Racking and Carboy Size

[thunderwagn]

Soon I'll be ready to rack my 1st wine, a WE Washington riesling. I have two available carboys and not wanting to purchase another. One is a 5 gallon and the other is 6.5 gallons. I'm curious if it is better to rack into the 6.5 with the fpack and top off with more wine, or go to the 5 gallon and have leftovers? Am I over thinking?

 

[Bossbaby]

go into the 5 gal for sure, keep your must as natural as you can. I have multiple 5 gal carboys, but one of them fills up just a little quicker than the rest so i use it as my second time carboy and after leaving the junk at the bottom it will fill to the top most of the time and i dont need to add something different to it.. 3 gal and 1 gal carboys are always a good way to keep a batch filled up well, 1 gal bottles can be found cheaply at thrift stores I have found..

 

[user 32114]

as well if you have any small universal bungs that you use on carboys can be flipped upside down ,
and used to airlock wine bottles with any extras which will come in handy for topping off on future racking's,,, as well 6.5 drilled bungs will work on any bottle with 38-400 threads, the gallon and half gallon jugs with the thump holes are 38-400 threads, as well on like Fillmore containers, i have bought quart and pint jugs with 38-400 threads, so a drilled 6.5 bung will allow you to keep many different size bottles that you will only need 6.5 drilled bungs, with plenty of different jugs for extra top off jugs , so you can keep your wines topped off with the same wine you are crafting,
Dawg

 

[thunderwagn]

So I have the fpak and remaining additives. I think the directions indicate those go in over the course of 2 days should I rack to the 6.5, to add everything, then transfer to the 5 gallon and remaining into smaller container?

 

[Bossbaby]

the additives can be stirred into your primary container , once your fermentation is complete you can rack to the other bottles, if your primary bucket isnt large enough for the f pack you may need to go to a larger vessel until it's done fermenting.

 

[thunderwagn]

the additives can be stirred into your primary container , once your fermentation is complete you can rack to the other bottles, if your primary bucket isnt large enough for the f pack you may need to go to a larger vessel until it's done fermenting.

I think my plan will be to rack to the 5 gallon carboy and add the potassium sorbate and kieselsol and degas. I'll leave a bit of head space till day 2 if that's ok. The remainder will go into another container and I'll hit that with some potassium sorbate as well.
Next day I'll add the reserves pack and chitosan to the 5 gallon carboy and top off with my "leftovers" as needed to proper fill level.
Sound acceptable? Thanks for all pointers!

 

[Bossbaby]

yes you will want to add clearing agents in your carboy correct.