Need some quick white wine help

[chadt1234]

I pressed some home grown grapes last night and ended up with 1.2 gallons of white juice. What size container should I use to ferment in? I have a 1/2 gallon jug, 1 gallon jug, 3 gallon carboy and my regular 6 gallon plastic fermentor bucket.

 

[richmke]

6 gallon plastic fermentor. Just because it is easier to clean than the 3 gallon carboy.

 

[TonyR]

I would put it in a CLEAN 5 gal bucket with the lid just resting on top, so you can stir it daily and check the Sg. When fermentation is almost done rack it in to the 1 gal jug and use a stopper and airlock. After fermentation you want as little exposer to oxygen as you can get, so very little headspace in the jug.

 

[JohnT]

A rule of thumb would be to leave at least 30% headspace for primary fermentation.

I am a big fan of open fermentation so I would recommend that you use a 6 gal bucket loosely covered rather than a carboy.

 

[NorCal]

Ive been told by winemakers I trust to be real careful with whites with less tannins to protect the must and to ferment as cold as possible and under airlock. I don't have the experience to know if the co2 production offsets lack of tannin in the must for O2 protection to avoid oxidation of the must. I opened and stirred the must once a day.

I did this with my Rose last season and was pleased with the results.

 

[JohnT]

Ive been told by winemakers I trust to be real careful with whites with less tannins to protect the must and to ferment as cold as possible and under airlock. I don't have the experience to know if the co2 production offsets lack of tannin in the must for O2 protection to avoid oxidation of the must. I opened and stirred the must once a day.

I did this with my Rose last season and was pleased with the results.

I see what you are saying norcal, and agree with you.

If you are going for a cold fermentation, and the must will be in primary fermentation for a longer period of time, then yes, O2 may be an issue. In this case, I would do a closed fermentation.

What I like (especially with chardonnay) is a much more aggressive fermentation of 6 to 7 days (rather than 2 or 3 weeks). In this case, the aggressive fermentation will produce an aggressive amount of CO2 to protect the wine. By having an open ferment, I have better access to the wine in order to stir it, have better dissipation of heat, and also reduces the amount of CO2 that could potentially go into solution (less degassing).

 

[TonyR]

If you keep the k-mete levels up, carboy toped off, and followed normal sanatation practices your wine will NOT oxidize after fermentation. unless you do things like try to degass using a drill with a paint mixer attachment that introduces massive amounts of oxygen. And the only way it will oxidize during fermentation is if something is spoiled like real bad grapes and then i would dump it because it will do nasty things.

 

[chadt1234]

Thanks for all the advice. I am planning to ferment in the 6 gallon bucket with a loose lid. Then transfer to the 1 gallon jug. I may be able to get a mason jar's worth left over for topping off. I don't have the ability to cold ferment so it will be fermenting in a room at about 74 degrees. If any of this sounds like suicide, please let me know. Thanks again.

 

[TXWineDuo]

@chadt1234 You take your 6 gallon fermenting bucket and put it in a bigger bucket like a 20 gallon trash can and put water and ice bottles (recycled drink containers fill with water till about 2 inches from the top and freeze we use gatorade bottles) to get a cooler fermentation. Make sure to put in a thermometer in to monitor must temperature.
I read that you only have 1.2 gallons of juice maybe you could find a WinCo grocery store they have 2 gallon plastic food grade buckets so wine thermometer will float better. Start off with only 1 or 2 ice bottles and monitor the temp.
Good luck and enjoy!

TXWineDuo