How full can a fermentation bucket be?

[Mikeymu]

Recipe 3 gallons mixed fruit

3 lbs elderberries
3 lbs blackberries
12 fl oz ribena (heated to drive off stabilisers)
sugar, water, nutrient, pectolase etc

Original gravity @ 17C 1.103


The level was at 3 gallons before I added a muslin bag of fruit pulp - skins etc and now it is at 15 litres and there is a 1 inch gap between the top of the must and the lid.

I have never filled a fermentation bucket up as much as this before and wondered if I'm going to need to take some out until it settles down. Any suggestions from the more experienced?

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

You won't harm it by taking a couple of litres out and freezing it.

That sounds like an interesting wine - let us know how it turns out!

 

[chrig]

Keep an eye out for the fruit pushing the lid off, I did a full fv with lots of elderberrys in it and had this issue.. I had to remove some liquid in to a demijohn to stop it causing a mess.

 

[LeithR]

I agree with Tim C, take some liquid off and freeze it so you do not have blow out problems. When the brew is down to around 1010 then put the thawed juice back into the brew to ferment further.

Good luck it sounds great!

 

[Mikeymu]

Thanks guys for your supportive answers and suggestions.

I'm having to wait at the moment to see if this will actually get fermenting - my brews usually are bubbling within 5 hours, unlike this one. Perhaps I didn't boil off the stabilising chemicals from the ribena properly - time will tell.

One thing I must say though is that I did a couple of mixed berry brews last year and used oak chips (at a rate of 7g per gallon once the ferment had stopped and for no more than 5 days) and the results were (and are) extremely satisfying.

I have done them with elderberries, blackberries, ribena and then either sloes or damsons so that there have been 4 types of berry involved. I just had some fruit left over in the freezer and thought that if I could brew so much wine I couldn't drink it all within two years then I'd get to see what it tasted like when fully mature! :drink:

 

[artyb]

that looks like a good recipe .. :thumb:

i have elder and black berries in the freezer so will be giving it a go ... :party:

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I'm having to wait at the moment to see if this will actually get fermenting - my brews usually are bubbling within 5 hours, unlike this one. Perhaps I didn't boil off the stabilising chemicals from the ribena properly - time will tell.

Ready-to-drink ribena doesn't contain preservatives, so doesn't need boiling, however it also contains relatively little blackcurrant, just 60ml per litre. 4L of drink would give you the equivalent of 1/2L of fresh fruit so, if you do this wine again (and I'm tempted to do it myself) using fruit would be better if you can get hold of it. It would also probably be cheaper.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Since the pulp is in a bag, it's not going to overflow. I recently had a total of 5 gallons of grape juice and pulp in a 5 gallon fermenting bin. Once fermentation got under way, the pulp filled with gas and expanded dramatically to the top of the bin, pressing on the lid. Fortunately I have a larger bin to transfer to, to be on the safe side.