Lazy Man's Wine Storage / Bottling

[brewnewb]

I'm ashamed to admit this but here's what I've done for the past 2 weeks:

I made a 5 gal batch of redneck blush on Feb 6 2019. I let it ferment for 3 months.

Now for the LAZY part ..... Just about each day, I fill a wine bottle, add a stopper and stick it in the fridge to chill. Once that bottle is gone, I literally rinse, refill and repeat. I've done this about 10X and so far I do not see any off tastes.

The batch is sitting in a 30L plastic fermenting bucket with the air bubbler still in it. I plan to just continue this process until the batch is gone.

QUESTION: Am I playing with fire and risking contamination? I guess time will tell.

[berryman]

QUESTION: Am I playing with fire and risking contamination? I guess time will tell.

I would say probably yes, but if it's working, why not continue. Now you have to hear a long berryman story . About 45 years ago I use to go down to one of my Dads friends with him, an old Italian guy that made a lot of wine. At any given time there would be 10 or more 5 gal. carboys of wine at various stages in his basement. When we went there he would siphon out some for us to try, out of a lot of different kinds. Was not the most sanitary the way he did it. Would start the siphon like we used to do when siphoning gas back in the old days by sucking on the hose to get it going to fill up a sample jar, put the airlock back and move on to the next one and did that for years. If worried put some potassium metabisulphite or potassium sorbate in. I'm thinking the oxidation would be the main problem and wine doesn't seem quite as sensitive as beer on that. Sounds like you are using it up somewhat fast anyways

[mashani]

Only other thing would be the oxygen + acetobacter. Because that combination (it takes both) eats your alcohol and makes wine vinegar.

But you probably won't get acetobacter in it with it still airlocked as long as the airlock is functioning. So as long as there wasn't any in there to begin with your probably ok. I think you'd already know if it was the case.

I'd still not make sour kraut right next to it though.

[brewnewb]

With Memorial Day this weekend, I won't be shocked if we finish off this batch. A 5 g batch yields about 27 750ml bottles. I tend to pour on the heavy side. I never understood wine etiquette and half full glasses.

I must say, not having 27 bottles to wash, cork and store is appealing.

I have a friend who is a wine snob. She's a french teacher who studied in Paris for a year. She has switched over from small bottles to 3L boxes of "better" wine. She said it's a PITA to buy / store / open all those stupid bottles.

[LouieMacGoo]

Something you might want to consider is getting a couple of 5 gallon corny kegs and storing your wine in them. You could add just enough CO2 to prevent oxygenation and hook up and increase the CO2 when you want to fill a bottle. This would still make it pretty easy to keep in line with your Lazy Man ways.

[brewnewb]

Something you might want to consider is getting a couple of 5 gallon corny kegs and storing your wine in them. You could add just enough CO2 to prevent oxygenation and hook up and increase the CO2 when you want to fill a bottle. This would still make it pretty easy to keep in line with your Lazy Man ways.

That's exactly what I used to do and it was a great set up. We moved last year and my kegerator was built into my bar and stayed with the house. As my brewing was really slowing down prior to the move, I ended up selling off all my kegs and kegging equip.

I'd have to start from scratch and that may not go over well with you know who. Especially since I spent the proceeds on the BEERMKR system. I'm looking forward to it's arrival because that appears to be a lazy mans gadget.