Primary size

[Craig]

Here's one topic I haven't seen yet. What should the size of your primary fermentor be? I am referring to using a 27-30 litre pail for a one gallon batch of specialty wine. Or should a smaller 2 gal pail be used?

 

[JohnT]

I figure that you need to have about 20% empty space for a good primary.

 

[Sirs]

yeah you'd want at least that much extra space but more than that doesn't hurt anything at least in the primary, main thing is to have plenty of room for your must to rise when it starts to ferment. Secondary is a different story all together

 

[Craig]

Thanks for the info. That's what I was thinking, extra space in the primary is no big deal. Found food grade pails from an ice cream shop today, 11 litres, is working perfectly for my 1 gal rice wine. BTW the must is a wild purple color since I am using black rice. sorry no pic avail.

 

[Tom]

I figure that you need to have about 20% empty space for a good primary.

It will work only if you keep an eye on it. I however would suggest a 2 gal fermentor for 1 gal batches.

 

[BobF]

It will work only if you keep an eye on it. I however would suggest a 2 gal fermentor for 1 gal batches.

Agreed. If the wine is too shallow in the primary, racking off of the gross lees becomes problematic.

For 1g I use a 2g primary. For 3g I use a 5g primary for everything except grapes.

For 3g grapes (5g must) and 6g juice, I use a 7.9g primary.

For 6g fruit (other than grape), I split and use two 5g primaries.

I'm planning to add a 10g primary to my collection for the 6g fruit batches and to split 6g (10g must) grape batches with the 7.9.

 

[Craig]

The racking is good to keep in mind, forgot about that, thanks.
I noticed I have been mixing up the use of Liters and Gallons, something we do second nature in Canada. The ice cream buckets with snap on lids, are 11 L which is about 2.7 US gal or 2.4 imp gal.
I am starting to see the need for a few sizes of primaries.