Other Headspace O2/CO2 Question

[idahorevbob]

I'm new to this wine making stuff and have a question: From reading on this forum I see that I should not leave very much headspace in a carboy when aging the wine. My understanding is that tthis is to minimize oxygen contact. Since I do beer brewing, I have CO2 available. Would bleeding some CO2 to drive off most of the oxygen in the headspace work? I do this with kegged beer immediately after kegging. I don't really like adding a bottle or two of wine of the same type just to fill the carboy....mostly because at this stage I want to taste the kit and not the added wine. I understand blending is a thing and all that, but that may be at the next step in my evolution.

What's the crowd say?

 

[Ohio Bob]

Adding CO2 to the headspace will work. Disadvantage is you won’t know if you’ve disturbed the air flow and introduced oxygen as well.

Adding a bottle to top off the carboy isn’t as bad you think. Even if it’s pure water (not recommending) it’s only 1/25 of your volume, if it’s a 5g carboy, so highly unlikely you will be able to taste the difference. Personally even if the equipment was given to me, I’d still top off with wine. But you will be ok.

 

[winemaker81]

IF you bottle on kit schedule (4 to 8 weeks), there is no need to top up. This is counter-intuitive to my experience, but enough folks on this forum have reported that it's not a problem, so I believe it.

If you bulk age longer then kit instructions indicate, you need to handle the headspace.

A fair number of folks use inert gas to fill headspace, and it works for them.

Like @Ohio Bob, I top with wine. When I fill a carboy with wine, I am 100% sure what's in the carboy. Insert gases mix immediately with the air in the headspace, so you'll never know for sure what that mix is. Lots of folks do this with no problems -- my risk tolerance is to go with what I know works, so I top with wine.

Regarding blending, keep in mind the kit is what the vendor decided to put in the package. It's not special or anything, it's just one entity's subjective opinion of what sells. If you add a similar or complimentary wine to the mix, there's a greater chance you'll improve the wine than not.

 

[heatherd]

Topping up with similar wine is what I do, and have yet to be able to taste a difference.

 

[idahorevbob]

OK. Besides, it may only take 1/2 bottle to top up which means I have to drink the other half. Damn this hard work!

 

[my wine]

Another approach is to split a 6 gal carboy into 2 3-gal carboys. I recently did that with a FWK I started bulk aging. I filled one completely with the kit wine and the other I topped with a similar wine. I also top with CO2 and haven't had a problem. But O2 looks very much like CO2 so ...