Juice buckets

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harmony24

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How much air space is allowed? I bought 6 gallon juice buckets placed in 6 gallon carboys. There is some air space. Is that okay at first. 2nd question, should I have placed any other ingredients in or just the yeast. Buckets did not have pre- inoculated yeast.

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Completely okay to have that headspace while fermentation is going on. However, why primary ferment in carboys? Seems like it would be easier to just ferment them in the bucket that they arrived in, which are food safe. I would add a bit of nutrient as well, but other than that you should be fine. I might leave the airlock off until at least the yeast have started fermenting, few hours.
 
I was told to put in Carboy right away. Will that mess anything up. Starting to ferment already. How much yeast nutrient?
 
I don't understand why folks are told to ferment in a carboy. Yeast need oxygen, you eventually lose that in a carboy.

It's easier to stir in a bucket. If you "splash rack" I think it would be harder to do so from a carboy.

Depriving yeast of O2 will lead to problems.

Just sayin'
 
It is fine in the carboy, but you typically don't want to block out the oxygen before fermentation gets going. It will strain the yeast, if nothing else. It is definitely doable though. I would certainly add some nutrient, probably 1 T / gallon.
 
It is doable but it is chancey. I agree with what djrockinsteve said.
 
Should I just dump them back in the original primary's or just stir them every now and then?
 
Can someone walk me through the entire process with the juice buckets. I was told all I needed to do was get it home kill the wild yeast wait 24 hours. At 65 degrees pitch yeast. Place in Carboy same day and wait to rack. If you could place approx times to rack. Should I have added sugar to bring up the SG on the Ruby Cab. 1.092. I want at least 13% alcohol out of these.
 
Gosh, I had thought juice buckets were the easiest type of 'kit' wine you could make, but maybe that was just my perception. The way I see it, juice buckets that are pre-innoculated and balanced only need defrosting to get started. Ignoring for the moment that an experienced maker might want to adjust the sugar or acid levels or mess with the yeast, once they have defrosted, there is little to do except wait for fermentation to proceed and rack and then bottle. So, the process would be:
1. Bring juice bucket home and allow to defrost (I use the spare bathtub, but whatever) without transferring or doing anything but opening up the top
2. Fermentation begins (all by itself) after 1-2 days after the juice gets to ~75 degrees, maybe add nutrient but not really necessary
3. Rack to a carboy when the S.G. falls to ~1.000 to ~1.020, or lower/drier if you are like me
4. Add oak spirals to the carboy if desired, but that's per your taste and not required
5. Rack again in a couple months or so after sediment has dropped out
6. Either bulk age with a little k-meta in a carboy for a few more months, or bottle it and be done (should be around 4 months if no bulk aging)

I think the buckets are even easier than kits because you don't mess with adding water, bentonite, or yeast. And it's way simpler than fresh grapes. After you get it fermented and aging in the carboy, the process is really no different than a kit or grapes, I suppose.
 
Now that I re-read your post, your bucket apparently was not pre-innoculated with yeast? Or someone convinced you to try to kill that yeast and substitute a different kind? I would strongly discourage you from trying to kill the pre-innoculated yeast and substitute a different yeast only because of the difficulty of that task and the uncertainty of the result. Besides, it just won't make that big a difference, IMHO.
 
I respectfully disagree. Different yeasts can produce different results. Adding meta when you get the juice and your choice yeast the next day is a good way of doing it.
I personally do not add meta to new juice when I get it. I make a good yeast culture with Goferm and add that to room temperature juice. That will become the dominate yeast.

Bart I think they are talking about fresh juice pails from chili and CA. These do not come frozen.
 
Ok, here is my question. The yeast that is used to innoculated the juice buckets is normally Lavlin 1118. I know more times than not by the time I get home the lid is bulging and the juice is starting to ferment.

Is it really possible to stop an active fermentation when the yeast is lavlin 1118?
 
So he pretty clearly said that he did not have a pre-inoculated bucket. While he did say later that he was told he needed to kill the wild yeast, that doesn't change anything. However, there should be no need. Any juice bucket that isn't pre-inoculated and frozen is typically pasteurized before shipping. This process will already have killed any wild yeast present, letting you just make any TA/sugar corrections necessary and pitch your yeast. I've done one of these, and it works just fine.

As for the carboy, like I said, you are better off fermenting in a bucket. However, do not go and pour that into a bucket now. You are better off staying in the carboy now. Other people do fine in a carboy, and while I haven't done that, you should be fine. I splash rack out of carboys all the time, and see no issue there.
 
oops, I'm sorry for not reading that post by harmony24 more clearly. Yeah, he says he needs to kill the wild yeast, so clearly it was not pre-innoculated. Mea Culpa. Add k-meta to shock/kill the yeast and then pitch whatever yeast is desired. With Ruby Cab., I would use RC212 or something similar. I'm still unclear about the frozen/fresh juice question - he mentions pitching yeast when the temp. reaches 65 degrees - is that warming up or cooling down?

I guess I should also retract my claim that juice buckets are the easiest way to make wine - I am only familiar with MM's Chile Fresco that are balanced, pre-innoculated Chilean must, which come frozen in a reusable 7+ gal. fermenting bucket and defrost over a few days. *Those* are really easy - the type involved in this discussion, maybe not so much.
 
That's okay. This is my first time with the fresh juice buckets. They are not inoculated with wine yeast according to consumers produce. The buckets were in a cooler but not frozen. Just cold. I placed in the k-meta and 24 hours later pitched the yeast. Lalvin K1 - v1116. All purpose wine yeast. I also put in some yeast nutrient. The carboys are bubbling and foaming like crazy. Thanks all for the replies.
 
I just brought my buckets home from the strip in pgh. I have two buckets of regina red zinfandel. How long should I let it stay in the bucket before racking into carboy?
 

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