WineXpert Question about LE Australia Grenache and Cab with Grape Skin

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That is about when I did, and it finished up at 0.990.
Sounds like there is a good chance to expand this strategy to other kits, i.e. start fermentation with a widely recommended yeast to promote the variety aroma or taste and then bring in the killer to finish the sugar to make it dry.
Thanks for the input.
 
Mine finished at .990. Tasted pretty sweet.
should be dry at that sg. interesting.
I just started mine with 'cold soak'. skin in must without pitching yeast for 3 days. hope to extract more phenols.
will squeeze bag every day until secondary.
 
Woohoo, i had bought the LE16 Blanc de Noir and Cabernet Franc because the Grenache was sold out in my area before it even hit the shelves, i happen to be in the wine kit store today buying synthetic corks and a lady walked in and cancelled her order on her grenache kit, they charged her a 10% restocking fee, i came right up after her and purchased for the 10% off price! So happy i got my hands on this one, was pretty dosapointed when i thought i wasnt gonna get one.
 
So did you guys sprinkle the 71b in the primary dry as the instructions asked or did you rehydrate? When adding the 1118 a few days later did you just sprinkle on top or did you hydrate?
 
So did you guys sprinkle the 71b in the primary dry as the instructions asked or did you rehydrate? When adding the 1118 a few days later did you just sprinkle on top or did you hydrate?

Dry for both, no issues.
 
So did you guys sprinkle the 71b in the primary dry as the instructions asked or did you rehydrate? When adding the 1118 a few days later did you just sprinkle on top or did you hydrate?

I would rehydrate two packs of 71b.
The reason I am doing that is I got a big lesson by using a packet of dead yeast once. I pitched and never got any response. Then I realized it was dead after a week. It was a frustrating experience. From then on I rehydrate every packet of yeast to check at least it should be alive before I pitch it to the must.

For 1118, I am planning not to pitch it unless the fermentation gets stuck. Otherwise, I will rehydrate it and acclimate it by adding some must (with alcohol) to make sure it works. It is a kind of precaution.
 
So i started the grenache today, starting sg was 1.080, quite a bit lower than the other LE16 kits i did. What were your guys starting sg? Anyways pitched 71B and will pitch EC1118 at 1.020.
 
So i started the grenache today, starting sg was 1.080, quite a bit lower than the other LE16 kits i did. What were your guys starting sg? Anyways pitched 71B and will pitch EC1118 at 1.020.


Did you let the skin pack set a while before pitching yeast? Depending on the size of the pack, it could bump your SG by .015 or .02. Give it a good stir and squeeze this morning; and check your gravity again. You'll have a nice surprise. And, if not, you can always jack your gravity with some simple syrup. I'd do it before your ferment really kicks off though.
 
The sg of mine is 1.10. I freeze the skin for a few days and thaw it and "cold soaked" in the must for 2 days with pectic enzyme. All the idea is to Extract. I just rehydrate pitched two packets of 71b. I will hold EC1118 to see if it is necessary or not.
It is fermenting vigorously. I can smell it everywhere in my house.
I set temperature at 22.3 C, but it went up automatically up to 25.3 C. Now it is Day 4, the temperature dropped to 23 C ish.
The bag keeps on floating even after I put a bag of glass marbles in. Maybe I tied it too loosely.
 
The sg of mine is 1.10. I freeze the skin for a few days and thaw it and "cold soaked" in the must for 2 days with pectic enzyme. All the idea is to Extract. I just rehydrate pitched two packets of 71b. I will hold EC1118 to see if it is necessary or not.
It is fermenting vigorously. I can smell it everywhere in my house.
I set temperature at 22.3 C, but it went up automatically up to 25.3 C. Now it is Day 4, the temperature dropped to 23 C ish.
The bag keeps on floating even after I put a bag of glass marbles in. Maybe I tied it too loosely.

I took my sg reading before even adding the grapeskins, i did freeze and thaw, but did not cold soak them or add marbles, learning curves i guess, i will make sure i do that next time. I was surprised to see no pectic enzyme came in the kit. I did a RJS trio red with grape skins a while back and it came with a pack of pectic enzyme. I pitched the 71b last night, is it too late to add pectic enyme now?
 
I took my sg reading before even adding the grapeskins, i did freeze and thaw, but did not cold soak them or add marbles, learning curves i guess, i will make sure i do that next time. I was surprised to see no pectic enzyme came in the kit. I did a RJS trio red with grape skins a while back and it came with a pack of pectic enzyme. I pitched the 71b last night, is it too late to add pectic enyme now?

Once fermentation starts, I guess it is a kind of late for pectic. It is typically done in soak period. (correct me if I am wrong). I saw somewhere that it conflict with tanning.
Maybe I played too much and extract too much and end up a very tannic product and can only be consumed 5 years away? (too optimistic, haha).
Another tweak I am doing is that I held 1 gal must and planning to add it in incrementally in day 6 and day 9 to extend the primary fermentation further up to 14 days with sufficient CO2 blanket to cover the must. (to pursuit extended maceration.) I guess it would be nice to have a big mouth fermenter. (too expensive for me) Maybe it is overdone. Who knows. Just fun to try something new rather than playing by the book. I am also trying to eliminate using sorbate completely and fining agent (or use half).
 
When i woke up this morning i gave the grape bag a press and stirred it up, the sg went from 1.080 last night (before grape bag was added) to 1.095 today. I guess its difficult to judge the actual specific gravity if you have a bag of crushed grape skins releasing sugars throughout the fermentation.
 
When i woke up this morning i gave the grape bag a press and stirred it up, the sg went from 1.080 last night (before grape bag was added) to 1.095 today. I guess its difficult to judge the actual specific gravity if you have a bag of crushed grape skins releasing sugars throughout the fermentation.
Agree, still some sugar is in the skin, it is hard to tell exactly. 1.095 should be a good number since 1.096 or 1.097 is possible.
I squeezed the skin with my hand at the beginning, it is really sticky after I pulled my hands out. Hope the skin can make big difference.
 
Agree, still some sugar is in the skin, it is hard to tell exactly. 1.095 should be a good number since 1.096 or 1.097 is possible.
I squeezed the skin with my hand at the beginning, it is really sticky after I pulled my hands out. Hope the skin can make big difference.

Yeah it sure was sticky, my wife works in a lab so she brings me boxes of sterile nirtile gloves for those jobs haha
 
Yeah it sure was sticky, my wife works in a lab so she brings me boxes of sterile nirtile gloves for those jobs haha

My primary fermentation is going surprisingly fast. Yesterday, I took a SG reading, it was about to 1.002!. Too fast. It will ruin my plan. So I had to hurry up and dumped in my reserved 1 gal of juice. In this pace, I have to rack to secondary this weekend.
The temperature is so high these days (22 degree room temperature). Temperature control device becomes useless.
Maybe I should move it to basement for the secondary if the temperature keeps on going up.
Maybe it is time to invest a big mouth carboy for future skin kit.
 

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