Topping idea!

That's a good, but not original, idea. Makes racking a little messier though from what I've read.

Tom S

And I recall marbles being quite expensive, when I looked last into the idea. Ken

I can't imagine why.

I just take them from my son. He never misses them.

Dick

It is a good idea but not all good ideas work the way we expect.

First, it will take more marbles than you think. When marbles are stacked they leave between 28 and 33% space between them so you will need about 33% more volume of marbles than you think you will need. If you need 1 gallon of topping, then you will need about 1 and 1/3 gallons of marbles. That is a lot of marbles.

Another problem comes from that space. When you add the marbles, that space between the marbles is filled with wine (of course). So you have a 5 gallon jug filled with wine and 2 to 6 inches of marbles in the bottom. Great so far.

But the wine drops some sediment. Normally the sediment will drop to the bottom of the jug and you just rack the clear wine off the top loosing a 1/2 inch or an inch of wine. But if you use marbles, the sediment coats the marbles. You cannot rack any of the wine that is between the marbles. You can only rack down to 1/2 inch or an inch above the marbles. Now you have clear wine that is a whole lot less than the original volume and your topping problem is worse than you started out with.

And now the only way you can save the wine between the marbles is to pour it off and let it clear again in another container which must be topped up also.

A good idea but it just does not work that well.

If you do not want to add water to top up your wines, the best method is to have a bunch of different size carboys. I have 6's, 5,'s, 3's, 2.8's, 1's,

4/5's, and 1/2's. And if I still have some left over I can put it in an wine bottle and put an airlock on that. Just keep a bunch of different size bungs and a lot of airlocks. With combinations of the above I can rack of any of my wines and not worry about topping up.

Ray