Hi,

[DavidNW]

I have about 6 bottles worth of blackberry wine approaching the second stage of fermentation in a fermentation bin (bucket). I only have a 25 litre carboy available for the second stage. Will this be okay? Just a bit concerned about the amount of surface area.

Many thanks.

 

[bkisel]

My lower end RJS kits have me do secondary in the primary bucket which of course has a lot of surface area. This has not been an issue what with CO2 from "secondary" under an air tight lid and airlock. Now you'll have more head space even though the surface area might be about the same as a bucket and I just don't know if that'll make a difference.

 

[grapeman]

You could either finish it to dry in the bucket or get a gallon jug with airlock and an extra bottle with an airlock. The 25 liter carboy will leave to much exposure to the air.

 

[JohnT]

A 25 liter carboy will only work for you as long as the wine is still fermenting. As long as the wine is producing CO2, outside air should not be a problem. Go ahead and place the wine in the carboy and get a gallon jug as quickly as possible and transfer the wine into that soon.

 

[DavidNW]

Thanks, guys.

I have a few demijohns (1 gallon). The reason that I did not want to use these was because I only have the one demijohn heating pad and I would effectively have to have two heating pads to accomodate the two demijohns.

I do have a brewing heating belt, but it's for wrapping round either a carboy or a large fermentation bin (bucket) and would be too large for a demijohn.

I'll have to see if I can wrap the brewing belt round a demijohn somehow and hold it it place with a clothes peg perhaps, then I'll have the heat pad available for one demijohn and use the brewing heating belt for the other demijohn.

I used a 23 litre bucket to do the first stage of fermentation because I had nothing smaller. A bit late in the day to ask, but would this be detrimental to the small amount of wine I'm making, because of the considerable amount of head space?