Head space CO2 spray and air locks.

You'll want to rack to carboys so you have the least headspace. Depending on what you have on hand for carboys, you may be able to rack to a bucket, mix in the 1 gal, then back to the 4 gal container, leaving about 1" headspace. Rack remaining wine in the bucket to a smaller bottle, like a 750, or 1.5ml whatever is left...

Steve

Do I still need the air lock?

Roy

There is no harm in the airlock, it's cheap insurance. As the seasons change the volume will too, a solid bung can loosen. I actually keep less than an inch airspace, more like 1/2 at worst.

You should try to get a spare carboy, double racking exposes the wine to more air. Just rack gently for now if you are using a bucket. Are you talking imperial gallons? I have never seen a 4 gallon carboy.

Joe

I have some 1/2 gallon glass carboys for exactly that problem. I go ahead and rack off some clear wine off the time into a spare 1 gallon jug, then do the rest of the racking. Then I use the clear wine to top up. Any left and it is put in the fridge, not for topping but for drinking. I doesn't hurt to sample some young wine.

Ray

Yes! Get a stopper to fit a wine bottle and a tripple bubbler... better yet, buy a few :)

Steve

Thanks to all for your help

This may be a stupid question but remember that im newer than a new-bie...haven't even made my first batch yet. Could you just add some sanitized marbles or something glass like that to make up the volume lost from racking in the 5 gallon carboy to minimize the headspace?

Hap

Hap, Sure, the marble thing can be done & it's a great idea, but you might be surprised at how many marbles it takes. Due to that, I gave up on the marble idea & just top off w/ either storebought wine, water (if the volume of airspace is low) or ideally some extra wine that I made up & saved in a smaller container just for the purpose of topping up carboys.

Robert

Marbles will work. But remember that when marbles stack, they have about

30% space between the marbles. So if you have one gallon of space to fill, you need about 1 and 1/3 gallons of marbles. That is a lot of marbles.

Then there is the problem of racking. Normally any sediment will settle to the bottom and then you rack off of it leaving it behind. With marbles, it will settle all over the marbles so you cannot rack the wine in between the marbles without disturbing the stuff you are trying to rack off of.

Ray

Those are some good points about using marbles. I did some pricing on marbles and it don't look cheap either. I've read a little about using CO2 to displace the oxygen. What about using argon? Its a gas readily availble from welding supply shops (used in TIG welding to displace oxygen over the welding arc) and since its a noble gas like neon and helium and wont mix with other gases I would GUESS it would not cause any off taste because of that. Also it's got a higher specific gravity than air so it should stay in the carboy well even when opened. Does anybody have any experience with using it or CO2?

Just trying to figure out a clean way to keep the batched together.

Maybe I'll just get a couple of 1 gallon jugs and various size bottels to start off with and experiment later.

Hap

Argon would be better than CO2 for several reasons. One is that CO2 is reactive and the other is that Argon is heavier than air. Just be sure there are no contaminants in the source.

Ray