Other Tweeking Cheap Kits

Ya it's always good when a plan comes together, isn't it.
Time for me to start thinking about wine contest ,coast to coast.
Have fun and always Think outside the box.

Will be receiving a Chablis Kit from Amazon shortly, plan to put a 1/2 a lemon worth of zest in for the primary. Any other suggestion, or should that do it? It is a WineExpert kit that was on sale (might be from last years harvest?). We made one of these in 2015, but no tweaking done. That one was really excellent and has somehow disappeared out of my wine rack.

Hi jpwatkins9,, grapefruit zest will be better for the over all balance beings it's a true form of Chardonnay.
How do you like this thread?

The SG in my Fontana MErlot Tweak is now down to 1.030. Fermenting has slowed. Still see air rising but not the foaming as it was.

Go slow go steady

Really enjoying these threads, lots of ideas and advice on how to make these kits better. These tweaks can also be used with fresh grapes and must, so very important to the whole wine making process. I used a few tweaks for my Cabernet which is in the stabilization and clarification process right now.

How much Grapefruit should be used in the Chablis kit? Also, I am not sure how fresh the yeast in the kit is (was on sale for a reason). I still have some fresh EC 1118, would that be OK with the Chablis? Will continue with my Time is your friend philosophy, working well so far.

1/2 grapefruit zest in the primary,use a new ec1118 and a red star champagne yeast as a blended yeast to soften and ad smoothness to the finish....just my thoughts.

Joe/Anyone

When should I rack the tweaked Fontana Merlot to the secondary? It has been in the primary 9 days so far and my SG reading last night was 1.030. I have read that you can get off flavors from the lees by leaving it too long in primary. Thanks.

The best tweak of a kit we have ever done was making a port style wine. We've done this a few times now with great success with a kit and other wines as well (pineapple juice and a caramel wine). Best one by far was our mocha port. Took an inexpensive cab/shiraz kit and force fed it up to about 19% alcohol (taking SG along the way to accurately calculate alcohol and sugar when completed). In secondary added cold pressed coffee and cocoa powder.

A tweak by any other name is still a tweak...
Tweeking cheap wine kits has come a long way since the opening post. Through it all 99% of the work has been positive.
Sometimes , things happen in your wine making process, that shouldn't , but that's how we listen ,ask and learn, when that happens..... just ,,,, stay the course and always think outside the box.

Let it sit for another week then move it, but do not put any other chems in untill another week has gone by.
Got it a two week step.

Was just wondering if anyone has done some tweaking on the kits to make sparkling wine? Just finished re-reading “Wine and war” and will start reading “Champagne” by the same authors. Got me to thinking of using one of the kits and adding a bit of sugar when bottling to kick off just a wee bit of fermentation to gas it up. Would of course have to have heavy bottles and a way to keep the corks in. Any thoughts other than wear armor when checking the bottles?

Why not use actual champagne bottles? If you don't already know this, take a look at the lip of a champagne bottle. It can accept a metal bottle cap (like for beer). A bottle cap is used for the first stage of fermentation, then it is removed in a step called "disgorgement," which removes the lees from this fermentation.

I did not know about the bottle cap on the Champagne bottles, I did know about the removal of the Lees after the fermentation. Guess I will have to start saving Champagne bottles and start to think of a wine to tweak. I know how to do this with beer, hopeing the Champagne process is similar. Any more thoughts on a good wine to try, was thinking of a Pino Grigio, or similar dry white.

Sounds like a fine choice to me. Lots of grape varieties are used to make commercial sparkling wines around the world, including Pinot Grigio/Gris. (The only variety of grape that is used to make actual capital-C Champagne that you will be able to find in a kit is Chardonnay.)

The Chablis is in the Primary Fermenter and bubbling away. Put in the 1/2 Grapefruit of zest and pre-hydrated the yeast. Used both the EC1118 regular yeast and EC1118 Champagne yeast. What is the difference? Both are Red Star.

Did the first racking on the Cabernet, looks good, smells good and tastes very much like a Nouveau Beaujolais. Good bright color. Ageing will make a difference I am sure.

David Taylor said:

Joe/Anyone

When should I rack the tweaked Fontana Merlot to the secondary? It has been in the primary 9 days so far and my SG reading last night was 1.030. I have read that you can get off flavors from the lees by leaving it too long in primary. Thanks.

Click to expand...

David Taylor said:

Joe/Anyone

When should I rack the tweaked Fontana Merlot to the secondary? It has been in the primary 9 days so far and my SG reading last night was 1.030. I have read that you can get off flavors from the lees by leaving it too long in primary. Thanks.

Click to expand...

David,
9 days seems to be a lot of time. Most all of the advise I have read suggest moving to secondary by 6 to 7 days. To prevent off flavors.
The secondary is only a continuation of the fermenting process,after all.
Good sipping.

you need to let your Hydrometer be your guild always ,its not a bad idea to move the wine not quit fermented out gives you time in the moving, less time to the atmosphere.i always move not quite finished,
that's why if you noticed in my thread i allow the wine to sit after transferring for a week or to ..

Question: I have a Vieux Chateau Du Roi (Petite Shiraz Blend)(Vintner's Reserve) that I made several months ago. Tastes good - very smooth drinking. Did it at 6 gallons, not 5. What I did notice is that there is almost no nose on it. This may be an artifact of making it at 6 gallons, but may just be the results of a cheap kit.

Suggestions to improve nose?

The nose has probably ripped out by the heavy use of findings and the EC1118 that they add to these kits. I use a kit solely for the juice and then follow my normal wine making procedures - using no fining agents and using a higher grade of yeast and adding currants. I leave it to time - to precipate out solids. This also means I don't drink the wine for at least eighteen months.