Newest Threads

**homer** · 07-31-2010, 02:59 PM

Saturday morning and I was going to start my new wine kit but have a question or two.
I have one hop bag in the kit and two bags of oak chips in see through plastic bags. Plus one aluminum foil bag that has "oak" with some numbers printed on it. The instructions say something about Grape skins going in a sock, of which I have only one and the oak going in a bag of which I have... You get the idea. I'm wondering if they put in a bag of oak sawdust instead of grape skins. Anybody done one of these kits? bk

phermenter · 07-31-2010, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homer

Saturday morning and I was going to start my new wine kit but have a question or two.
I have one hop bag in the kit and two bags of oak chips in see through plastic bags. Plus one aluminum foil bag that has "oak" with some numbers printed on it. The instructions say something about Grape skins going in a sock, of which I have only one and the oak going in a bag of which I have... You get the idea. I'm wondering if they put in a bag of oak sawdust instead of grape skins. Anybody done one of these kits? bk

I haven't done an EP kit but have done several other grape pack kits. If you're saying you didn't get the grape skins, then you need to resolve that with your dealer or the people at Spagnols. You're stuck at the starting line until you get the skins.

If you're just saying you think you should have more hop bags, don't worry. Most people just dump the oak shavings right in the fermenter. The foil bag of oak sounds like it's bigger stuff made to go in after fining. Just a guess on that.

Good luck, Jim

**cpfan** · 07-31-2010, 04:30 PM

Have you taken the bag of juice/concentrate out of the box? If not, look under it for the grape skins.

Steve

**homer** · 07-31-2010, 08:19 PM

Elementary my dear Watson, skins in the bottom. I'm still not sure if the chips or the sawdust or the skins go in the sock? Let the fun begin. bk

**cpfan** · 07-31-2010, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homer

Elementary my dear Watson, skins in the bottom. I'm still not sure if the chips or the sawdust or the skins go in the sock? Let the fun begin. bk

Personally I put them all in loose. If I was making a white wine with elderflowers for somebody else and they wanted the elderflowers added, I would put them in a sock or bag or whatever.

Steve

Wade E · 08-01-2010, 12:13 AM

Usually the oak dust is in a paper bag which will breath and the oak chips will sink.

**cpfan** · 08-01-2010, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wade E

Usually the oak dust is in a paper bag which will breath and the oak chips will sink.

Wade:

RJS uses a large variety of oak formats. In the original post, homer mentioned receiving oak in plastic and foil bags. So I guess there's no oak tea bag in this one.

Plus I have never seen the oak tea bags sink. Thgey always float for me. However, I've only made a couple of RJS kits in the last two years, so things could have changed.

Steve

Wade E · 08-01-2010, 01:30 AM

You are right but the oak tea bag is usually in the foil pac to keep it fresh as I remember and you are right that the tea bag floats but the chips fall. The chips usually come in the see through plastic bags. I forget what the spirals come in but i believe they too are clear plastic.

**homer** · 08-01-2010, 01:45 AM

I put the skins in the bag and dumped in the wood, I wish I would have checked the SG before adding the wood because of the difficulty of taking a reading and I think the wood could affect the SG reading. They say to stir it every couple of days. The juice was a beautiful color and had great fragrance. bk

Wade E · 08-01-2010, 02:01 AM

I would really dunk the fermenting bag twice daily myself. So what was in the foil pack?