I have 12 gallons of wine in a 14 gallon stainless fermenter - just did the third racking.
So that's a lot of headspace ...
I very, very liberally poured in A TON of co2 - like it was pouring out the bunghole like a witches cauldron then I quick slid on a bung with a valve and then pulled something like 5" hg vacuum.
Why did I do this ?
I think there is still a bit of fizz/co2 in my wine and since I can't possibly get a totally perfect 100% headspace displacement of ambient air with my co2, why not suck some of the headspace back out and let it fill with the last bits of co2 from the wine ... not only do I get the last bit of co2 out of solution BUT I also improve my oxygen situation (if only slightly).
BUT WHAT actually happened is that I pulled 5" hg vacuum, then came back later that day to find it at roughly 10" vacuum and now it's at something like 12 ...
Here is what I think:
- High flow co2 straight from the bottle must be "hot" and when you fill up a space with it and walk away, it must "cool" and reduce in volume.
- My wine was probably 55-ish degrees when I did this and temps dropped a bit in the barn and it is something like 50-ish degrees now.
So ... I think it's just a volume/temp/contraction issue and my 5" vacuum just turned itself into a 12" vacuum.
Do I care ?
Can I just leave it here for another two months with a vacuum that fluctuates on temperature and when the wine temp rises enough I will probably bubble out the last bit of co2 and re-fill that space and ... ?
Comments appreciated ... thank you.
So that's a lot of headspace ...
I very, very liberally poured in A TON of co2 - like it was pouring out the bunghole like a witches cauldron then I quick slid on a bung with a valve and then pulled something like 5" hg vacuum.
Why did I do this ?
I think there is still a bit of fizz/co2 in my wine and since I can't possibly get a totally perfect 100% headspace displacement of ambient air with my co2, why not suck some of the headspace back out and let it fill with the last bits of co2 from the wine ... not only do I get the last bit of co2 out of solution BUT I also improve my oxygen situation (if only slightly).
BUT WHAT actually happened is that I pulled 5" hg vacuum, then came back later that day to find it at roughly 10" vacuum and now it's at something like 12 ...
Here is what I think:
- High flow co2 straight from the bottle must be "hot" and when you fill up a space with it and walk away, it must "cool" and reduce in volume.
- My wine was probably 55-ish degrees when I did this and temps dropped a bit in the barn and it is something like 50-ish degrees now.
So ... I think it's just a volume/temp/contraction issue and my 5" vacuum just turned itself into a 12" vacuum.
Do I care ?
Can I just leave it here for another two months with a vacuum that fluctuates on temperature and when the wine temp rises enough I will probably bubble out the last bit of co2 and re-fill that space and ... ?
Comments appreciated ... thank you.
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