New to juice buckets

[Floandgary]

All of the wine kits I made came with BENTONITE & ISINGLASS as the fining agents.
Any recommendations as to what Fining agent to use for the juice buckets?

Djrockinsteve suggests SPARKLOID in his Basic Juice fermenting Guide. I have never used that.

"TIME"... Eventually you will realize the benefit of aging. (Talking carboy or barrel here). Not only does it allow the chemistry to take place, it also provides time for even the most minute/pesky particulates to settle out. No additives needed ,, nothing goes into the bottle...

 

[barbiek]

Yes as Floandgary mentioned I haven't had to use any clearing agent in any of my juice buckets well except bentonite at the beginning of my ferment adding it a day after I start fermentation.

 

[mikefrommichigan]

As usual great information from this group. Thanks

Regarding the oaking, I have some oak spirals that I want to use. First time for me using the spirals, any tips using them that may be different that using cubes? I was thinking of adding them during aging.

How do you recommend attaching them in a carboy so they are easy to extract. Murphy's law says to me they will get stuck in the carboy. I was thinking of attaching them to a fine cotton thread and hanging them, so the thread is wedged between the carboy and the bung.

 

[Boatboy24]

How do you recommend attaching them in a carboy so they are easy to extract.

Fishing line. New, not used.

 

[Matty_Kay]

I have used fishing line in the past as well.

 

[mikefrommichigan]

I racked the the 3 pails of Chilean Carménère for the 4th time and now have them aging for 3 months or so. I ended up with approx 18 ¾ gallons of wine. The oak spirals worked well, a bit tricky to get them out of the carboy but after a lot of carboy shaking they came out.

I will be starting the 3 buckets Chilean Petite Sirah end of June so I will post the results as I get them.

 

[FTC Wines]

Mike, I'm a little late about answering your spiral question. I break the spirals in half, then drop them in, leave them there to next racking. When rinsing/cleaning the carboy the half spirals come out pretty easily. Roy

 

[Johnd]

As usual great information from this group. Thanks

Regarding the oaking, I have some oak spirals that I want to use. First time for me using the spirals, any tips using them that may be different that using cubes?

How do you recommend attaching them in a carboy so they are easy to extract. Murphy's law says to me they will get stuck in the carboy. I was thinking of attaching them to a fine cotton thread and hanging them, so the thread is wedged between the carboy and the bung.

Second on the new fishing line, get a little spool of thin monofilament, not braided line. When I started using spirals, I just let the line run out of the mouth of the carboy between the glass and the bung and tied a toothpick on the end to keep the line from going back into the carboy. I've also threaded the line through the airlock before filling with liquid. Eventually, I started using very small stainless steel eyelets, screwed into the bottom of the bung (don't penetrate through the bung) and attached the line to the eyelet.

 

[mikefrommichigan]

Great ideas for the spirals. Thanks

 

[mikefrommichigan]

Update on my juice buckets.

I picked up 3 buckets of Carménère and 3 buckets of Petite Sirah in April/May. I started the Carménère immediately I arrived home and placed the Petite Sirah in cold storage for a month.

I bottled the Carménère a few weeks ago and intend bottling the Petite Sirah at the end of October. They both taste great.

Ordered 3 buckets of Sangiovese and 3 buckets of Barbera that I will pick up next week Friday. I will again store 1 of them for a month in cold storage.

The distributor sent an email saying that the juice will not not contain any added yeast this time, which I believe is a good thing.

Thanks for all the previous advice again

 

[Ebonheart]

Best part about the buckets is that you can keep the buckets and re-use them at local places to get more fresh juice. I started with buckets, and it makes for a lot of fun and good wine. You can personalize your wine more than a kit, choosing yeast, wood, MF, etc.