Re-Bottling Question

Dec 13, 2009 4 Replies
S

Have a Pear Melomel that I bottled like a dumby while a bit cloudy. It's now cleared nicely but of course there's fluff in the bottle.



I'd like to re bottle it. Thought about opening the bottles and siphoning into a carboy to let it settle then bottleing. Another thought was siphoning directly into bottles and recorking.



The benifits of the former is it'll have a better chance to clear before bottling agian. The draw back I see is O2 exposure.



The latter has the advantage of maybe minimizing O2 exposure but probably can't get it as free of fluff.



I'm leaning to the carboy method but would appreciate any thoughts on this.



Thanks Steve (why noir) Oregon


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P

I would go with the carboy method. I would just pour it in, maybe add some bentonite, add some sulfite to compensate for the O2 exposure. Trying to siphon out of a bottle would be a PITA

Paul

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S

Paul:

It sure would be a PITA.

You know what, I could fix a racking tube to the bottom of a funnel and avoid splashing that way. Better than pouring it down the side of carboy, eh?

Steve

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J

If you use thin tubing, siphoning out of a bottle is slow but clean. I use oxygen tubing. Then you could dump the remainder into a bottle or two for settling in a fridge.

Joe

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W

The trade-off is reduced flavor for better cosmetics. I'd probably just decant the molomel before drinking. That said, how about placing the demi-john/carboy in a clean garbage can and use dry ice to displace the atmosphere (O2)? Maybe, use a new gas can to put dry ice into, and use the flexible spout to direct the CO2 flow into the carboy. If you refreshed the dry ice occassionally, you would have a nearly oxygen free environment to open you bottles in. The real problem with this is that the carboy should be completely filled because the CO2 will dissolve into the molomel giving it some spritz. This would be greatly reduced if there was no head space in the bottle/carboy. Best, would be a cylinder of argon.

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