Recent content by chonn

@sour_grapes The problem is not how to fill the head space with Argon - various ways and you can achieve it with care and attention--that is not the hard part. The hard part is: after sealing it up how can you be certain over 60-90 days of bulk aging that you don't have some pinhole leak in...

See: https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/what-is-the-correct-way-to-displace-ambient-air-from-headspace.75621/ I am managing headspace in stainless steel containers by displacing all of the headspace with Argon. But....how to measure or monitor the integrity of that argon over 60-90 days...

@sour_grapes that was my suspicion--makes sense. So if Argon will dissolve into the wine now the question is "how much". I've decided to overpressure my vessel just about 1 PSI --- maybe 0.75 psi. Compare that to filling a bottle neck with Argon and then jamming a plastic cork in -- that...

Many, many sources confirm that "argon does not dissolve into wine". .....but what if I pressurize it ? If I fill the headspace of a vessel with argon at a very very modest positive pressure --such as 2 psi-- will that change this assumption and cause my argon to dissolve into the wine ? In a...

@Cap Puncher - thanks for that description. I bottled yesterday and I loaded the bottle into the bottler *first*, then used my bottle sparger *through* the top of the bottler and dumped in argon and then QUICKDROPINTHECORKANDPLUNGE. I think I like your method slightly more and may try that...

No, not holes poked *into* the cork, but alongside the cork ... so no puncturing involved. There are other tools (commercial single-glass-serving for restaurants) that do a needle alongside the cork and it sounds like it works well.

OK so actually ... the answer here is probably the same as the answer in my other thread about headspace in big containers ... and would require needles ... So I would cork, then immediately insert a flowing co2 needle on the edge of the cork, then insert a second needle on the opposite edge of...

Well, I don't need to go so far as barring the long-term aging process of oxygen flow through the cork ... I am just talking about the 2 inches of headspace just prior to inserting the cork. I'm a smart and creative person and I cannot see an effective, repeatable process for removing that...

Bottle sparging seems easy - I have the air wand, you fill the bottle with co2 and then immediately fill with wine. But I don't understand how to effectively, with a real, repeatable process, displace the headspace in the bottle just prior to cork insertion. Commercial bottlers do this in a...

My conclusion (I'm the OP) is as follows: 1. Liberally pour in co2 (or Argon) through the bunghole like I always have 2. Quick, slam in a stopper that has TWO holes - one of which is pre-plumbed with a second co2 tank that is ALREADY FLOWING ... and continue to overflow co2 out the other hole...

For a doofus like me, what does 0.01% of an atmosphere translate to in inches mercury ? I'm at sea level if that matters ... obviously a rough number is fine since here I am in my barn ...

We crush into two of them and do primary in those two. Then we press off the skins into one of them and do ML in that one. Then we rack back and forth and clarify, etc., and finally bulk-age in it. I have four of them - two are just pots, basically, and two of them are ported at the bottom...

OK, many interesting responses - thank you. First of all, the containers I use are these stainless steel primary fermenters: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018J82JOY/ They are 14 gallons in size. There are not 11 or 12 or 13 or 13.5 gallon sizes so no matter what I am going to have 1 or...

I wouldn't ask this question if I was using a carboy and had a few inches of headspace ... I am asking because I often find myself with a 14 gallon stainless container with, say, 2-3 gallons of headspace in it. That is a TON of headspace. The way I manage this, currently, is I pour high-flow...

See, that's exactly what I thought. I liked the co2 dissolved in the wine and thought it was protecting it from oxygen, etc. But then I read (reddit ?) that dissolved co2 keeps particulates or super fine debris in suspension and you can't fully clear the wine while it is still fizzy. So that...