Some noob questions about sanitizing and aging

Hello!

Been lurking a while and decided I may as well ask some of my noob questions Sorry if these are FAQs, I've tried the search but my computer is really slow

1) I can't tell if I'm supposed to rinse after sanitizing or not. I've been rinsing with tap water (city water supply, not well). What I read in these forums suggests I should not rinse but I have this contrary info in all my kits
A) Wine kit instructions in step 1: "Rinse primary fermenter with sanitizing solution. Rinse well with water at least 4 times."
B) Same wine kit, regarding bottling: "Clean and sanitize wine bottles. Rinse well with water to remove all sanitizer..."
C) Winexpert kit, steps 1 and 2 both say essentially "Clean and sanitize your stuff... rinse thoroughly"

2) George's videos say the fumes of the potassium metabisulfite is what sanitizes. So should I just let the fumes do their thing? Can I dunk in sanitizer and go?

3) My understanding is i should pretty much follow the wine kit instructions exactly. Do I have to bottle when they say bottle or can I just let it age in the carboy?

Thanks!
-Ian

BTW my wife got me the deluxe starter package and the Winexpert Selection Original Cabernet Sauvignon for xmas from FineVineWines. Coincidentally, I got a second wine making starter kit from the mother-in-law (Vintner's Harvest?). She gave me another cabernet sauvignon kit from this place called U.S. Elite Winery Supplies. They felt bad they both got me the same thing but I thought "OMG this is twice as awesome!"

I let the sanitizer drip dry, no need to rinse. If you are clean, it probably wont hurt to rinse, but defeats the purpose of sanitizing, as the next thing to hit a sanitized vessel should be the product intended to go in it.I believe most here will bulk age before bottling, that is a personal preference for you to decide. There are probably as many opinions as there are members, so you chose! One advantage is it keeps you out of the wine! Also, the more volume helps keep it more stable to temp changes , etc. Should you bulk age, you will want to keep it topped up, and check sulfite levels every two to three months to insure proper levels are maintained. Good luck, welcome to the forum, and have fun!

I think it,s going to depend on what your sanitizing or cleaning with whether you rinse or not,,,i like aging my wine in a bottle this gives me a chance to taste as it moves along in real time.

I've had the same question. For the past year, Ive sprayed K-meta solution onto everything with a spray bottle and then rinsed with tap water. But I recently came across the same concerns as you about re-introducing bacteria by rinsing with tap water. So now the only time I rinse is when dealing with must before and during fermentation. I don't want to add any K-meta that might affect fermentation. But after fermentation, I don't rinse. My other exception is bottling. I soak my bottles in a solution of B-brite, then triple rinse them. Then I give them a squirt of K-meta from the spray bottle and hang them on the bottle tree to drain. I figure the fumes can do their work as the liquid drains out.

As I haven't done a kit myself, only scratch wines, I clean and sanitize everything. Primary, mixing devices, hydrometers all get hand washed with oxyclean, rinsed thoroughly. and dosed with k-meta solution.

When transfer time comes, I hand wash everything tubings, racking canes, etc. Scrub the carboy with oxyclean and rinse. I then dose everything with k-meta and allow the carboy to drip dry. The residual k-meta on the walls of the carboy and tubing just can't be enough to do anything effective on the whole scale of things.

Come bottling time, I hand wash and scrub each bottle with oxiclean, bottle brush the insides, and rinse thoroughly with hot water. I give each bottle 3-4 squirts with the vinator and place the bottles to drain on my bottle tree. Clean and sanitize the tubing, racking cane, bottling wand and we are off to the races.

For corks, I take out the amount I think I will need plus 2, place them in a bowl and spray them down with some k-meta at sanitizing strength. I then place the bowl inside a 2 gallon bucket and put the lid on it to sanitize it well.

I always rinse my cleaning solution even if it says it is no rinse. I use Oxy Clean to clean. I do not rinse my sanitizers. I use Na Meta for wine and Star San for beer. You are not going to add enough Sulfite's to inhibit your fermentation by not rinsing. While if your water if safe to drink you run little risk of contamination it is possible to introduce a bacteria back into your wines.

One thing that can confuses people is that you have no rinse cleaner that removes particals. No need to rinse but a quick spray of water will not hurt. And you have sanitizers. My thought is that when you start a batch ofwine you sanitize everything. Do you then rinse? Well you do add water to most of the kits and scratch wines. How is rinsing going to hurt at this point. After fermentation has started you will stir and check your readings. I keep my spoon and hydromiter in a humidor( A closed container with K-Meta at the bottom with a rack that keeps anything that you put in from touching the liquid K-Meta. The fumes stirilize) because I do not want to add any K-Meta to the wine during fermintation. After fementation, I do not rinse anything. I let the carboy and bottles drain then fill. If you get K-Meta in the wine then good that is less that I will have to add. I put the corks in a humidor this way the corks do not get water in them.


So I agree with gaudet, .........I just like my humidor ................Did I mention that I use a HUMIDOR????

When I start a scratch wine, I take the necessary precautions, but I wonder if you really do need to be more anal than anal considering you are sterilizing the must as you prepare it. The campden being placed in the must is there to prevent bacterial infection as well as killing the natural wild yeasts. This is by no means an endorsement to not clean everything and sanitize all implements while preparing your must. Just my thinking that you are being doubly cautious by doing so.

Any time after fermentation has begin you need to be extremely careful to keep everything clean and sanitized.

See that's where I was confused... I keep reading about not introducing bacteria from my tap water back into the wine but I just put like 4 gallons of my tap water into the fermenter! And then I mixed these post tannins and k-meta etc up with 125 mL of more tap water and poured that in. Well anyway what seems to make sense is to rinse the stuff during fermentation so you don't kill some yeast and then after fermentation it probably doesn't matter much.

What do you use for your HUMIDOR? Could I just use an ice chest with a rack in it?

This is the second time I have seen this term today- please tell me what a post tannin is?

it was in my kit. A bag of reddish powder that I added after fermentation was over. I guess it just gives the wine more tannins to help it age(?)

It is wine tannin added after fermentation. I was talking to my buddy who was working with a pro winemaker who does tannin additions at 3 different times during his process.

This was the only kit I have seen where tannins were added post fermentation, but it worked out very nice, gives you something to think about and try. Wade did he elaborate on what the pros / cons were to this method? What effect fermentation has on thetannins?

No, but he will be asking him as thats the 1st thing I asked my friend. I will post what he says when I hear from him again.

It is possible that it may be eitherthe Tan'Cor or Tan'Cor Grand Cru tannins designed to be added post fermentation. They are carried byGeorge.



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Tan Cor


Tan'Cor was developed for addition to red wine post-fermentation to improve overall structure and to help protect the wine from oxidation during aging.</TD>
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Tan Cor Grand Cru


For those who prefer a tannin structure with even greater polymerization and refinement, Tan'Cor Grand Cru is the tannin of choice.</TD>
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hi people,in the past we spoke of oaking and i had stated that usingeither powder oak or liquid oak was a way of controlling the taste as well as the appearance of aging a wine ,i just useliquid oak in my bernello and powder oak in my melbec, like i said good flavor with decent control of the out come, more wine kits are using this format to oak,,,,just thought i,d through it back out their...

Thanks for the insite guys. I had never heard of the term post tannin, although I was aware of that type of powdered tannins. Generally it is only used in wines made from grapes that are naturally low in tannins or when they are pressed too soon. It might be that the manufacturer presses differently than most so they need to make up for the reduced tannins.


Whatever the reason, if it is in the kit it should be added per instructions.

Bostaevski said:

What do you use for your HUMIDOR? Could I just use an ice chest with a rack in it?

Click to expand...

The K-meta can be a harsh chemical. It has put holes in milk jugs and will eat metal. I now use a tall 10 gallon bucket with 2 inch tall rack in the bottom. ( The rack is a plastic kids beach sand sifter turned upside down. High Tec. ) You can use an ice chest as long as the seal is good. You would not want to let the fumes out for your own sake.

That was 2 of them Joseph although there was a 3rd also but the name slips me now. I am setting up another meeting with my friend for next weekend and hopefully I can extract more info from him if he has heard any more.

Wade, I believe the third one, not carried by George, is Quertanin.