Bottling advice

[Forsh7637]

Hi all. I think I will be bottling my first batch of wine in the next week or two. It’s a Damson wine and it still has a bit of fizz, which I like, and seems to have finished fermenting (been reading <1 on the hydrometer).

I have some used wine bottles but was wondering if you can bottle into something larger, like a growler normally used for craft ales, as I have some of those knocking about.

 

[QED]

We stick our Elderflower Champagne into a 5 litre party keg with a tap and a PRV (pressure release valve). Keeps it nice and fizzy and fresh and maybe a bit too handy to grab a glass a bit too often!

 

[DocAnna]

Hi just my experience but the fizz can make it more difficult for the wine to clear and if you bottle when it's not clear then with storage the settled yeast lysis can really cause off flavours. I've bottled to 2 litre screw topped glass bottles before when bulk ageing and I have a bit more than will fit in my demijohns.

Anna

 

[Forsh7637]

Hi just my experience but the fizz can make it more difficult for the wine to clear and if you bottle when it's not clear then with storage the settled yeast lysis can really cause off flavours. I've bottled to 2 litre screw topped glass bottles before when bulk ageing and I have a bit more than will fit in my demijohns.

Anna

Oh that looks like a good solution. Could you link where you got the keg? Are there any implications in terms of ageing a wine in one of these as opposed to a wine bottle?

 

[DocAnna]

Oh that looks like a good solution. Could you link where you got the keg? Are there any implications in terms of ageing a wine in one of these as opposed to a wine bottle?

I can't think of any problems bottling in something larger other than when it comes to opening it will need drinking in short measure unless you've one of those vacuum pumps for saving wine. Not really an issue in our household. My bottles were a duff item on gumtree, sold as demijohns it was clear when I got there that they weren't but I thought they'd be useful some day - I've two from today with yeast starters in at the moment. They are not expensive to buy new though the ones I have are identical to these 2 Litre Glass Gallone Bottle - Pack of 2 though you can also get screw top half gallon mason jars sold as pickling jars which would be similar if not perhaps as aesthetically pleasing for wine perhaps.

Anna