Excessive head space for a short time

Aug 30, 2003 4 Replies
J

I have just added gelatin and kieselsol to a white (started from grapes in October 2002) because I need it to clear fast so I can get it bottled before I move house.



It is 4 gallons, and was in a 3 gal carboy and a 1 gal jug. I racked the 2 containers into a 5 gal carboy and added the gelatin and kieselsol. I am hoping to bottle in 2 weeks or so.



I know 4 gal in a 5 gal carboy isn't good because of head space. But is it really going to matter if it's just for 2 weeks or so?



Thanks,



Jeff Hay-Roe Sechelt, B.C. Canada


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L

Jeff, the wine is going to oxidize to some extent, so it may really matter. lum

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W

It's best to get the wine away from air. But, I would think the gelatin/Kieselsol treatment would have cleared the wine overnight. Is the wine clear now? If so bottle. If not you may need to add more Kieselsol (to clear any gelatin haze that remains) or you may need to tightly filter the wine.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

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T

The short answer is "_yes_"!

You should at least gas the headspace with nitrogen or argon, and whatever you do you need to make sure the free SO2 is adequate for the pH of the wine.

Why not just rack back into the 1 & 3 gallon jugs?

Tom S

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J

Thanks to all who replied!

The wine did clear up pretty fast. So I bottled it yesterday. (If it hadn't cleared yet, I would have followed the other advice and racked it back to the 1 and 3 gallon jugs.)

So it had the excessive head space for a little less than 2 days. I don't think the wine was damaged... or not much. It tasted great when I bottled it!

Thanks again to all,

Jeff

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