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Chippy_Tea

Chippy_Tea

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When we make wine to the WOW guide there is no mention of using boiled water to bring the juice to the shoulder before starting fermentation, the 30 bottle kits i regularly make say start with 5 litres of boiling water add all the ingredients then top up to 23 litres with cold water, again no mention of cooled boiled water.

Why are we advised to use cooled boiled water to top up half way through fermentation, if it is safe to use tap water before starting why is it not safe to use it to top up ?
 
Boiling water sorts out the chlorine/chloramine issue (and any other nasties that might be in it), and may help deal with excessive hardness. That's the only significant reason for boiling it, if you're not worried about that, use cold. My local mains water is pretty good so I use it straight, usually. And then again, some people prefer to use bottled water.
 
Thanks, i will carry on using tap water to make up the 23 litre kits and boiled for topping the DJ's up.
 
Can I hijack this thread as I have a question also on topping up......

I made a mint wine, its fermented now down to 1.010 from 1.100 (so 11.81% I think) but I have a huge air gap that needs filling in the DJ, made a huge mess up on this one I think. circa 4" to the neck of the bottle needs filling. Should I make a sugar syrup and whack it in. When I racked it I used a campden tablet, no stabiliser, so could it carry on fermenting if there are still some yeasties in there?

Help! :wha:
 
I assume by 4 inch you mean its at the shoulder of the DJ, top up with cooled boiled water.
 
If you top up with water it will of course reduce the ABV.
So if you want to maintain that ABV, you need to use a sugar syrup with the same sugar concentration as the original. More if you want it higher.
 
Oldbloke i know your answer above was not to me but i am curious, when you say add sugar to the original concentration do you mean add the same as you did when you started, assuming it was 800g do you divide it by 10 as there is probably only half a litre to add to make it 5 litres.
 

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