Secondary needed for juice wines?

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mstef

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Hey,

I clearly still have a lot to learn. I've done two wines so far: Apfelwein which turned out great (luck, I guess), and some grape-cranberry disaster.

I'm continuing to read and learn, trying to get better (thanks mostly to you guys).. my "kit" is a bit lacking, as I only have a 5-gal better bottle (w/ stopper and airlock) for fermenting. There's always mention of moving to a secondary, racking, etc. Since, for now, I'm only dealing with fermenting juices that are store-bought (no actual fruit, grapes, kits, etc), to keep things simple, I've just been using the one better bottle.

So, for recipes like these, do you think using a secondary is worth it? Should I just go ahead and buy something? And if so, what should I get; another 5gal better bottle? Or should I use a pail, or something else? I already have the stopper and airlock for the better bottle, so maybe that should be the secondary? Ah..what do I know?

I'm guessing this would help with a problem I had - having sediment start to build up at the bottom of the 3 and 4 liter glass bottles I use to bottle the wine in (Carlo Rossi bottles, mostly).

Sorry for such a newb question..

Thanks!
 
I was thinking to use this for the primary:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/6-5-gallon-plastic-fermenter-with-lid.html

That way, it's wide open so it's much easier to stir. I can cover either the entire opening or the opening on the lid with a paper towel (or whatever) during primary fermentation, then transfer over to the better bottle for secondary with the stopper and airlock I have.

Also, since it's 6.5 gallons, I can make 5.5-6 gallons in the primary, and when I move to secondary, I won't have any extra headspace.

??
 
That bucket is fine for a primary, almost anything will work I see alot of people just use trash cans (new of course). It would be a good idea to get another Carboy to rack your wine in. This helps with clarity and off flavors that can come from sitting on the lease. If you had to you could rack from the Carboy back to your bucket, clean your Carboy, then back to the Carboy.
If you get a brew bucket make sure it has a spout at the bottom this can be very handy later. Often you can back sweeten in these buckets more easily and bottle straight from the spout.
 
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