Start of my Melomel

[DirkDiggler]

I had a question regarding topping off. I know that it is best to fill the carboy up to a couple of inches from the top so that the surface area is small and you reduce the chance of oxidation. However, what if you don't have enough top off wine/mead? I used some CO2 gas to displace the oxygen before placing the bubbler on. I am not concerned with carbonating the mead as I will filter at bottling and that should help remove some of the trace CO2. I paid particular attention to sanitation and the surface area to wine is still small compared to the volume of wine.

Is CO2 gas displacing the air a good idea? I have searched and it appears all opinion based. Has anyone lost a wine/mead to oxidation because they didn't top up to within 1-2 from the top a carboy?

I don't want to add marbles -that seems like a pain. For one thing, do they contain lead? Are they made in China? Do you loose more wine when racking because of them? Are they expensive?

I don't have extra mead lying around and do not want to alter the mead or mel in anyway by topping off with something else.

But at the same time, I don't want to loose my entire batch!

I am hopeful that displacing the air with CO2 is a sound method, but I am not really that experienced in wine and mead making. I just started last year. Any thoughts?

 

[fivebk]

Some folks on this forum use argon gas. Can you rack it to a 5 gallon carboy and the rest to a smaller vessel?

 

[fivebk]

Sorry I just read that it's already in a 5 gal carboy

BOB

 

[DirkDiggler]

That may be a good idea to use. Yeah, it is a 5 gal carboy.