Dandelion wine, Carboy isn't full.

[jdriver84]

I made a batch which was supposed to work out to 5 gallons. After the SG reaching 1.04 as recommended by my recipe I syphoned the wine off the sediment into my secondary, however the carboy is not full. it looks as though I'm roughly 1/2 a gallon off from full. The level comesup to about an inch below the point in which the carboy begins to taper off. SG is 1.04 at this moment. Is it safe to top off with more water at this point? I have read that a carboy not filled can cause oxidization of the wine and it should be kept full. I've also read that it could be preferable to top off with a similar wine, however with the dandelion, i'm not sure what would be the best choice. Any suggestions?

 

[sly22guy]

you could use a white table wine, or use smaller carboy. its not critical at this point to top up since it is still going (sg is above 1.000) but i would top up before too long.

 

[Deezil]

If the SG is 1.040, then you should still be looking at a rocking fermentation and a full carboy would be a bad thing. Remember making a volcano, in school? You'd be in for the "grown up" version and I bet it would be the first time you'd ever have thought you'd be mopping your ceiling.

Now, if you're talking 1.004, and fermentation is basically through (a tad early), then you could put an airlock on top. Either way, the wine still contains enough Co2 to protect itself for a while (until you de-gas it). Oxidation is more of a long-term fear with wines that are being bulk-aged.

Instead of worrying about topping off that 5-gallon, i would instead invest in some 1-gallon jugs, bungs and airlocks. Transfer into the 1-gallons and then start another batch in your primary fermentor and attempt to fill that 5-gallon carboy up again

Food for thought..

 

[Amber]

Doing a dandelion too, only could handle pulling out enough for a gallon. Interested to hear what happens with yours. I am sure the dandelions here would cooperate for another gallon or two!

 

[deboard]

A while back someone suggested using glass marbles in the carboy to bring the liquid level up without having to add another wine or water. Seems like it would work great, just a little bit more cleanup work when all is said and done.

I've learned (mostly from this forum) though that a 5 gallon recipe will probably yield more like 4, maybe 4.5 gallons of wine. So I always plan for a little extra for top-up later, and keep those in smaller containers such as 1 gallon carboys, 1.5L wine bottles, 750ml wine bottles, and even 375ml wine bottles.

 

[jdriver84]

Well, i was talking to a friend later the night of the post before anyone had responded, and he said that he usually just topped it off with water and didn't have any problems. So that's what I did. Kind of wish i would have just used white table wine now, but I don't think it'll hurt things too badly. I guess I'll just have to see now. I'm sure it will water things down a bit, but it was only about a half gallon into about 4 1/2 so I can't see it being that terrible an adjustment. Only time will tell now.


I'm slowly picking enough dandelions to do another batch. I'll be adjusting the recipe to 6 gallons this time though. I think I'l aim high for all my batchs in the future, just to avoid this issue again. I guess I will have a bit of a comparison to do at some point in the future between these two to see just how bady things did get watered down.

 

[jet]

A while back someone suggested using glass marbles in the carboy to bring the liquid level up without having to add another wine or water. Seems like it would work great, just a little bit more cleanup work when all is said and done.

I've learned (mostly from this forum) though that a 5 gallon recipe will probably yield more like 4, maybe 4.5 gallons of wine. So I always plan for a little extra for top-up later, and keep those in smaller containers such as 1 gallon carboys, 1.5L wine bottles, 750ml wine bottles, and even 375ml wine bottles.

I've used marbles, and I consider less than ideal prior to bulk aging. When the wine is still throwing sediment, it will collect on top of the marbles. When you rack the wine, you either leave a lot behind or siphon more sediment.

I agree about various sized containers, and I even go down to 187mL. When all else fails, open a bottle from last season.

 

[deboard]

I've used marbles, and I consider less than ideal prior to bulk aging. When the wine is still throwing sediment, it will collect on top of the marbles. When you rack the wine, you either leave a lot behind or siphon more sediment.

I agree about various sized containers, and I even go down to 187mL. When all else fails, open a bottle from last season.

I'd agree with you on the sediment, it would work better on a mostly cleared wine.

I don't go down to 187, anything smaller than 375 goes in my wine glass for tasting!

 

[Amber]

I bought some marbles and planned to use them to take up that extra space in the carboy. Then I was washing and sterilizing them and noticed some had a metalic glint. I read the package and discovered some of the marbles may have something in their composition similar to arsenic. I wasn't going to put that in my wine!

 

[sly22guy]

Yeah if you use marbles make sure they are the glass ones. Also when im making a batch from fruit (or whatever i may think will throw off alot of sediment) i make the batch heavy for the primary, ie. if im making a 5 gallon batch i will make it 5.5 gallon in the primary and ferment to dry then rack and if need be put the extra in some wine bottles with airlocks to save for toping up. Little tricks you learn over time.