Starting wines in honey buckets

[Tibley Bobley]

I've just started a Wine Number 1 in a 5-litre honey bucket. All the wines I've got on the go have started in lidded buckets with airlocks - and most of those buckets were 5 and 10 litre honey buckets. Now, after a comment from Pete, I'm wondering about the smaller (1-gallon/5-litre) buckets and the amount of air available for the starting yeast. I may not have left enough head space. Doh! So what do you think... how much head space is enough head space, should I leave out the airlock, perhaps (cover with something a bit more permeable than an airlock) - and how long does the yeast work aerobically?

[goldseal]

I would think about starting at a slightly lower volume, so you have a little headspace. Give it a good splashy stir a couple of times in the first couple of days.

Whilst it is fermenting strongly, there will be a blanket of CO2 protecting the must. Once it gets down to 1.010 or less you should think about getting rid of the headspace completely. I think you mentioned 5l supermarket water bottles - they are fine, just drill a hole in the lid, fit with an airlock grommet and airlock, top it up to within an ich or so of the lid, job done.

[Tibley Bobley]

Thanks Pete. I've just come back from my daily wine-stirring duties and I removed about 1/3 pint from the 5-litre bucket (giving it a good, hearty stir whilst I was about it). It had bubbled up vigorously and filled the airlock with juice. I'll get out the hammer and hole punch as soon as I've emptied a water bottle. It's a pain, in any case, trying to get the SG from wine in a squat little bucket... not deep enough for the hydrometer, never mind the "wine thief".

[fatbloke]

Thanks Pete. I've just come back from my daily wine-stirring duties and I removed about 1/3 pint from the 5-litre bucket (giving it a good, hearty stir whilst I was about it). It had bubbled up vigorously and filled the airlock with juice. I'll get out the hammer and hole punch as soon as I've emptied a water bottle. It's a pain, in any case, trying to get the SG from wine in a squat little bucket... not deep enough for the hydrometer, never mind the "wine thief".

Well, how about mixing the must to the required recipe, so you can get the usual measurements i.e. gravity etc, then remove about 1 litre into a soda/tonic bottle and put that in the fridge. Then pitch the yeast,aerate and ferment etc until you're happy that it's not gonna foam like hell, and then add the reserved must from the fridge (obviously let it come up to room temp first). Then Pete's other points all come into play.

After all, the protective blanket of CO2 will still do it's thing i.e. you could add back the reserved must and if you've put a grommet into the bucket lid, you can easily just leave it there to finish the ferment, and it's ready to be racked off the gross lees into glass, so you can then observe how it's getting on, clearing-wise etc.

If you have a test jar, as well as a hydrometer, then you can just use a sanitised turkey baster to take a sample - and yes, while a lot of people don't, I just make sure that the hydrometer/test jar/turkey baster is properly sanitised and then chuck the test sample back into the rest of the ferment. That way you don't have any problems with liquid depth for testing - 100mls is usually enough for testing.

[Tibley Bobley]

Well, how extraordinary... I bought one of those baster syringe thingies only the other day, thinking it would come in handy for drawing off nicely fermenting wine and injecting it through those non-convoluted airlocks, into wines that seem not to be fermenting as they should.

Good advice, in any case. Thank you. I haven't got a suitable test jar at the moment... apart from the "thief". I've come across a plastic "trial jar" which looks like the kit for the job. I'll have to buy one of those.