack...that 1/2" of lees will compact itself into a 1/8" pile before long.