I’m working on my first batch of muscadine wine. Making 3 gallons, and I’m about a month into it. Should be ready for my first racking soon, but I only have the 3 gal carboy it is in now, and a 6.5 gal primary bucket. I’d like to not have to buy another carboy for this step, so I was wondering if I could maybe rack the wine into 3 seperate (sanitized) gallon jugs long enough to clean and sanitize the original carboy it came from, then pour it back in? Could I just transfer it to the bucket and back? Anyone see a problem with that?
I don’t know how oxygen affects wine… But you’d introduce less by using the one bucket… Avoid splashing as much as possible… Sneezles61
Just keep it in the 3 jugs. This will minimize labor and oxygen intake.
Well, my issue with keeping it in the 3 jugs (which, by “jugs” i meant plastic water gallons, sorry, should have been more specific) is i dont have a way to airlock those to continue my secondary. The bucket is 6.5 gal so I would have a lot of headspace, so I wouldn’t want to keep it in there.
I’ve racked to a bucket then back to the carboy when making wine. Just use good technique and add some nutrient adding that little bit of O2 is actually beneficial. The yeast needs oxygen to keep going
You don’t want a lot of headspace with wine. Instructions will generally state to top it off with a similar wine to reach a certain level.
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Club soda works in a pinch, too. Plus it has the advantage of releasing some CO2 to push out any oxygen in the headspace. Just don’t add too much and water it down.
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The recipes that I have followed also have you add 1 crushed Camden tab per gallon at racking time to counteract any O2 uptake.
Appreciate all the input y’all. I went ahead and just ordered another carboy, play it safe and do it right.
