Secondary fermentation

[homer]

I ordered up some frozen grapes from Midwest, each pail will net you about 3 gallons of wine, is the five gallon carboy too large for the secondary fermentation? bk

 

[NY25712]

I like to fill to max have had problems when leaving too much head space

 

[JohnT]

Air is the enemy!!! it can lead to oxidation....

Think of this..

The larger the void in a wine vessel (in your case 2 gallons of viod), the more expansion and contraction will occur due to temperature and barametric pressure changes. In other words, the bigger the void, the more the vessel will breath.

For primary, this is not an issue due to the positive pressure being created in the vessel by the yeast. For secondary fermentation, however, where the generated positive pressure is greatly reduced, is risky.

My recomendation is to find a single vessel that fits all of your wine with as little void as possible. You may even need to (gasp) use single gallon containers.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Yup - I totally agree.

 

[homer]

Looks like I either have to order more buckets of grapes or more 3 gallon carboys, or both, this hobby is going to break me. bk

 

[JohnT]

When you are sitting at the table with your family about you, and you open that great bottle of wine that you, yourself, made, you will not mind to much!