Wine Noob, looking for advice

[brew2enjoy]

Long story short, SWMBO talked me into doing a wine kit for her. Picked up a Pomegranate Zinfendel at the brew shop. I noticed that the batch is 6 gallons, am I safe to ferment in one of my beer buckets, or my 6 gal better bottle? I'm not sure if wine forms krausen like beer does. I have done Edworts Apfelwein and it didn't foam up at all. Also, the directions say to transfer to secondary, is this necessary? Any other tips would be greatly appreciated. I plan to make it this weekend, she has been bugging me

 

[Ncawley]

In my experience,(not that much), it has a pretty high krausen on it. Gets active as hell! You might b ok, but don't be surprised if ur airlock gets clogged.

 

[damdaman]

None of my wine batches ever foam up. I think it depends on the yeast type though.

Racking to secondary is absolutely necessary, and subsequent rackings may be as well. This is to clear the wine, and let it bulk age.

 

[Hummer]

Most all wine kits are 6 gallons. All the beer buckets I have are 6.5 gal to the top which will probably work for your kit but you'll have to watch it closely. Measure your bucket with a measuring pitcher or gallon jug. If it's 6.5, try it, and if it foams up, be prepared to transfer some of the must to a 1/2 gal. growler or 1 gal. glass jug with an airlock.

It's very useful to have larger fermenter buckets, especially if you get into fermenting high end kits with grape packs, fresh wine grapes or other fruits. Most LHBS have food grade plastic barrels in 10, 12, 20, and 32 gallon sizes, and it works just fine to ferment 6 or 6.5 gallon batches in a 10 or 12 gal barrel. You can also use them for beer, and even do double batches. It eliminates much of the problem of foaming over.

I have several 6.5 gal. brew buckets, a couple 12 gal., six 10 gal. Brute barrels (which are my favorite), and two 55 gal. barrels for fermenting. During fall harvest, we often have all in use at once.

Here are some apple cider based wines in 10 gal. Brute barrels, cranberry apple in back. dry apple, spiced apple and some cran-apple syrah.

Having various sizes of primary fermenters and carboys will give you a lot of flexibility.

 

[Yooper]

An "ale pail" is fine for primary, but you need a 6 gallon carboy for secondary. You can start the kit in the bucket, and then rack to the 6 gallon when the directions state.

Secondary is required for wines, plus you degas and clarify in the carboy.

 

[JimBrewer]

In my experience, the wine doesn't foam up as much so you should be alright. My beer buckets are usually just a bit bigger than my wine ones, but you may have to keep an eye on your experiment and be prepared to transfer the product if there is any overflow.

Eventually you will want to invest in some larger buckets, but for your purposes, you should be alright with what you have. It's fine to ferment smaller portions in larger kits, but the key is to make sure you have enough room. I haven't tried your current configuration but those ingredients sound like they won't produce enough krausen to be a problem.

I started with beer so I have mostly 6.5 gallon buckets, but if my calculations are correct, the 6 gallon should be just perfect for wine. Just keep an eye on it and keep track of how your mixture behaves.

Cheers!