I have three containers suitable for use as primaries, and three of the
basic BrewKing kits sitting about. I'm about to go on vacation for a
month, and will have little wine upon return.

How much damage would it do if I launched all three before leaving,
allowing them to sit on their own, uhh, crud for a month?

hawk

--
Richard E. Hawkins, Asst. Prof. of Economics /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign
111 Hiller (814) 375-4846 \ / against HTML mail
These opinions will not be those of X and postings.
Penn State until it pays my retainer. / \

"Dr. Richard E. Hawkins" > wrote in message
...
> I have three containers suitable for use as primaries, and three of the
> basic BrewKing kits sitting about. I'm about to go on vacation for a
> month, and will have little wine upon return.
>
> How much damage would it do if I launched all three before leaving,
> allowing them to sit on their own, uhh, crud for a month?

Unless you have an exceptionally cool cellar I wouldn't recommend that.

If you insist, do _one_ batch in an airlocked carboy, with _plenty_ of
headspace (or better still, split it between two carboys). Fill the airlock
with glycerine so it won't dry out. Have a nice trip, and hope for the
best.

Bon voyage!

Tom S

I agree with Tom. Primaries are notorious for not sealing well, even if
they have what seems like a tight lid.

You could start them in glass secondaries under airlocks and they would be
pretty much okay. Just do not fill them more that 2/3's full or you may
come back to a mess and ruined wine. Be sure to aerate them good when you
start them.

Ray

"Dr. Richard E. Hawkins" > wrote in message
...
> I have three containers suitable for use as primaries, and three of the
> basic BrewKing kits sitting about. I'm about to go on vacation for a
> month, and will have little wine upon return.
>
> How much damage would it do if I launched all three before leaving,
> allowing them to sit on their own, uhh, crud for a month?
>
> hawk
>
> --
> Richard E. Hawkins, Asst. Prof. of Economics /"\ ASCII ribbon
campaign
> 111 Hiller (814) 375-4846 \ / against HTML mail
> These opinions will not be those of X and postings.
> Penn State until it pays my retainer. / \

In article > ,
Tom S > wrote:

>"Dr. Richard E. Hawkins" > wrote in message
...
>> I have three containers suitable for use as primaries, and three of the
>> basic BrewKing kits sitting about. I'm about to go on vacation for a
>> month, and will have little wine upon return.

>> How much damage would it do if I launched all three before leaving,
>> allowing them to sit on their own, uhh, crud for a month?

>Unless you have an exceptionally cool cellar I wouldn't recommend that.

I'm not seeing what the difference would be with the heat, though. I'm
thinking of the ground floor of the house.

>If you insist, do _one_ batch in an airlocked carboy, with _plenty_ of
>headspace (or better still, split it between two carboys). Fill the airlock
>with glycerine so it won't dry out. Have a nice trip, and hope for the
>best.

I have two seven gallon carboys and an odd fermenting bucket. I excpect
to get a few more of these in the fall--grape juice for winemaking is
sold in them locally. It has a rubber airlock built in (I'd never heard
of such a thing, but it's a small gasket, apparently with a flap.

It's not the bubbling over that I'm concerned about, but the staying in
contact with the gunk that falls out during fermentation.

hawk
--
Richard E. Hawkins, Asst. Prof. of Economics /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign
111 Hiller (814) 375-4846 \ / against HTML mail
These opinions will not be those of X and postings.
Penn State until it pays my retainer. / \

Seriously, wait till you get back before you start the wine. You are
playing with oxidation bigtime leaving it in a container with lot of
headspace.

In article >,
D. Evans > wrote:
>Seriously, wait till you get back before you start the wine. You are
>playing with oxidation bigtime leaving it in a container with lot of
>headspace.

Clearly not in the carboys--the volume of CO2 simply floods the chamber.
I don't know how one-way the airlock in the bucket is, though. In my
old homebrew buckets, this wouldn't have been an issue (but a month of
trub could be), but they had heavy-duty seals and used regular airlocks.

I'm really hoping, thought, that someone can enlighten me about sitting
on it's own byproduct for a month . . .

hawk

--
Richard E. Hawkins, Asst. Prof. of Economics /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign
111 Hiller (814) 375-4846 \ / against HTML mail
These opinions will not be those of X and postings.
Penn State until it pays my retainer. / \

> Clearly not in the carboys--the volume of CO2 simply floods the chamber.
> I don't know how one-way the airlock in the bucket is, though. In my
> old homebrew buckets, this wouldn't have been an issue (but a month of
> trub could be), but they had heavy-duty seals and used regular airlocks.
>
> I'm really hoping, thought, that someone can enlighten me about sitting
> on it's own byproduct for a month . . .
>
> hawk

Ya, I make beer and all the information out there says not to go
longer than a month or so in the primary because the yeast will have
no sugar to eat and start eating itself causing 'rubbery' flavors.

Can the same be said for wine?

You are right, in secondary under an airlock, head space is no problem
during fermentation. It only becomes a problem if you open the carboy after
fermentation slows down.

Cox in "From Vines to Wines" recommends keeping red wine in contact with the
skins for 20 to 30 days by keeping a layer of CO2 on top when making red
wines. He says it gets the maximum color and flavor extraction.

When making melomels, it is often recommended that you ferment the honey in
primary and then add the fruit during secondary so the CO2 will not blow the
fruit essence away. When doing this you may have contact with the fruit for
1 to 3 months.

Just some comments.

You are definitely going outside normally accepted practice and this is not
necessarily good but winemaking is a forgiving process and it will probably
turn out very nice anyway. You might even like the results better. Sounds
like you really want to do this so do it and let us know how it turns out.

Ray

"Dr. Richard E. Hawkins" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> D. Evans > wrote:
> >Seriously, wait till you get back before you start the wine. You are
> >playing with oxidation bigtime leaving it in a container with lot of
> >headspace.
>
> Clearly not in the carboys--the volume of CO2 simply floods the chamber.
> I don't know how one-way the airlock in the bucket is, though. In my
> old homebrew buckets, this wouldn't have been an issue (but a month of
> trub could be), but they had heavy-duty seals and used regular airlocks.
>
> I'm really hoping, thought, that someone can enlighten me about sitting
> on it's own byproduct for a month . . .
>
> hawk
>
> --
> Richard E. Hawkins, Asst. Prof. of Economics /"\ ASCII ribbon
campaign
> 111 Hiller (814) 375-4846 \ / against HTML mail
> These opinions will not be those of X and postings.
> Penn State until it pays my retainer. / \

You are right, in secondary under an airlock, head space is no problem
during fermentation. It only becomes a problem if you open the carboy after
fermentation slows down.

Cox in "From Vines to Wines" recommends keeping red wine in contact with the
skins for 20 to 30 days by keeping a layer of CO2 on top when making red
wines. He says it gets the maximum color and flavor extraction.

When making melomels, it is often recommended that you ferment the honey in
primary and then add the fruit during secondary so the CO2 will not blow the
fruit essence away. When doing this you may have contact with the fruit for
1 to 3 months.

Just some comments.

You are definitely going outside normally accepted practice and this is not
necessarily good but winemaking is a forgiving process and it will probably
turn out very nice anyway. You might even like the results better. Sounds
like you really want to do this so do it and let us know how it turns out.

Ray

"Dr. Richard E. Hawkins" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> D. Evans > wrote:
> >Seriously, wait till you get back before you start the wine. You are
> >playing with oxidation bigtime leaving it in a container with lot of
> >headspace.
>
> Clearly not in the carboys--the volume of CO2 simply floods the chamber.
> I don't know how one-way the airlock in the bucket is, though. In my
> old homebrew buckets, this wouldn't have been an issue (but a month of
> trub could be), but they had heavy-duty seals and used regular airlocks.
>
> I'm really hoping, thought, that someone can enlighten me about sitting
> on it's own byproduct for a month . . .
>
> hawk
>
> --
> Richard E. Hawkins, Asst. Prof. of Economics /"\ ASCII ribbon
campaign
> 111 Hiller (814) 375-4846 \ / against HTML mail
> These opinions will not be those of X and postings.
> Penn State until it pays my retainer. / \

In article >,
Ray > wrote:
>You are right, in secondary under an airlock, head space is no problem
>during fermentation. It only becomes a problem if you open the carboy after
>fermentation slows down.

I'll be too far away

>Cox in "From Vines to Wines" recommends keeping red wine in contact with the
>skins for 20 to 30 days by keeping a layer of CO2 on top when making red
>wines. He says it gets the maximum color and flavor extraction.

Hmm, then it must be able to handle the exposure to fermentatio
byproducts.

>When making melomels, it is often recommended that you ferment the honey in
>primary and then add the fruit during secondary so the CO2 will not blow the
>fruit essence away. When doing this you may have contact with the fruit for
>1 to 3 months.

I've seen the same for fruit beers. Since I dislike the taste of
fermented honey, I've done a single mead, many years ago.

>Just some comments.

>You are definitely going outside normally accepted practice and this is not
>necessarily good but winemaking is a forgiving process and it will probably
>turn out very nice anyway.

But am I far away if 30 days with skin is already recommended? Or is
there a racking with addition of the skins to the secondary in that.

>You might even like the results better. Sounds
>like you really want to do this so do it and let us know how it turns out.

It's no so much that I want to *do* this, but that I want to have
enough completed simple kits that I can wait for juices & better kits to
ferment

thanks

hawk
--
Richard E. Hawkins, Asst. Prof. of Economics /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign
111 Hiller (814) 375-4846 \ / against HTML mail
These opinions will not be those of X and postings.
Penn State until it pays my retainer. / \

I also agree that the only way to do this would be in an airlocked
carboy. If one of your kits is a white you can chuck the EC-1118 yeast
that probably came with the kit and subsitute Lalvin D-47. It is very
low foaming and I regularily start my whites right in the carboy but
hold back 1 or 2 liters of water. I probably don't even need to do that
but I find I end up adding it back during top ups.

In a cool place or even not that cool of a location it will not foam
over and something like a chardonnay could easily sit on the lees for
a month. If it's a cool fermentation then it may not even be finished
in a month.

The one other item would be to ensure you splash the water and concentrate
into the carboy and stir heavily to ensure that there is enough dissolved
oxygen for the initial reproduction phase of the yeast. If I remember
correctly a couple of sources have said that the amount of dissolved
oxygen is all the yeast will really get or need. I assume that the air
to must contact is not really enough to provide much further oxygen.

Don

and how would you feel sitting on your own byproduct for a month.
>
> I'm really hoping, thought, that someone can enlighten me about sitting
> on it's own byproduct for a month . . .

and how would you feel sitting on your own byproduct for a month.
>
> I'm really hoping, thought, that someone can enlighten me about sitting
> on it's own byproduct for a month . . .