[Sirthomas42]

... but as a newbie winemaker (1 year now, woo!), I think I invented a cool technique. I was making a batch of Cyser, and I had 8 gallons of apple juice, but my primary bucket would only hold 6 gallons (accounting for foam). All my other vessels were full, so I couldn't just make 2 4-gallon batches.

So I mixed up a 6 gallon batch of Cyser and took very precise notes on how much of each ingredient I added. I staggered the nutrient additions, but when I went to add the 3rd nutrient addition at around 1.050 (OG of 1.108), I racked 2 gallons out of the bucket and into 1-gallon jugs. I then poured 1 1/2 gallons of my remaining juice into the 6-gallon bucket. I mixed in 1/3 of the original ingredients (3 lbs honey instead of 9, and 10oz brown sugar instead of 32oz) into the half-gallon of juice left in the jug. I shook the hell out of it to mix, and poured it into the 6 gallon bucket. That way, I didn't have to worry about any gravity changes, as what I poured in was identical to the original must!

It worked beautifully. The bucket with it's new ingredients fermented dry, as did the 2 1 gallon jugs. I racked into a 5 gallon carboy and 1 gallon jug, and now I have a total of 8 gallons of dry cyser clearing! Veterans might say "duh, I do that all the time", but I felt pretty clever figuring it out to make an 8 gallon batch in a 6 gallon bucket.

[WVMountaineerJack]

Its time you got yourself some 10 gallon Brute trash cans, food grade plastic and easy to take care of, then you can move upwards to the 20 or even bigger as you get more fruit But beware, once you start ramping up the size of your primary there really is no limit!

Crackedcork