Displace carboy headroom

[cbpwinery]

I've got a Zinfandel going that ended up making around 7.5 gallons. I have it split between a 5 gallon and a 3 gallon carboy. I'm looking for some suggestions on how to displace the extra liter or so each one has. I've heard good safe glass marbles would work - but looking for other suggestions.

Thanks

CBP

 

[cimbaliw]

Depends on what you have available. The easiest solution is to top each up with some commercial zin. I have to admit, for me it's taken almost two years psychologically, to allow myself to "taint" a particular batch with another wine.

I generally have a low threshold, and plenty of smaller glass, to simply rack down. In my situation I'd take the 3 gallon carboy down to two one gallon jugs, top up the 5 gallon and put the rest in either a 2l growler, 1.5l bottle or a 750ml bottle. Yeah, I've even got an airlocked 375ml in my bulk storage area.

BC

 

[winojoe]

MARBLES! Learned this from an old Italian.

Do not use the cheap dollar store marbles ...they seem to chip easy

 

[cdevrard]

In one of my wine books the author mentions using wine corks strung together with fishing line, soaked in a sulfite solution first. That one kine of makes me edgy. Anyone here ever try it?

The other thing he suggested is using food grade silicone caulk to make "marbles." He does warn to let them cure fully so there is no acetic acid left in them. This method seems like it would be more sanitary. I may try it in the future.

CE

 

[ibglowin]

If you have a liter of headspace in the 5 gallon I would top it up with the 3 gallon and then get a couple of 1 gallon jugs from your local home brew store. Anything left over after that use a 750 or 375 split. Rack it down!

 

[richmke]

In one of my wine books the author mentions using wine corks strung together with fishing line, soaked in a sulfite solution first.

That's a great idea. I'd probably use a synthetic cork (nomacorc). Nothing is going to soak into the nomacorc.

Maybe skip the stringing together. If the cork remains unbroken, I'm guessing they could be rinsed off, sanitized, and reused again. It would make them harder to remove from the carboy.

I wouldn't have a problem with one-time use of natural and conglomerate corks. If it comes into contact in the bottle, why not the carboy?

 

[cdevrard]

richmike,

Good points. I never really considered that even though it is pretty obvious (duh!) Yeah, the idea of stringing them together lengthwise was for ease of getting them back out of the carboy. He said just drill a small hole down the length of the cork and string em' up in a line.

They also float at the top as opposed to marbles sitting on the bottom. That is the thing I never liked about the marbles idea. If you have a ton (yeah they're heavy too!) of them sitting on the bottom it could impede your ability to rack the wine when time, there could be a lot of wine lost taking up the space between all the marbles, and when getting that extra wine out of the marbles you'd surely stir up all that sediment you are trying to get rid of.

CE

 

[richmke]

If you have a ton (yeah they're heavy too!) of them sitting on the bottom it could impede your ability to rack the wine when time, there could be a lot of wine lost taking up the space between all the marbles, and when getting that extra wine out of the marbles you'd surely stir up all that sediment you are trying to get rid of.

CE

It is my share. I filter it (coffee filter), and let it settle.

 

[richmke]

I racked a 1-month old batch this morning, and put a bunch of nomacorcs in. The first two were whole. Then I decided to cut them in half. The cut ones will easily wash out of the carboy.

I'll let you know in 2 months how it works out.

 

[cdevrard]

I'll be looking forward to an update. Thanks!

CE

I racked a 1-month old batch this morning, and put a bunch of nomacorcs in. The first two were whole. Then I decided to cut them in half. The cut ones will easily wash out of the carboy.

I'll let you know in 2 months how it works out.