Question about "topping up"

Your learning already and don't even know it. That's why it's so hard to give advice Russ, you ALWAYS forget something. That something is, always make enough wine to fill at least 1 thing to the top. If you made exactly 5 gallons and your going to use a 5 gallon carboy to to store it, you probably didn't make enough. Now, you could use the blueberry wine you have BUT you could also use gallon jugs instead of a

5 gallon carboy and break up the last ( part of the 5th gallon) gallon into magnums and wine bottle size increments. If your hell bent on the carboy then use the blueberry wine to top up. Don't forget, next time you rack you'll run into the same problem. It's always good to have muliple increments of wine around to top up.

Bob

snipped-for-privacy@russ.net wrote:

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Bob is exactly right. The best way to top up is to not do it. Go to smaller carboys. Another way, and I am not sure I like this one, is to make it stronger than you want so you can cop up with water and end up at the right place. In other words, use more fruit and more sugar for a higher alcohol level. I would rather make it at the right level and then just use the right size carboys. I have lots of carboys. 13, 6.5, 6, 5, 3, 2.8, 1,

4/5, and 1/2. Sometimes I have to top up the last one but it gets mixed back in and that does not effect the whole batch very much.

Ray

I hesitate to give further advice -- but here goes.

If this is your first racking at the end of the first week then I would expect that fermentation is by no means finished!

This being the case -- there is definitely NO NEED to top up at this stage. Do not do it! Your new container will have a fermentation lock on it and your must/wine will continue to bubble its product of CO2 through it and maintain its blanket in the new container.

It is ONLY when all fermentation has STOPPED and you go into the process of racking off the lees, degassing and stabilising that you need to ensure that the air space ( because it is air then --no or little CO2) is minimal. The level of the new wine should be to within 2 cms of the bung of your fermentation lock.

At that stage you will have to use some method of topping up. I personally would not recommend topping up with distilled water but it is one way of doing it. You can use some similar wine ( which is what I do -- but then I have an ongoing stock level of about 500 bottles of various wines, both actually in bottles and also in bulk).

Lots of winemakers have a selection of different sized containers suitable for wine storage which also helps. Another frequently used method is to lift the level of your new wine by adding sanitised glass marbles until the surface is to the require height although this does give a small problem when you are eventually siphoning out of your carboy to bottle your wine.

I would recommend that you do a couple of things for your own benefit :-

1. Buy a good book on winemaking. I would recommend Terry Gareys' "Home Winemaking. It is written for the US market in terms of the US volumetric measures and so on and is full of very good information for beginners and more experienced alike. It is also very readable and being a real book you can put it on your beside table and read a bit each night before you nod off to sleep or sit in a comfortable chair with a bottle of wine to hand and leaf through its pages. Far better than sitting up at a pc and reading from a screen. It is full of tips for winemakers and if you had had it you would not be ducking and diving for information at this stage.

1. Visit Jack Kellers web site several times and have a look round. There is just about every conceivable bit of information you could want there. But it can be a bit overpowering there is so much. Which is why I recommended buying the before mentioned book.
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The book is "The Joy of Home Winemaking" Sorry for the error!

Experienced winemakers often do many things to concentrate wine characteristics such as flavors, aroma, etc. and diluting the must with water is not a good idea unless, of course you're reconstituting a concentrate.

As already mentioned you should start with enough must to fill a large vessel (such as your carboy) and at least a few, smaller containers as well. Obviously all vessels need fermentation locks and be kept topped up. It can be a bit of a nuisance but investing in a few smaller containers, air locks and appropriately sized bungs is a good investment. Most wines will require

2-3 rackings over a period of time and if you are bulk aging you will want to taste it once in a while to make sure it is progressing well so topping up from smaller containers is the only practical way of proceeding. At this point your best option seems to be topping up with your bottle and if that is more than required try to find a small container for the remainder for future topping up.

Good luck,

Glen Duff

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I would just add to what was already mentioned that you can also use a good commercial red wine to top up. I make raspberry "port" every year, and the best batch I've ever produced had about 3 litres of different red wines added to it for the same reason - I didn't have enough for a full carboy. Often, the "mistakes" lead to pleasant surprises.

Pp