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To Airlock of just seal the carboy?

Hi, This may be a simple question, but google and Jack's website and this newsgroup doesn't seem to have an answer (or I'm a little slow on my searches).

I bottled a gallon of Welch's Concord too early, because it is cloudy. I had followed Jack's recipe, and stablized it, etc. It looked ok, until I put it into 350ml clear bottles, then I could tell it was a bit cloudy.

So 7 days after bottling, I got up my nerve and I uncorked the bottles and put the wine back into a carboy and added 1/2 teaspoon of sparkolloid (after desolving in 1/2 cup of cold water, per instructions). Then I realized I don't have any spare airlocks - so the question is, if I seal the top -- is that ok?

The carboy has a screw top - so I put it on and have started a cold treatment on the wine. there is less then 1/2 inch air on top.

So, if the wine is stablized, and done. Can I just seal the 2 weeks while the sparkolloid does it's magic, or am I doing something to it by not having an airlock?

DAve p.s. Besides the airlock missing, am I nutz for uncorking and trying to move it forward again? After I found out I should wait up to a year to drink , I thought - man, oh, man, wait a year KNOWING it's cloudy. stupid.

Reply to
DAve Allison
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Dave,

You could fold up a piece of plastic food wrap and use a rubber band. Combining the Sparkaloid and cold stabilization might do the trick.

Mike MTM

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Reply to
Mike McGeough

Ah. Good idea. But I am still puzzled how an airlock, or a screwtop seal is different. But I will do what you suggest. Great idea.

Mike McGeough wrote:

Reply to
DAve Allison

DAve Allison wrote: > Ah. Good idea. > But I am still puzzled how an airlock, or a screwtop seal is different. > But I will do what you suggest. Great idea. Dave, An airlock _probably_ works better at preventing O2 from entering the carboy, but the rubber banded Saran wrap works fine, even for weeks on end, in my experience. A screw cap makes an airtight seat, and an excessive pressure change (gas pressure, partial freezing, etc) could result in a bursting carboy. Also, dissolved CO2 can gradually escape thru the airlock or Saran cover.

Reply to
Mike McGeough

The airlock just compensates for pressure change, that's all. Use a couple layers of Saran or screw the cap tight and check it once in a while to make sure you have no pressure.

Concord won't improve much with age; you can drink it earlier than dry wines. It's made sweet because of the foxy taste.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

Hi Dave,

The problem I have with Sparkalloid is that you can very easily end up with lots of "floaty bits" in the bottle even though the wine looks perfectly clear in the carboy (and in the bottle at first). Unless you are going to filter the wine, I recommend letting it bulk age in the carboy for 4 to 6 months after fining with Sparkalloid. You could try to fine with something else, like betoninte, as a "topping" for the Sparkalloid, but that will create lots of fluffly lees to rack off of. If you've got a red wine, maybe the sparkalloid "floaty bits" won't be as bothersome.

For most red wines, bulk aging and racking go a long way to clarify the wine all by themselves, along with a light fining with betonite, gelatin, or egg whites.

Jon [Check out my winemaking homepage

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Reply to
Jon Gilliam

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