WineXpert Still not enough carboys

[Jack on Rainy]

I'm a newbie with 6 WE kits going. Am planning to bulk age in glass
thinking that results are the same as aging in bottles. Sounds like
that isn't necessarily true. What are your thoughts?



Also should I use airlocks or do I seal the carboy with something else?
I have a very good cellar space with temps that range between 50 and 60
F.



Thanks to all of you for the info,

 

[Wade E]

Wine will actually age faster in a bottle than a carboy but thats not
always a good thing. First let me start off by saying that bulk aging
has its own spot in winemaking. Aging in a carboy vs. bottles will give
the wine more time for any fine sediment to fall out. Even after fining
using the kits ingredients I have come across sediment in my bottles by
bottling them on their due date. Fluctations in temp will do little to
a 6 gallon batch vs. a 750 ml bottle due to its greater quantity and
the time it would take to change the temp of 6 gallons. I use an
airlock and recommend you to to help the wine get rid of any excess SO2
that needs to escape as this is another benefit of bulk aging. If you
bottle it with gas the only thing you can do from there is decant the
bottle and use a vacuvin on the bottles as they are opened and that is
one of the biggest problems I see on forums is that their wine still
has alot of gas in it. If you are going to use a solid bung then I
recommend taping it down as barometric pressures and temp fluctuations
will cause the wine to expand and contract and eventually pop off a
solid bung and you might not notice that for awhile.

 

[PolishWineP]

Jack, We just use regular bungs and air locks. We check the air locks to ensure there's still enough liquid in them and change them once in a while. It gives us something to do while waiting for them to age and it makes us feel important.

Either solid bungs or air locks will work just fine. But either way, you still should keep an eye on them.

 

[PolishWineP]

The watchamacallit is a blend of run-off of Black currant, Cherry, Raspberry, and Orange-Strawberry Banana. This batch was inspired by Waldo who did something similar last year. I had all those different wines in 750 bottles with airlocks on them when Waldo said he was bottling his and I said what a great idea and went ahead and dumped them all together. I have not tasted it as of yet so it is a mystery!

Wade, I believe the technical term you are looking for here is blending.