Most jugs and carboys are rated where they are filled to a point that is
much less than you would use for a topped up wine carboy. The difference
can easily be 2 or 3 liters or maybe even more. Most of my 5 gallon
carboy's will hold 5.5 gal's. Some of my 6 gal carboys will hold close to 7
gal's. You eventually get to know your carboy's.

Ray

"Daniel_B" > wrote in message
news
> Hi group. I haven't made a visit here for quite awhile. Hope all you winos
> are doing fine.
>
> Here's my story.
>
> For the past almost 14 years, I've been working with two 18.9 litre glass
> carboys, one 30 litre (to the brim) graduated every 5 liters plastic
> primary, and one non-graduated plastic primary that originally contained
> 23 litres wine grape juice.
>
> I started my batch of rhubarb wine at the beginning of the month. I had 72
> lbs of frozen rhubarb, so I knew I was going to need more equipment (plus
> my two 18.9 litre carboys are filled and bulk aging other wines). So I
> bought two "10 gallon" plastic primaries, with a single graduation at 22.7
> litres. I also bought four 23 litre glass carboys (I think they really
> work out to 22.7 litre, but they call them 23's) and one 11.3 litre glass
> carboy. I started with my old 30 litre primary, and racked the batch into
> a new "10 gallon", marking the new primary every 5 litres. When it got to
> the 22.7 litre mark on the new primary, the old appeared to be down the
> appropriate amount, which confirmed to me that the mark was in the correct
> place. I continued until I had marks every 5 litres up to 40 litres. I
> then measured each mark and transfered them over to the second "10 gallon"
> primary I bought.
>
> After all the ingredients were added, I had two batches that were pretty
> much bang on 40 litres each. It wasn't later that I realized that this
> happened to be the perfect volume for my new glass primaries, assuming
> very little was lost in the racking. 23+23+23+11.3 litres was the four
> carboys I needed.
>
> But when I racked, I didn't have the volume I expected. There was minimal
> loss left in the bottom of the two primaries. I got the three 23 litre
> carboys filled into the neck, but then only had slightly less than 6
> litres left, not the 10 to 11 I had expected.
>
> What happened? Are carboys filled into the neck way over their stated
> volume? I only lost a half litre at most during racking. And inaccuracies
> in the volume marks on my old primary (the marking lines are about 1/8"
> thick) don't seem to be enough to be that far off.
>
> Thanks, Dan
>
>