A six gallon kit in a ~5 gallon secondary fermenter
 

I have a problem here where I have a kit that makes 6 gallons of wine,
which won't fit in my secondary fermenter. It will all fit in the
primary, so my plan is to mix the entire volume as normal in the primary
fermenter, but only move over 5 gallons into the secondary. There are a
lot of disclaimers about making 5 gallons of wine from the mix. My
impression of all of them is that is using the full kit with only 5
gallons of starting water. I think I'd be in the clear here if I do it
this way. Am I asking for serious trouble?

Why not make the kit as called for in the instructions. Then rack into your
5 gallon carboy plus a 1 gallon bottle.

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas USA


"Adam Preble" > wrote in message
...
>I have a problem here where I have a kit that makes 6 gallons of wine,
>which won't fit in my secondary fermenter. It will all fit in the primary,
>so my plan is to mix the entire volume as normal in the primary fermenter,
>but only move over 5 gallons into the secondary. There are a lot of
>disclaimers about making 5 gallons of wine from the mix. My impression of
>all of them is that is using the full kit with only 5 gallons of starting
>water. I think I'd be in the clear here if I do it this way. Am I asking
>for serious trouble?

William Frazier wrote:
> Why not make the kit as called for in the instructions. Then rack
into your
> 5 gallon carboy plus a 1 gallon bottle.

Hi Bill,

I think that's what he is proposing.

Adam,

No problems doing it that way. I usually store the extra in different
sizes of plastic soda bottles (from .5 liter to 2 liter) and use it as
top up wine. I like the soda bottles because you can squeeze them to
eliminate head space as you use the wine for topping up.

Andy

Exactly what I would suggest. When I make a batch of wine from scratch I
like to make 7 gal batches so that I can fill a 6 gal carboy and a 1 gal
carboy. That way when I rack I have plenty to top up with. It works out
very nicely. Oh, before you get to that point, fine a 1/2 gal. jug that you
can use because on first racking you probably will not use the entire extra
gallon. This is a great method of avoiding the topping up problem.

Ray

"William Frazier" > wrote in message
...
> Why not make the kit as called for in the instructions. Then rack into
> your 5 gallon carboy plus a 1 gallon bottle.
>
> Bill Frazier
> Olathe, Kansas USA
>
>
> "Adam Preble" > wrote in message
> ...
>>I have a problem here where I have a kit that makes 6 gallons of wine,
>>which won't fit in my secondary fermenter. It will all fit in the
>>primary, so my plan is to mix the entire volume as normal in the primary
>>fermenter, but only move over 5 gallons into the secondary. There are a
>>lot of disclaimers about making 5 gallons of wine from the mix. My
>>impression of all of them is that is using the full kit with only 5
>>gallons of starting water. I think I'd be in the clear here if I do it
>>this way. Am I asking for serious trouble?
>
>

Exactly what I would suggest. When I make a batch of wine from scratch I
like to make 7 gal batches so that I can fill a 6 gal carboy and a 1 gal
carboy. That way when I rack I have plenty to top up with. It works out
very nicely. Oh, before you get to that point, fine a 1/2 gal. jug that you
can use because on first racking you probably will not use the entire extra
gallon. This is a great method of avoiding the topping up problem.

Ray

"William Frazier" > wrote in message
...
> Why not make the kit as called for in the instructions. Then rack into
> your 5 gallon carboy plus a 1 gallon bottle.
>
> Bill Frazier
> Olathe, Kansas USA
>
>
> "Adam Preble" > wrote in message
> ...
>>I have a problem here where I have a kit that makes 6 gallons of wine,
>>which won't fit in my secondary fermenter. It will all fit in the
>>primary, so my plan is to mix the entire volume as normal in the primary
>>fermenter, but only move over 5 gallons into the secondary. There are a
>>lot of disclaimers about making 5 gallons of wine from the mix. My
>>impression of all of them is that is using the full kit with only 5
>>gallons of starting water. I think I'd be in the clear here if I do it
>>this way. Am I asking for serious trouble?
>
>