home winemaking tip
“Marbles for home winemaking?” you ask. “What on earth would marbles have to do with making wine?”
Well, marbles certainly won’t impart any flavors to your wine (unless of course you have not sanitized them first – and that would be a bad thing), but marbles can come in very handy. Marbles don’t seem to be as popular in the school playgrounds as they were when I was in grade two, but we used to have fun with both the large and small size marbles. Both sizes can be very handy in your winemaking endeavors.
Some winemakers love to make use of additives such as oak cubes, oak chips, or elderberry flowers to their carboys while their wine is fermenting and/or bulk aging. The problem is, these additives will float on the top of the wine and much of their effectiveness is lost. So what can you do to increase the effectiveness of your oak or dried elderberry flowers? Use your marbles!
You can purchase nylon mesh bags in various sizes or you can make your own like others who make wine at home with some imagination using cheese cloth, thread and needle. For the carboy which has a small opening, you’ll of course want to make or purchase smaller bags that will easily fit through the mouth of the carboy when you want to remove it. If you’re planning on using oak cubes, consider that it will be easier to remove a bag with oak cubes the closer the width of the bag is to the size of the cubes. Pulling a bag out through a small opening, even though you managed to squeeze them in, will be much more difficult when the cubes all bunch up together where the diameter of the carboy is smaller at it’s opening.
Once you have your bag, throw in a few marbles first (you should test to find out how many marbles you will need if you are submersing oak to ensure they sink below the surface). Then add your additive ingredients. Tie a knot in the top of your bag, and then attach a string that is long enough string that can extend from the top of the submerged bag to hang outside of the carboy. For this, 10 lb. test fishing line works well, and you will still have a tight fit for your bung and airlock assembly.
Marbles can also useful after you have racked your wine from one fermentation vessel to another. Sometimes, when trying to avoid syphoning the sediment from the bottom, you’ll lose a small quantity of wine and end up with too much head space (officially referred to as ullage When this occurs, home winemakers are often told to “top off” the wine to decrease the head space between the carboy opening and the top of the wine. Topping off with the same style of wine is preferred when this happens, but often you might not have any available. Some wine kits advise to top off with water. What you can also do is use the marbles to displace the air. Don’t just simply drop your marbles into the carboy, though! Use the nylon bag as described above. As the marbles are submerged into the wine, the head space will be reduced.
As always, be sure to use glass marbles that have been sanitized thoroughly in a sulfite water solution.
About the Author:
Ian Hugh Scott has been making his own wine for years. As well as wines from commercially available kits, he has discovered the pleasures of experimenting with other ingredients such as black currants, strawberries, blueberries, and even ginger and parsnip! Follow along with Ian’s regular home winemaking activities.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Don’t Lose Your Marbles – Keep Them For Your Home Winemaking
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