Topping with Marbles

Delfava · Nov 6, 2011

Okay, hear me out now. I had a barrel, and a 5 Gal. carboy for topping. Now i only have a Full barrel, a broken carboy, and a tempranillo stained garage. I don't want to top with store bought wine, or not yet at least. Our first racking is fast approaching in a week or so, and i anticipate losing three gallons or so. I had the bright idea of displacing the wine with Clear Sanitized marbles instead of wine, and the only potential problem i can think of is the marbles chipping, but i don't think that that is a huge issue. Can you guys think of any problems? or any better solutions? I'm certain that I am not the only person to fall very short on topping wine. Thank you!

ibglowin · Nov 6, 2011

How big is the barrel that you would anticipate losing 3 gallons! Thats a lot of marbles or wine which ever you go with......

Wade E · Nov 6, 2011

How did your carboy break????? Sorry, I only have carboys here and very rarely need topping off but when I do I have lots of my own wine to do so or rack down to smaller vessel in extreme cases so Im no help here.

jet · Nov 6, 2011

You might have trouble finding enough marbles to displace 3 gallons.

Delfava · Nov 6, 2011

Well, maybe I'm overshooting it a tad, but as they say, go big or go home. 250 Marbles is a little under a gallon, and i found a listing on ebay for 1000 for 20 bucks, so that's simple. ha we have a standard 55 gal. barrel, so maybe a gallon. i set the carboy down on it's side just a little to firmly and it shattered. It was a stressful experience. Can you think of any reason that this would be a bad idea?

Flem · Nov 6, 2011

If 250 marbles are a little under a gallon, you must have some mighty big marbles. IMHO

Brian · Nov 7, 2011

Yes I agree with Flem you must have big marbles. but with that said I have used marbles many times instead of using wine. Never for that amount of sapce though. I have had no problems using them I just drop them in a couple at a time and I have never had any chip or break anything.

tonyt · Nov 7, 2011

I use marbles if I don't have wine I want to top up with. But remember a gallon of marbles doesn't displace a gallon of wine, lots of air space between marbles. maybe that is already in the equation. More often than not I just find myself topping up any time I open a bottle of wine to drink. It's like 50ml for the barrel and 700 for me.