What is the gas called?

[MRM]

While visiting a wine store some years ago the salesperson had an aerosol can of some kind of gas that he would add (spray) to the empty space in the fermenter to keep oxygen out. I was wandering what what this may have been and could this same gas be used to fill up empty space in a carboy when I don't have enough wine to completly fill hte carboy. Also, where to get it?
Thanks

 

[djrockinsteve]

Argon maybe???

 

[jamesngalveston]

u can use clean and sanitized marbles as well. and a whole lot cheaper./

 

[ibglowin]

Private Reserve.

http://www.amazon.com/Enthusiast-Private-Preserve-Preservation-Spray/dp/B0000DCS18

 

[Poni]

Youd need a lot of it. 5 times the space you are filling, and this would only be for a short time. Really not a substitute for a topped up carboy.. if you're really interested in this, youd be better off getting a tank of co2, nitrogen or argon from you local welding supply store rather than bothering with this stuff

 

[MRM]

u can use clean and sanitized marbles as well. and a whole lot cheaper./

How much wine stays in the marbles. I other words say I use enough marbles to make up for a gallon of wine in a six gallon carboy. When I bottle the wine, how much will be trapped in the marbles? You cannot pur the wine off the marbles as that is where the sediment will be.

 

[JohnT]

This topic come up every so often and I always end up typing until my hands ache. This time, I'll make it short...

Although it is fine for storring wine in the short term (a week or two), you should not make it a habbit to use gas to replace wine in a container.

There are a variety of reasons, but here are the main two..

1) gasses work differently than, say, liquids. You will not be replacing air with gas, but simply mixing air with the gas you are using.

2) if you use a fermentation lock, and there is a large void in your container, temerature and barametric pressure changes will eventually expell the gas you use and take in air through the fermentation lock. Professional wineries do not worry about this because they have their containers under an air-tight pressure seal.

Top off the container with wine or use marbles. There is even one member here that has invented a bladder that can be inserted into a carboy to take up the void. Do not use gas!.

 

[LeChat]

Top off the container with wine or use marbles. There is even one member here that has invented a bladder that can be inserted into a carboy to take up the void. Do not use gas!.

So that's why they call it skeeter PEE!

Question:

For MLFed red wine, what do you use for topping up. Duh, MLFed red wine!

Ok, but what if you don't have other MLFed red wine hanging around, how do you know commercial wine will not have something that will not play nice with the MLF nasties?

 

[GreginND]

All the descriptions I see for the Wine Enthusiast Preserve spray indicates that it is a mixture of nitrogen, CO2 and argon.

 

[BadBanshee]

Wouldn't an airlock keep the oxygen out?

 

[GreginND]

Wouldn't an airlock keep the oxygen out?

Not if there is head space in the carboy. The idea is to flush out the oxygen with an inert gas to remove the oxygen in the head space. It has some beneficial affect but it is not as effective as one might think. The best always is to top up your containers.