Impact of batch size?

[jca]

I've been making beer for a while and thought I'd give a wine a try. I got a kit to get familiar with the ingredients for the first try. The instructions say this in bold letters:

"Making the kit to a full 23 litres (6 US gallons) is crucial to the
functioning of the fining agents and stability of the finished
wine. If you make it to any other volume, it will not turn out
correctly, and any problems you may experience may not be solvable."

The problem here is all my stuff is for 5 gallon batches. Would only using 5 gallons of the juice really make that much difference? What is the link between fining and the size of the batch? Is it worth investing in some new equipment?

 

[BIGJEFF]

Most (if not all) the wine kits out there are made for 6gal. You probably only need 1 or 2 carboys.
Only one really because you can rack from the carboy to the fermenter then back to the carboy when stabilising.

Good luck!

 

[Wade E]

Do you have a 1 gallon jug? Unless you bought a bucket of juice or an expensive Mosti Mondiale kit I highly dought you have 5 gallons of juice and instead probably have about 3 gallons at most and the rest will be water when you add it. By doing anything different then what the instructions say you will void the warranty. With that said its your wine and you can do what you want with it and Ive heard many people take these cheaper less juice kits and make them to 5 gallons. ive never done so and am not urging you to do so, just stating what Ive heard. If you plan to make more wine though youll need to get a 6 gallon carboy as kits are either 6 or 3 gallon always.