Topping up with more juice

[karrlot]

This is my first batch of wine. I am making chokecherry wine. I started in a bucket with about 20 lbs of fruit and about 4 gallons of water. My SG dropped from 1.085 down to 1.002. I racked it to a 5 gallon carboy. There is probably room for another 1/2 - 3/4 gallon.

I have some frozen chokecherry juice. Should I add that and some sugar water to the carboy so I can get the level of wine up to the neck of the carboy? I don't have access to enough marbles to get the wine up that high.

 

[dr_al]

feel free to top up with juice, it will keep on fermenting.

i prefer juice over water especially with that much space it will thin things out way to much if you use water.

 

[karrlot]

Thanks for your help!

I added 9 cups of juice (that's all I had), 2 quarts of water, and 4 cups of sugar (that was just a WAG).

Do I need to add more pectic enzyme or acid blend? If so, how much?

 

[dr_al]

taste test it later and adjust acid, you could add pectic enzyme it may help it may not, i would add it and give it time if all else fails.

 

[amandabab]

white wine always makes a good neutral top-up media.
cycle a couple batches into your pipeline.