How high can you go?

[Wine-o-Dale]

A another newbie question. I'm currently doing a kit batch right now, but my next one I want to make with my own fruit/grapes, etc... I have a 6-gal plastic primary, how high should I go with the juices considering some of the space is pulp and fruit that will be removed later on. Should I leave a certain amount of space on top of the primary for the needed oxygen? and I don't want it to bubble over either. I would think it needs to be pretty full with all the extras in there. I will be putting it into a 5-gal glass carboy when ready and don't want to do too much toping off.

 

[fish1onthefly]

I am also new at this having only started my 8th batch...Blueberrys.
It seems the kits get a more robust fermentation than the fruit. I used a 10 gal container for the 6 gal kits and it worked ok for the fruit too.
I hope you have lots of room in the trailer...this hobby can get out of hand in a hurry! Enjoy!

 

[Wine-o-Dale]

Yeah... its a 42 foot trailer with 4 slide outs, so more room than a lot, but I think I'm only going to have one 6-gal primary and one 5-gal secondary... oh well. Racked my 1st batch today! YEAH!

 

[smurfe]

It will be tight in a 6 gallon primary to do a 5 gallon batch with a fruit sack. I have a 7.9 primary most use and it works well with most fruits on a five gallon batch. One thing that could help you is to get a steam juicer and extract the juices from the fruit. One other suggestion I will pass along is to freeze the fruits first to aid in juice release from the fruits. You will get more juice from less fruit. I know that will be tough in your trailer though.

 

[grapeman]

I think it would be helpful for you to get a second primary bucket. Most of the ones sold for wine are the 7.9 gallon size and give adequate room for the 5 gallon batches of fruit wine. To conserve space,when not in use, just place one bucket in the larger one. Takes up the same room except during primary fermentation.

 

[PolishWineP]

I think it would be helpful for you to get a second primary bucket. Most of the ones sold for wine are the 7.9 gallon size and give adequate room for the 5 gallon batches of fruit wine. To conserve space,when not in use, just place one bucket in the larger one. Takes up the same room except during primary fermentation.

And I bet you could slide a 3 gallon carboy into the stack of primary fermenters and cover them with a towel!