Other Argentia Ridge (costco)

[Tall Grass]

Hey guys, this is the first kit I've tried and trying to make sure I get it right. I did as the instructions said and siphoned the wine into a carboy on day 7 and what I'm supposed to do now is leave it for 11 days.. Here's what it says

"Fit the fermentation lock (half-filled with water) and stopper into the neck of the carboy. Place the carboy on a table or counter. Leave for 11 days until all fermentation is over and the Specific Gravity is .996 to .990"

Okay.. two issues here.. 1) it's been three days since I did this and fermentation is nearly done.... 2) and it's not topped up (instructions explicitly say do not top up.)

The airlock is blubbing once every 30 - 40 seconds... getting very slow.

I'm a little worried with all of the airspace in there..... Should I just wait the 11 days or move to the next step in the instructions ?

 

[cpfan]

To really answer your question it would be nice to see how full the carboy is.

However, I would probably wait out the time. The airspace is probably full of the CO2 that came out of the wine, and everything should be good.

Steve

 

[Tall Grass]

 

[cpfan]

BIG OUCH. Do you know what size carboy that is? Because it should be fuller than that. That will require a LOT of topping up.

Steve

 

[Tall Grass]

Ya, it's 23 litres... what's really strange is that the plastic primary was filled up to 23 litres and what's in the carboy is all that I could siphon from the bucket (there was a little leftover but not much.) Here's a picture of the actual instructions,

 

[Wade E]

Do you have any liquor stores that sell the wine preservative (gas in a can)? you can spray some of that in there every time you open it to push out the replace the 02. Its either that or buy some commercial wine. Do Not use water to displace that missing volume!

 

[cpfan]

TG:

I am not one to over top-up my wines (some folks go 1-2" below the bung), but that drawing shows the level lower than I like.

Steve

 

[Tall Grass]

Topping it off with a commercial wine is probably the wisest thing to do.... but, one of the reasons I make wine on my own is due to the cost of wine in this province of Canada... I think I'll buy a 750ml bottle of french red and top the rest off with water. (if I bought a 1.5 ltr bottle it would cost me $15 ... so...)

I have one more wine kit of the same kind... next time I will go above the 23 ltr level in the plastic primary to try to make up the difference, so there isn't so much headspace.

 

[surlees]

T.G.,

Don't go above 23l. on your next kit. If you do, you'll dilute your wine and dilute the wine's sugar so that you may have a problem with it fermenting.

I'm thinking on this first one you may have left behind too much wine in an effort to rack it off the lees clean. Don't worry if some of the lees carry over from the primary. Try to get the volume up at least above the carboy's shoulder. The higher the better, but as Steve says CO2 will prevent oxidation as long as it's above the carboy shoulder.

Fred

 

[Tall Grass]

That's the thing that gets me ... I didn't leave much liquid in that bucket. There was a little bit, but I tied up a piece of nylon panty hose on the end; to filter out the nasties....

I stuck the end of the siphon rack right into the bottom of the liquid until it started gurgling..

It has me wondering how much water can 500g of oak chips absorb ? (i'm not a big fan of putting oak chips into the primary but thats what the instructions say.....)

 

[Tall Grass]

Don't go above 23l. on your next kit. If you do, you'll dilute your wine and dilute the wine's sugar so that you may have a problem with it fermenting.

I was thinking that if I did go over the 23L mark I would add sugar, stir it up and remeasure until I found a level that would make up for the addition of water later on....

but .. in a way, this discussion shouldn't even be happening... the company that made this kit should have seen this coming. Weird.

 

[surlees]

Maybe you were supposed to rack the oak chips over with the wine. What do the instructions say? If so, that could account for some of your low volume.

Fred

 

[Wade E]

Its probably the fact that all 6 gallon carboys arent 6 gallons and are all different. Ive seen some that were almost 1/2 gallon more and Im not talking about the 6 1/2 gallon carboys!

 

[Tall Grass]

Later tonight I'll measure the exact level to the neck the of the carboys I'm using... just to make sure that it's 23L .... *laugh*

I've measured the plastic buckets to the exact point where 23L is but not the carboys..... Hmmmm, this has me wondering..

 

[Tall Grass]

Maybe you were supposed to rack the oak chips over with the wine. What do the instructions say? If so, that could account for some of your low volume.

No, the instructions actually mention that you might wrap the end of the siphoning cane with a piece of panty hose to prevent chips from going into the carboy (which I did.) Nothing in the second or third step says anything about the chips.. (and the way they are worded it assumes there are none.)


I made a youtube video while opening one of these kits... if you're bored and need time to waste, [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFJllYwX5uI[/ame] ..

 

[Tom]

If there "threads" on the top then its a 6 1/2 gallon 25 ltr

 

[Tall Grass]

No threads on these carboys.

 

[Tom]

Then its 23 ltr
If it has smooth sides then its from Mexico. If there are ridges then its from Italy. One has about 12 oz more than the other

 

[upper]

Have you guys lost your Marbels?......Upper

 

[cpfan]

Never had any to start with.

Do you know how many marbles it would take to top up that carboy?