Just sharing a top tip with you from over here in England. It takes a long time to degas the wine when it is still in the carboy, (as you demonstrated with your long thin spoon with the tiny paddle spoon on the end). What we do over here is temporarily transfer the wine back into a sanitised large pail and stir in the two packets of stabiliser for about two minutes with a LARGE spoon. Then we mix in the isinglass or chitosan, again stirring vigorously for two minutes. This method releases much more gas in a very short time. We then transfer the mix back into the carboy and leave for a further fortnight until it is ready to bottle. I hope you and your friends find this top tip useful. Very best wishes from over the pond and happy wine-making. P2
if you want to make the wine "as per instructions" then drop the potassium metabisulphite first before the sorbate. (by adding the meta you might see the wine foam up a bit...usually an indication that the wine is still fermenting)
How much wiggle room is there in the wine making process? Do you have to be very precise, or is there some room for beginner mistakes? And thank you for the informative video.
Hello Allie. There is quite a bit of wiggle room. It is not very difficult. Provided that you measure your starting volume (6 gallons in this case) correctly and you add the packets in the right order, there is room for many errors. Thanks! John
if you're making wine from a kit it's almost impossible to mess up add water before bentonite (you don't need to) add the juice, then yeast allow to ferment! red wine 8-10 days, white 10-12 days fermentation is the most important part. after, add all the component packs at the same time. it won't make any difference. let sit for a week or two (rack a week later or wait two weeks and filter) BOOM. you're done. you do not need to "baby" wine from kits
great video, you should have mentioned that before you add the yeast you need to make sure the temperature of the juice is between 70-75° F. This is very important
getting ready to start my first batch of wine. my question is is can you use a #9 cork on a reused screw cap wine bottle. I am asking my co workers to give me their used wine bottles so I dont have to buy them with the promise to give them the bottles back full IF it comes out good.
Hi! Yes, you can cork a screw cap bottle but I would not recommend it as a standard practice. The neck is thinner than a corkable bottle and more likely to crack when you are corking it. Thanks! John
Thank you very much. I am new to this and I did a batch from Welches and it turned out very good at 15.75%. I want to do a kit and you answered my question. Thank you very much.
Just sharing a top tip with you from over here in England. It takes a long time to degas the wine when it is still in the carboy, (as you demonstrated with your long thin spoon with the tiny paddle spoon on the end). What we do over here is temporarily transfer the wine back into a sanitised large pail and stir in the two packets of stabiliser for about two minutes with a LARGE spoon. Then we mix in the isinglass or chitosan, again stirring vigorously for two minutes. This method releases much more gas in a very short time. We then transfer the mix back into the carboy and leave for a further fortnight until it is ready to bottle. I hope you and your friends find this top tip useful. Very best wishes from over the pond and happy wine-making. P2
fantastic job of explaining the process. i keep referring back to your video as i'm working on my first kit. thanks.
Just wanted to thank you for this video, very informative for this newbie!
Very Informative video!! Thank you for making the presentation on wine making with Winexpert kit.
You did a fantastic job....Thanks for your time and effort. I look forward to making wine in the future
This was a very helpful video, thank you for taking time to make it.
C Brite is fine.
thanks
john
Great video. Now it's my turn to try.
if you want to make the wine "as per instructions" then drop the potassium metabisulphite first before the sorbate. (by adding the meta you might see the wine foam up a bit...usually an indication that the wine is still fermenting)
How much wiggle room is there in the wine making process? Do you have to be very precise, or is there some room for beginner mistakes?
And thank you for the informative video.
Hello Allie. There is quite a bit of wiggle room. It is not very difficult. Provided that you measure your starting volume (6 gallons in this case) correctly and you add the packets in the right order, there is room for many errors.
Thanks!
John
if you're making wine from a kit it's almost impossible to mess up
add water before bentonite (you don't need to)
add the juice, then yeast
allow to ferment! red wine 8-10 days, white 10-12 days
fermentation is the most important part.
after, add all the component packs at the same time. it won't make any difference.
let sit for a week or two (rack a week later or wait two weeks and filter)
BOOM. you're done.
you do not need to "baby" wine from kits
great video, you should have mentioned that before you add the yeast you need to make sure the temperature of the juice is between 70-75° F. This is very important
+Daniel Salmon Good Point!
Lovely.
SG when I transferred to secondary was a surprising 0.004 and not the expected 1.010. Should I stabilize now or wait 10 days as per instructions?
+david dominguez Best to just be patient and wait the 10 days. Thanks! John
Great Video! Is C-Brite acceptable for use in winemaking for cleaning and sanitizing?
C Brite is fine
thanks
john
getting ready to start my first batch of wine. my question is is can you use a #9 cork on a reused screw cap wine bottle. I am asking my co workers to give me their used wine bottles so I dont have to buy them with the promise to give them the bottles back full IF it comes out good.
Hi! Yes, you can cork a screw cap bottle but I would not recommend it as a standard practice. The neck is thinner than a corkable bottle and more likely to crack when you are corking it.
Thanks!
John
Does the little packets of things come with the juice when I order it?
+Nelsonm97
Yes they are all included. Thanks!
will it hurt the wine if I added the yeast before the bentonite in wine ?
+pad
No, Not at all
How long after bottling should the wine age before drinking?
+ohiohamguy
3-6 months would be best. The hard part is patience!
What can I use if I don't have the test jar, and what's a wine thief?
+Terri Curran
A tall glass will work. A wine thief is just like a turkey baster - use it to draw out a sample. Thanks!
Can you add sugar to make the end result be at 16% alc.?
Hi Jim. Yes you could. You would need to make sure to use a yeast strain that can tolerate 16% though.
Thank you very much. I am new to this and I did a batch from Welches and it turned out very good at 15.75%. I want to do a kit and you answered my question. Thank you very much.
when are you Americans going to use degrees Celsius......... so much easier !
no
Seeing as how we are American and we have used degrees Fahrenheit our entire lives, I am pretty your it is Fahrenheit that is much easier, for us!