[timothyg]

A while back I purchased a Vino Italiano Riesling. I followed the instructions perfectly, however 7 or so days after bottling these floating things appeared. Does anyone know what this is?

Now 3 months later the wine is bad/vinegarish - I ended up dumping my last 6 bottles.

Is there anything I did wrong, or is this wine kit's lifetime only 3 months?

[Rocky]

Timothy, it could be a number of things but we would need more information before we can give you a good answer. Sounds like the wine oxidized somehow and in a very short period of time. It could be from oxygen getting to the wine or it could have been from poor sanitization practices.

Do you have a record of everything you did? If you could go through all of that with us, I am sure we could dope it out for you.

[timothyg]

I mixed EasyClean with 1 gallon of water. Then I used this is a spray bottle to spray all the equipment inside and out during each of the steps. I'm guessing this is mistake number 1 since I should use potassium bisulfate as my sanitizer, however I heard that EasyClean can sanitize as well?

7/15 I did the bentonite, wine, water, and yeast in the primary.
7/20 I racked to a carboy. I also cleaned and replaced the air lock.
7/28-7/31 I tested the wine and on the 31st I degassed and stabilized the wine. I also topped it off.
8/6 The wine looked clear so I bottled.

What's interesting about this wine kit is that it doesn't contain any potassium bisulfate, and this was the only kit I ever made that I didn't add any extra.

Another thing was that I screwed up corking and only 2/3 of the cork was in the bottle :-p. I learned from my mistake after this one.

[Rocky]

Tim, are you sure that you did not misplace or overlook the packet of Potassium Metabisulfite? From what I have seen on the web, this kit is supposed to come with K-meta.

From what you have said, I would guess that the lack of K-meta is the culprit in this case. You would not have needed a lot (about 1/4 t for the wine). I use K-meta solution for sanitizing. I understand that the product that you used is supposed to be both a cleaner and a sanitizer, but I have never used it. I wash everything with OxyClean, rinse it well and sanitize with K-meta. Incomplete rinsing the EasyClean could have contributed as could have the corking. I use a #9, 1 3/4" cork for all my wine.

Sorry to hear that the batch was not what you expected. Don't be discouraged and get right back on the horse and try again.

[timothyg]

If the kit would have come with the Potassium Metabisulfite I definitely would have added it. I made that comment below because I scanned the instructions for the ingredients, however I'll double check more thoroughly later today when I return home.

The wine kit actually came with corks. You know a kit is cheap when you purchase a kit for $35 (including shipping) and it includes corks.

In this case I actually used brand new bottles that I sanitized with EasyClean and put on a Bottle Drain Tree. I'm also not 100% sure if the amount of contact time of the EasyClean with the Bottle Rinser on top of the tree would be sufficient. I read that the contact time for EasyClean on the bottle needs to be minutes. Do you think the amount of contact time of EasyClean with a Bottle Rinser on top of a tree is sufficient for proper sanitation???

If you use K-meta for sanitizing the primary fermenting bucket and other stuff that is used for step one, does it ever concern you that a few of the drops of the K-meta can cause the yeast to not start? How long do you wait for stuff to dry?

[Rocky]

I was going by this description on Amazon's web site:

"Important Information
Safety Information
contains sulphites and shellfish derivatives

Ingredients
grape juice concentrate, varietal grape juice, liquid invert sugar, tartaric acid, citric acid, tannin,diammonium phosphate,metabisulphite,bentonite, wine yeast,ascorbic acid,potassium sorbate,kieselsol, chitosan. ay contain oak.

Directions
Step 1: preparation and fermentation. Step 2: clearing. Step 3: bottling and bottle decoration

Legal Disclaimer
Actual product packaging and materials may contain more and different information than what is shown on our website. We recommend that you do not rely solely on the information presented and that you always read labels, warnings, and directions before using or consuming a product. Please see our full disclaimer below. "

The legal disclaimer is interesting. With that disclaimer, you could get a box of candy instead of wine! What may have happened is they forgot to add the packet of K-meta to the kit. Was there anything in the directions, if you still have them, about adding K-meta?

It sounds like you did everything right. With new bottles, you would hardly need do anything except rinse them with hot water. I don't know anything about EasyClean but I would think that your bottles would not have needed a very long contact time.

When I use K-meta to sanitize the primary, I usually just let it sit for about 20 minutes with the cover on, swirl it and dump it out, letting it drain as much as possible in a minute or two. I am not too concerned about the trace amount of chemical that could remain compared to 23 liters of juice.

I would have to say that the problem is the lack of K-meta. It is used in just about every manner of wine production (i.e. from grapes, fresh juice, frozen juice, kits, fruit wines) although some people, for whatever reason, do not add it and run the risk of spoilage in order to avoid adding "chemicals" to their wine.

[timothyg]

The wine kit had "stabilizer", Kieselsol, and Chitosan - no metabisulphite...

[cpfan]

Originally Posted by timothyg

The wine kit had "stabilizer", Kieselsol, and Chitosan - no metabisulphite...

I wonder if the stabilizer is combination K-meta and sorbate. I believe that I saw that once with a basic wine kit.

Steve

[Vendrixfly]

In the process of making two Vino Italiano kits right now. I took "Stabilizer" as the k-meta, as they tell you to add it "only if fermentation is complete" because it will halt any remaining fermentation and that's when a dose of k-meta is usually used. I did, however find it odd that they instruct you to degass before adding the k-meta...other wine kit instructions tell you to add it first so as not to oxidize your wine while degassing.

I wouldn't be surprised if the quality control of these kits wasn't up to snuff though...I got two packets of "Stabilizer" in one of my kits and it got me thinking...some poor soul is out there without one in theirs!

Could it be a quality problem with the corks? I know they're probably cheap, I was gonna use them, but maybe they didn't seal properly..