Temporary headspace

[Gerry Nobody]

Hi! So I am making some wine from pumpkins, never tried wine before (have made cider before) but I'm wondering something. The plan is to rack the wine in about a month from the smaller 10 litre carboy, temporarily into the large 25 litre one. I've heard that a lot of headspace isn't good for wine but will it be okay temporarily while I dispose of the sediment and clean the smaller bottle, and then siphon it back in? Probably just like half an hour or so. Can't do much harm can it?

 

[bernardsmith]

Cannot imagine that 30 minutes will do any harm. Indeed, many seasoned wine makers use buckets and barrels to ferment their wines and only after active fermentation has ended (or is very close to ending ) will they transfer their wine to a carboy and bang home a bung and airlock. With fruit, you want to be able to punch down the cap that forms and with many wines you want to be able to degas and perhaps add nutrients on a regular basis and fermenting in a carboy does not make either of these tasks easier AND can result in volcanoes of fruit and liquid painting your ceiling if you add powders to liquids saturated with CO2 in a container with a narrow neck capable of rifling the liquid that is projected in front of the column of gas.

 

[Gerry Nobody]

Thanks, seems safe enough. Yes I had it in a big bucket the first 4 days then put it in the carboy, bubbling away nicely by the looks of it. Fingers crossed!

 

[MountainHighYeast]

Thanks, seems safe enough. Yes I had it in a big bucket the first 4 days then put it in the carboy, bubbling away nicely by the looks of it. Fingers crossed!

Do you have the recipe handy? I'm curious. My dad grows pumpkins to shoot as target practice, maybe he would give me one.

 

[Gerry Nobody]

I followed this, not to the letter but more or less:
https://moonshiners.club/pumpkin-wine-recipe/