I have continued to struggle with solid stoppers in carboys for aging. I searched this site and found a handful of threads on this topic - the prevailing wisdom seemed to be to age wine under S-type airlocks. Is that sufficient closure for post-second racking aging?
The advantage of airlocks is that they will accomodate temperature variation reasonably well; the carboy is just a big thermometer. That said a solid stopper would work but you may not want to have it touch the wine; you can put a few layers of Saran wrap under it though. I'm not sure how you would tell if one came loose either, most airlocks flop over on the ground if they get loose because the CG must be above the stopper.
The disadvantage of airlocks is they need to have liquid in them so long term they need attention. I never had one dry out but have heard of that. I have wines under airlock for over a year right now with no ill effects.
I would caution you that most airlocks come out of the mold pretty rough; I trim the end that gets inserted into the stopper to smooth off the rough edge left from the mold. I just screpe it until smooth. I did have issues once with long term storage due to that. If you held the stopper and airlock up to a strong light you could see a little daylight along the edge of the airlock. I would not have believed that possible but saw it myself.
Joe
Ric , Get yourself some of the silicone fermentation stoppers . The fit in the carboy and have a one-way check/flapper on them . The will stay in the carboy and not pop out on you . They also never need to be filled . Of course they are 5 bucks instead of 3 , but when you are dealing with 75 bucks plus of wine , what is 5 bucks for piece of mind . Greg
Here are some at $3.50.
Greg Boyd wrote:
Those are nice for stoppering wine post fermentation, but I had one pop out and land on the floor when I used it on an active fermentation. They're kind of slippery when wet.
They'd be good for long term bulk aging though - certainly better than a solid stopper - because they'd never allow the pressure to get high enough to blow the bottom out of a carboy.
Tom S
Thanks much. Am putting the wine back under S-airlocks, and have ordered these 'one-way' breathable stoppers.
One issue with bulk aging using these stoppers though - I don't believe they're truly airtight when the wine is still. I used them last year this way on several reds and most of them showed some oxidation at the top layer of the carboy; in the worst case I the oxidation affected a full 3 gal carboy. I even had a saran wrap on top (single layer) and it didn't help.
This is the first time this happened to me on this scale and it was the first year I used these stoppers for bulk aging. The sulfite additions were pretty typical, if anything, slightly higher than normal.
Pp
Are you saying that the silicon stoppers (that are supposed to allow CO2 to escape, but not let air in) were not effective in keeping your wine sealed? What were you using previously that WAS effective? What do you use now?
Yes, that was my impression - they worked well during fermentation and shortly after but not for long term bulk aging.
Before I used regular airlocks or solid rubber bungs, without noticeable oxidation issues.
I'm using the silicone bungs for fermenting and some time after, but once the ferment is done, I'd cover the stopper with several layers of Saran wrap. I'm thinking of replacing this with a regular airlock for bulk aging or solid bung if the wine had been degassed.
Pp
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