Blackberry Top Up?

[LanMan]

I have 5 gallons of blackberry wine in a 6 gallon secondary. It will need racking soon and all I have are 6 gallon carboys. What would be a good choice of store bought wine to top up with? I would like to do it with something kinda cheap as I am on a pretty tight budget right now. Mabye a box wine or something similar?

 

[BobF]

For the price of a gallon's worth of wine worthy of topping up, you could get a 5g carboy ... and one bottle of top-up wine.

OK, maybe a little bit more, but you'll have a 5g carboy for the next nnn batches!!

 

[LanMan]

I know but the wife said and I quote,"You can't buy any more equipment till you build a room on the house to put all your sh!t in."
I guess I have too much stuff

 

[BobF]

Have you started the foundation yet?

1g into 5 *is* going to influence the final result. Thinking along the lines of IM kits, you could use a Cab Sauv or a Merlot and get good results. The diff will be that these wines will be higher in tannin and oak, so the aging process may be longer ...

Something I have done with good results ... if your BB hasn't been stabalized yet, start another 1g+ batch with 1118. When this batch slows and settles a bit (maybe a week), top up the 6g with it and put the leftover in a smaller bottle/jug for topping up later. Maybe even a 2g batch so you can have plenty of top-up for future rackings. This will extend the overall timeline for your batch, but it works.

 

[Rocky]

Blackberry-Merlot is a great wine. I would get a gallon of Carlo Rossi Merlot and top up with that.

 

[LanMan]

Bob, I hadent even thought of making my own top up wine. Good Idea.

Rocky, also a good sugestion. I can get that at the local liquor store in town.

Now I have to decide what to do as they will both cast about the same

 

[LanMan]

I have decided to go with the merlot due to lack of time and its just easier to top up instead of doing a wholenother ferment.

 

[BobF]

I bet Merlot and BB are a great combination!

 

[CowboyPhil]

Couldn't he use Dry ice to fill the void with CO2, beginner here. I did that on 3 gallons in a 6 gallon carboy and had no issues.

 

[LanMan]

So my wine has been topped up and I am almost ready to bottle.

One small problem. I can't remember if I stabilized or not. I think I did so I made up a syurp with a cup of sugar and have not seen any signs of reactivated fermentation.
I guess my real question is should I re-stabilize or sweeten and let it sit for another month to make sure?

Thanks
Chris

 

[Arne]

Think I would let it sit for a while longer. Check your S.G. and let it sit for a couple of weeks and check it again. If it stays the same, you are probably ok. One thing I do to help avoid this is I have a fairly wide roll of masking tape on my wine bench. When Irack to secondary, I tear a foot or so off the roll, write on it what the wine is, date, when racked, and as I do other things like sorbate, sulfite, rack, fine, sweeten, just write it on the tape. My memory is really short, but when written down, I know what I have already done. Arne.

 

[LanMan]

This is an exelent idea. Easy cleanup as well. I'm going to start doing this.
Thanks Arne.

-Chris

 

[corntassel]

I keep a wine log that way I can keep a detailed record of every thing I have done to the wine that way if I decide to do this tipe of wine again I can duplicate it or tweek it as needed. I do use tape on carboy to identify what is in the carboy. With a wine log I can go back several years and see how a certain wine was made and tasted.