> > I'm a new winemaker and have a question about filling up the carboy
> > after racking. The standard advice is to use water, a similar wine, or
> > a smaller carboy. Would it be possible to add something to the carboy
> > to bring up the volume? There are food grade balls made of plastic,
> > rubber, glass, metal, etc. Maybe a handful of marbles or stainless
> > steel ball bearings for those of use with limited budgets.
>
> > Has anyone ever tried this?
>
> > thanks,
>
> > dave
>
> You can use sanitized (with sulfite solution) marbles, but I would
> only recommend it as a last resort. It will probably take more than
> you think. I used a 2 lb. bag of decorative marbles to take up about
> 2 inches in a 1 gallon jug. Using metal would increase the chance of
> cracking the carboy when adding or removing the "filler". Another
> issue is when you rack, you will end up losing more wine due to having
> to work above the sediment that is on top of the marbles. Unless you
> are doing a unique fruit wine or trying to maintain varietal purity, a
> similar cheap wine is the best way to go.
>
> Stephen
I figured there was a good reason. I'll stick with using an earlier version of my wine for topping off.
Thanks for the quick and useful reply.
dave