Just racked Blackberry to secondary

[CJMiller]

I racked my blackberry into my glass carboy last night and toped up with water. 1/2 gallon of water.... Is this gonna hurt the flavor? This is my first batch of any kind of wine.

 

[Arne]

The water will dilute both the flavor and the abv. A lot depends on how big of a batch it is, tho. If it is one gallon it would really dilute it. 5 gal. not so much. Arne.

 

[CJMiller]

Yeah it was 5 gallons. Thanks a lot.

 

[Tom_S]

Topping up with that much water will also thin out the body. 1/2 gallon probably isn't that bad for 5 gallons, but I don't think I'd want to use much more than that. It's much better than having a lot of headspace, though.

 

[Rocky]

CJ, depending on where you were in the fermentation, it could reduce the ABV by as much as 10% so that if your ABV was 12% it would be down to 10.8%. Also, for your future batches, you do not necessarily need to top off the carboy when going from primary to secondary. There is still active fermentation so that there will be a blanket of CO2 on top of the wine and, of course, you will have an airlock in place. Topping off, or as I do, "sizing down" to a smaller container(s), is important when fermentation is complete and you are stablizing and clearing your wine.

 

[CJMiller]

Oh ok I see now. Sorry really new at this lol but thanks!!!

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

Another option is to top off with some inexpensive commercial blackberry wine.

 

[dubsession]

I had similar issues with topping off at my first couple attempts at making wine. How big is your primary container? Finding 100% fruit juice (with no preservatives if possible) of the type of fruit used to make your wine or a commercial wine (as roadwarriorsvt suggested) of the same fruit would be good to top off with. I've gotten into the habit of making a little more than will fit in my carboy and use the extra as my "topper offer" so-to-speak, and store it in quart containers in my refrigerator until needed (or if there's enough to fill a gallon jug and you have an extra bung w/ airlock, you can go that route). Using water in small amounts relative to the amount of wine already made shouldn't hurt, but you also don't want to dilute too much. Hope this helps

 

[CJMiller]

Yeah I haven't thought of that. I have an 8 gallon fermenter so I could make more then needed for sure. Thanks

 

[mmadmikes1]

Topping off with berry juice during secondary fermentation is the best bet in my opinion. You don't hurt the flavor or body. The ABV with remaine farly close because the sugars in the juice will. The flavor will probably be better because the juice will not have been subjected to full fermentation allow some more flavor to remain. I will add, I add juice to secondary or late primary for that exact reason

 

[Stressbaby]

I've gotten into the habit of making a little more than will fit in my carboy and use the extra as my "topper offer" so-to-speak, and store it in quart containers in my refrigerator until needed (or if there's enough to fill a gallon jug and you have an extra bung w/ airlock, you can go that route).

This is what I do, but I put the extra in a wine bottle or even just a beer bottle with an airlock. You can get bungs that size. Remember to dose them with Kmeta if you dose the main batch and you don't need the extra.

The only problem I've found is that it is tricky to rack from these smaller bottles. My plan here is to build a wine/beer bottle racking station with 4-6" long piece of 2-3" PVC secured on-end to a base of plywood. Then I can set the wine/beer bottle in the PVC and not worry about it tipping over.