23Litre Carboy needed?

[AndyYam]

Hi guys, new to the forum. Have done a fair bit of beer kits, 1 merlot 6 bottle kit and an accidental rose! (dont ask).

I've just got a Wine Expert Chilean Merlot kit.

It is slightly different from the kits I have done before and the instructions state that the wine should be racked into a 23 litre carboy.

My previous 30 bottle kit was in a 5 gallon fermenter for primary, then I racked into another of these before bottling.

My question is...

Does it have to be racked into a 23 litre bottle carboy or can I use the fermenter again with air lock. My concern is that it talks of topping up and only having a small air gap between the wine and the top of the vessel.

I'm no expert but I can't see the issue, especialy if there is an airlock in place.

Could some one throw some light onto this for me please!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Bartman]

While the airlock would keep more oxygen from getting to your wine, their will be excess air trapped at the top of your fermenting bucket. By putting into a tapered carboy (tapered compared to the bucket), the headroom will only hold a small volume of air, which means much less oxygen present to oxidize your wine after it is done actively fermenting. If you're gonna make some more wine, you're gonna need at least one carboy and more like 3 to 5. I have come to prefer plastic carboys (Better Bottle) for several reasons, but price is one minor one - glass costs more than the plastic.

 

[cpfan]

AndyYam:

Sounds like you are in England (6 bottle kits, 5 gallons = 23 litres). There are kits available in England that are not available in North America, including some with short (7-14 day) time frames. They are OK just in a pail, but I do not think that a 28-42 day kit should be done that way.

So, yes get a 23 litre (5 Imp gallon, 6 US gallon) carboy [or two]

Steve

 

[AndyYam]

Cheers for the replies guys.


I am indeed in England. The 6 Bottle kit was 1 gallon or 5 litres. It was brewed in a 5 litre water bottle. It was a House Of Beaverdale kit and are intended as taster kits.

The current kit is in a 25 litre fermenter as can be seen in the link below.

http://www.hopshopuk.com/products/v...25-litre-5-gallon-screw-top-plastic-fermenter

It seems finding a 23L plastic carbouy is harder than you'd think in the UK! All google results are from the states.

Do you think what I have will do the job?

 

[Bartman]

Looking around that website a bit, it seems crazy to me that they sell 23L wine barrels from Italy but not glass or plastic carboys (aka demijohns)! Still, if the fermenter from the Starter Kit seals tightly and you have something to fill the headspace at the top, you can probably make that work. It has a wider mouth and shorter neck than your typical carboy, but that seems to be the main differences. I would reccomend using glass marbles to fill the headspace as high as you can when you are aging your wine -you shouldn't have more than an inch of headspace of air if you are aging for more than a month.

Also, if you want to bulk age or rack/filter out most of the sediment, you will need another equal or larger size vessel to transfer it to.

 

[AndyYam]

Cheers, very useful.


I'm not planning on Bulk ageing. Mainly as I don't know exactly what that means. I'm guessing its just leaving it to age as one load instead of bottling. My intentions are to follow the directions of the kit and bottle once clear. Then I'm sure the bottles will be around for a while. Is there reasons not to leave the wine bottled for long periods of time or is it just better to bulk age?

The fermenter isn't from a starter kit. It's my main fermenter that I use for all my brews. I upgraded to this one from a standard bucket (pale) style fermenting bin that just had a clip on lid.

Ill look into the idea of glass marbles to take up the space. I've now found a plastic 23 litre carbouy on eBay for £26 delivered so may well just buy one of these.

Thanks for all the help and I'm sure ill be around here asking more and posting about my brewing!

Andy