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Thank you all for the suggestions. This is how it turned out. I found that while under vacuum, if I agitated the carboy by sort of getting the wine to splash around, it would make several inches of foam. In the end I think I may have been just making foam and not seeing escaping co2. I had to go...

I bought a super heavy duty vacuum pump on ebay, but I dont have the time to figure out how to wire it up properly right now(actually I did try and made a small electrical explosion), so I bought the hand vacuum pump that someone suggested on here from harborfreight. I racked the 5 gallon carboy...

Brian- thanks for the advice. What are your thoughts on moving the carboys upstairs into the warmer temps now that they have been stored at 60 degrees for 2+ months now? Would there be any living yeast left to keep the fermentation going at this point? Also, I really never let my house get above...

Last year I made a cab sav and a Barbera. I let them ferment for a few months then I put them in my garage where they were around 27 degrees F for a few weeks. I thought that would kill any residual live yeast and make it so I didnt need to add sulfur or any chemicals. However some of the...

Fermtech Auto-Siphon is the one I am talking about. I want to rack my wines in the next couple of days, and I wont get one in the mail quick enough. This is why I am trying to come up with an alternative, and I like the idea of making something myself. That's kind of the whole reason behind...

I need to rack my wines, and I always hate starting the siphon. I have been rinsing with mouthwash, and then using a 4" piece of rigid tube inserted into the flexible tube. I then pull onto the rigid tube and when the wine is racing down I unplug the rigid tube from the flexible tube and then...

I got you all beat! I was just given a few bottles of spirits that a guy I know distilled from wine! He took this stuff all the way to 194 proof! And it actually tastes great, has a distinctive aftertaste of grapes. This is some serious airlock juice!(and a tad flammable!)

I guess because of the temperature dropping in the wine it reduces the volume of liquid. I would have to assume this has something to do with the alcohol content. When I moved the carboys from a 70 degree room to a 60 degree room I lost approx 1" inch plus a little off the level in the neck of...

If you cold stabilize in a carboy be aware that the "size" of the wine will be reduced pretty dramatically. Last year I put my carboys in my garage that remained around 30 degrees for a few weeks. It actually sucked the airlocks contents into the wine, and still there were several inches of...

My other questions are how far below the rubber stopper should I bring the level up to? and do you guys use anything to displace the oxygen that will inevitably enter the carboy when I remove the airlock? I know there are cans of gas for this, I was even thinking about running a tube from the...

I have thought about that, but what do you do when you pour off only 10 or so ounces off of that gallon? Dont you need a continual supply of wine to keep topping off the carboys? This year I am going to leave one of the cab carboys for a lot longer before bottling it. Hopefully I can wait a...

I am making 12 gallons of cab, 6 of merlot, and 6 of pinot noir. Thanks for the input, perhaps I will grab a few bottle of Mondavi for the top ups.

This is my second year of making wines. I of course have suffered from the addiction and that entailed doubling the amount of carboys(now 4)this year, and adding a new varietal. My primary fermentation this year happened in only about 4-5 days, which I understand is within acceptable limits. My...