"Hoss" > wrote in message
...

> How do you keep air from affecting the wine at this stage by
> propogating the fermenting must into the finally largest volume? At
> this point are we just banking on the yeast producing enough CO2?
>

Some people look at me with horror when I tell them I will start 5-6 gallon
batches in my 10 gallon carboy. I have the large carboy under an airlock
from the get go which gives the must 4 gallons of air headspace for yeast
devlopement but after 24 hours it's already bubbling out the air lock once
every 6 seconds. I have never had an oxidation problem from starting in the
large vat and moving to a correct sized carboy after a week or more.

Last night I started a 3 gallon dry mead in a 3 gallon carboy but instead
of putting it under an airlock right away I have it fermenting with only
paper towel covering the top to keep dust and flies out. If the wine is
fermenting well and bubbling a lot there is small blanket of CO2 over the
surface. When the bubbling slows you have to add an O2 barrier.