too much air?

[Sharona]

Just moved my 1st Must to 2ndary fermentor. It's about 3 1/2 gal. in a 6 gallon glass carboy. It's slowly bubbling and I have a lock in the carboy. Is there too much air in the bottle? Should I move it to smaller containers?
I am in Ecuador and do not have a lot of things available here. A plastic fermentation lock was $10.00.

Also, can you make wine from citrus fruits? I have a tree full of tiny tangerines. I'm wondering if I can make wine from them? Include skins or not?

Thanks,
Sharona

 

[user 32114]

yep you can use tangerines for wine,
and yes way to much air, do you know what your SG is at, if you cant get a 3 gallon carboy you can use 1/2 gallon an 1 gallon jugs to age them they will be ok in the big carboy till your specific gravity gets down to .999 or slightly lower, as long as above 1.000 your producing enough co2 to blanket and protect your wine from oxygen, but you need some gallon jugs with the small hole on top and a finger loop at the top, and air locks for all ,, now you can fill smaller carboys put stoppers with holes in them then run a tube into the stopper with the hole in it,,, it will need to be a tight fit in the rubber stopper, then take a five gallon bucket drill some holes in the lid to run the other end of the tube coming from your carboy/carboys/jugs thru the bucket lid to the bottom of your five gallon bucket fill your five gallon bucket about 3/4 full of water then snap the lid on the you drilled holes in and rad the tubes that come from your carboys thru the bucket lid to the bottom of your water filled bucket, that is a home made airlock that can handle several carboys and you wont have to give ten dollars for a airlock for each carboy, , good luck.
Dawg

 

[JohnT]

Look up Jack Keller on the net. He has all sorts of wine recipes.

In short YES, you do have way too much air (or headspace). Once the wine stops fermenting, you really do need to transfer to a smaller container and keep that container as full as possible (ideally, you would bring the level of the wine to within an inch of the stopper.

$10 for a fermentation trap???? WOW! I think that it is more expensive (by weight) than solid silver!

 

[Sharona]

Thanks guys. I love this site. You guys give great advice.

 

[Arne]

You can make an airlock fairly cheaply. Drill a hole in a bung that a piece of tubing will fit into. Silicone calk around the tubing so it is airtight. Put the bung in your carboy and the end of the tubing in a glass of water. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[Scooter68]

Bet if you ask you will find that most folks active on this site have made their fair share of little and big mistakes and came here to solve those problems. It's a great place to learn and improve your wine making skills AND to get ideas for new methods, techniques, equipment you gotta have and new recipes to try.

 

[Ang]

I have used balloons to airlock pop bottles and milk jugs. Just poke a couple holes in the drip end opposite the opening so it doesn't blast off.

 

[NorCal]

I think I disagree with this one. If you have an airlock and the airlock is "bubbling", you should be fine. The CO2 will displace the O2. When it stops fermenting / creating CO2 is when you can run into trouble. I'd let it finish dry under airlock, then rack into a smaller container.

 

[Noontime]

Agree that you're fine until the fermentation stops, then your wine will start to dissipate the co2 it's currently saturated with (which is protecting it), and the bung will slowly let air in and out. Not an emergency, but like others have said, you will want to get your wine into smaller containers to limit air exposure.

For the citrus wines...yes and they are delicious! Don't use the pith at all, but the juice and zest the skins for the most flavor. You may find you have to make it considerably sweeter than you thought, to have it taste good, but that's always personal preference (some fruits need more sweetness to taste good). Good luck!