Wine bottling Question from a newbie

[ScootDogg]

First question in forum and brand new poster!

Just finished bottling my wine, and I over estimated how many bottles I had. I went ahead and bottled what I could (20 bottles) but still have roughly 5 bottles left in the carboy. I put the seal back on the carbon and put the carboy back in my closet. I’ve got more bottles probably coming tomorrow.

My question for everyone is how much the wine will be affected if any by this happening and am I doing the right thing by keeping it in the carbon?

Cheers!

 

[Ohio Bob]

Better to use a 1 gallon jug if you have one, if not, it’s good to get several. You will use them.

 

[Raptor99]

Welcome to WMT!

That much headspace will expose your wine to too much oxygen. But if your new bottles are coming tomorrow, that is not enough time to be a problem. I don't think that a day or two will be a problem. But be sure to add some Kmeta (= Potassium Bisulfite, or Campden tablets) before you bottle. That will help to capture oxygen in the wine and keep your wine safe in storage.

If you need to keep it more than a few days, I would use a 1-gal glass jug as @Ohio Bob said.

 

[Cynewulf]

If you don’t have a 1 gallon carboy to transfer to as the others suggested, when you bottle the final amount I would mark the bottles so you know which ones they are and drink them first.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Welcome to Wine Making Talk

good answers above, on a day or two I wouldn’t worry. Your quiescent wine will pick up less oxygen being stationary than if it was splashed into another bottle and then siphoned into bottles when they show up. ,,, less movement is better than more always. I will guess that you siphoned with tubing, that is about as good as you can in a home winery.

A variety of bottles will be useful, what I do is put several screw top bottles together and use them up first. You could use a variety even canning jars. ,,, Oxygen is your enemy. As a home winemaker you can pretty well assume that SO2 is at zero and dose potassium metabisulphite according to a web calculator or I just add 0.2 gm per gallon.

Good luck. Red wines are fairly forgiving.

 

[ChuckD]

Welcome to WMT. Start scrounging bottles and jugs wherever you can find them. If you keep making wine you will need them.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Welcome to Wine Making Talk.

 

[Hazelemere]

First question in forum and brand new poster!

Just finished bottling my wine, and I over estimated how many bottles I had. I went ahead and bottled what I could (20 bottles) but still have roughly 5 bottles left in the carboy. I put the seal back on the carbon and put the carboy back in my closet. I’ve got more bottles probably coming tomorrow.

My question for everyone is how much the wine will be affected if any by this happening and am I doing the right thing by keeping it in the carbon?

Cheers!

you meant carboy 24 hours exposure is the limit. So bottle it and drink it first.

 

[Michael p]

You could also add an inert gas to the carboy. I use CO2 which is heavier that O2 and settles on top the wine. Since I used to own a brewery and have lots laying around.

 

[Ohio Bob]

you meant carboy 24 hours exposure is the limit. So bottle it and drink it first.

Or not. Just label them differently, or keep separate from the initial bottling. Alternate opening one bottle then the other to see if you can perceive any differences. It’s a good learning experience. If you can’t tell the difference then you know where that boundary line is.

 

[Jovimaple]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[Rice_Guy]

Since we are going into other storage techniques, one of the Vinters club folks stores all carboys with a -22 to -24 inch vacuum. This takes a vacuum pump, check valve and cork with a single hole. ,,, I also use vacuum for storing anything in the week that it is scheduled for bottling. This pulls gas into the headspace/ CO2 is one of the good storage gases.

 

[NorCal]

Since we are going into other storage techniques, one of the Vinters club folks stores all carboys with a -22 to -24 inch vacuum. This takes a vacuum pump, check valve and cork with a single hole. ,,, I also use vacuum for storing anything in the week that it is scheduled for bottling. This pulls gas into the headspace/ CO2 is one of the good storage gases.

Beat me to it. If I have a partial carboy for short-term storage (< a month), I'll vacuum store it and top up the vacuum every day or two. I've been doing that for 10 years and haven't notice any degradation to the wine. Example below; mandarin wine, just added bentonite/SO2 and will be letting it clear over the next two weeks.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Since we are going into other storage techniques, one of the Vinters club folks stores all carboys with a -22 to -24 inch vacuum. This takes a vacuum pump, check valve and cork with a single hole. ,,, I also use vacuum for storing anything in the week that it is scheduled for bottling. This pulls gas into the headspace/ CO2 is one of the good storage gases.

This is a great way to store and protect the wine - We came up with a simple product called the headspace eliminator (check valve,Cork, and indicator)

You just have to be careful that the carboy is under vacuum and a visual indicator would be great to see that the vacuum is still being held.