Wine Level Rise

[rebusify]

I am in the clearing stage of my wine in 6 gallon carboy and an odd thing happened. Over the last 24 hours I raised the temp in the room from 59 to 65 to help the fining/clearing and it appears to be clearing but the level rose all the way to the bung which was about 3 inches. Would an increase in temp cause the wine levels to raise?

 

[Ajmassa]

I am in the clearing stage of my wine in 6 gallon carboy and an odd thing happened. Over the last 24 hours I raised the temp in the room from 59 to 65 to help the fining/clearing and it appears to be clearing but the level rose all the way to the bung which was about 3 inches. Would an increase in temp cause the wine levels to raise?

Oh yeah. Sometimes I’ll head down the basement and see wine has overflowed out my vented bung because of this.

 

[Scooter68]

Yes, Temp changes can do that:
(From inspectapedia.com)
A 40 gallon water heater with 80 PSI line pressure will build to a pressure of 145 PSI with a temperature increase of 16°F. (Brandford White 2019)
That's a 65 psi increase occurring from a 16°F temperature increase, or roughly 4 psi increase for every 1°F of temperature increase.

Tried to find a calculator to provide precise information but the bottom line as best my old mind can tell it is...
Water is most dense at 4 degrees Celcius (39.2 f) as it heats up it then expands but... I could not find a simple on-line calculator to tell you how much but the above should give you an idea that YES it does expand significantly. Of course our wine with 10% or more alcohol will expand even more than normal water. Remember that many old thermometer used alcohol as the liquid to measure temperature.

 

[rebusify]

Thanks!

 

[sour_grapes]

And, although the fractional change in volume is very small, when the wine is filled into the neck, you will get a large change in wine height for a given change in volume of the bulk wine.

 

[Scooter68]

1/2 of 1 percent of 640oz (5 gallons) = 3.2 oz Add that much to the neck of an already full to the neck container and - yeah - that;'s going to be evident.

(1//2 of 1% is just a SWAG number)