I racked mine into a carboy today and added the clearing and stabilizing stuff . I came up two bottles over. I have them corked with a vacuvin. Will they keep and clear just like the carboy as long as i keep a vacuum on them?
Screw tops come in handy here as temp reserve holds.
After fermentation stage I keep reserves in pop bottles and plastic bottles and glass jugs (3 or 4 litres ) of all sizes. I deliberately make more than carboy if not a kit, for topping off. I don't like topping off with water - worst case I might use a water/vodka 11 percent mix but I prefer to have reserve.
Been doing that a long time - don't bother with a vacuum - just seal them with an appropriate lid or whatever , if it's going to be a few weeks time and I'm afraid the seal is dodgy I double seal with saran wrap and an elastic hair band.
Sometime for many batches (maybe last of a batch or a limited 1-2 gallon recipe) I put in some wine in a clear screw top (750 ml) or clear pop bottle 2 litre etc and observe for a few days or a week to see how well I filtered it - then I bottle.
Or I use this method to successively rack off the worst of sediment.
Haven't has any problems with finished wine this way.
---Filtering time -
if you use a whole house filter - you will want to run it all through together (because 100 -150 ml can't get through the filter at the end - which you can use as taster or lump with leftovers - so you don't want to do that twice and
Also at backsweeten time you do it as a batch - then in the latter case with the increased volume you will definitely need extra bottles of various sizes - screw top or pop bottles while you wait to bottle.
Waste not want not.
Also I batch things when I want to add a clearing agent - I would put the two bottles together in a jug or 2 litre to add clearing agent then separate again,
Also sulphide is a pain because it is very difficult dose small amounts of liquid - in this case I use campden pills (1 -2 pills per gallon is the formula so I might cut one in half for a 2 bottle batch - maybe the other half later before final filtering racking - lots luck trying to measure out grains of sulphide when usage is 1/4 tsp per 6 gallons!
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I'm getting expert and judging the size of the leftover reserve and selecting the appropriate bottle my - smallest being the airline bottles.
too many odds and ends it's a bit of a drag siphoning off the top and racking etc. but the plus side I end up with all these small odd sizes in my fridge which I later at leisure do taste tests.
- with small bottles - the slow level "pour' method leaving the dross works better than "siphon".
