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mgreenly

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First, I would like to say that this is a great and very informative forum. I tried to look around for a bit, but didn't really come across what I was looking for (its probably here somewhere and I'm just not looking in the right place).

My wife and I enjoy semi-sweet white wines and I am looking to make a homemade batch. An example of the flavor we like is Vignoles from Stone Hill Winery, but do enjoy Pinot Grigio as well. Any suggestions on a wine kit that isn't too expensive (less that $100) that will produce something that is similar to what I described and isn't too dry?

Thanks in advanced.


P.S. - I had fun making my first two batches of wine, one mead one from Welches grape juice (not to insult your tastes). They were both 1 Gal batches and they were so-so (taste ok, but I fermented too long and now they are about 15% alcohol). I'm wanting to move up to the 6 Gal recipes.
 
Welcome tom our forum and pyments (mead with grape juice) can be very nice and dont be ashamed that you made it with Welches as it actually is a pretty good product but yes you started with a slightly higher abv then you really should and meads really need time to smooth out also. I dont think anyone makes a Vignoles kit but for a Pinot Gris check the link below.
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDet.asp?PartNumber=140483

This isnt a kit ut if you want a 5 gallon bucket of fresh Vignoles juice then check the link below and we can walk you through making this fresh juice into an excellent wine.
http://www.walkersfruitbasket.com/Pail Prices.html
 
mgreenly:

Welcome to a great addiction (oops hobby), and a wonderful forum.

First, too much alcohol is not the result of fermenting too long, it's caused by too much sugar in the primary fermenter. Are you using a hydrometer to check your potential alcohol?

Second, semi-sweet white wines are usually made by fermenting to dry, and then sweetening. Some kits will come with a second pouch in the kit (often called an F-pack or Suss Reserve) to sweeten the wine. Other kits are not intended to be sweetened, but it's easy to do by making your own F-pack or just adding sugar at the appropriate time. There are no Vignoles kits that I know of.

Based on the Stone Hill site:

"Alcohol - 12.8%; Residual Sugar - 3.7%" - alcohol % is standard for most wine kits. the sweetness can also be accomplished easily.

"This rich, semi-sweet wine, comparable to German Spätlese or Riesling" - so find a good Riesling with a Suss Reserve. Might not be as sweet as you would like, but it would be a good starting point.

Is there a store near you, or do you have a mail-order preference? This would help determine the brands available to you.

Steve
 
CPfan is more knowledgeable in cross referencing wines then me but like Cpfan siad some of the kits out there may make a dry wine and sweetening that can be very easily accomplished so dont push a kit aside just because it says dry for the kit. You can sweeten a kit by either making simple syrup that consist of 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of boiling water or just by buyng a product called Wine Conditioner.
 
mgreenly:

First, too much alcohol is not the result of fermenting too long, it's caused by too much sugar in the primary fermenter. Are you using a hydrometer to check your potential alcohol?

Second, semi-sweet white wines are usually made by fermenting to dry, and then sweetening. Some kits will come with a second pouch in the kit (often called an F-pack or Suss Reserve) to sweeten the wine. Other kits are not intended to be sweetened, but it's easy to do by making your own F-pack or just adding sugar at the appropriate time. There are no Vignoles kits that I know of.

Based on the Stone Hill site:

"Alcohol - 12.8%; Residual Sugar - 3.7%" - alcohol % is standard for most wine kits. the sweetness can also be accomplished easily.

"This rich, semi-sweet wine, comparable to German Spätlese or Riesling" - so find a good Riesling with a Suss Reserve. Might not be as sweet as you would like, but it would be a good starting point.

Is there a store near you, or do you have a mail-order preference? This would help determine the brands available to you.

Steve

I should have clarified about fermenting too long...I actually added sugar to my Welches must to a SG of about 1.140 (as I recall from memory) in hopes of stopping fermentation at about 12-13% alcohol before all of the sugar was consumed. It was fermenting for about 4 days before I took the family on a 3 day vacation. When I got to hotel (about 200 miles from home) I remember that I forgot to rack the whine before I left, so I immediately did it when I got home. I could definitely smell the alcohol in it so I poured a sample and confirmed my suspicions. I haven't verified SG yet (its a 1 GAL batch and the hydrometer bottoms out on the container, so I need to by a test tube tomorrow). I'm guessing, by taste, that it is about 18% (or a tad lower), but it still tastes like wine (although pretty stout wine).

Thanks for the suggestions on the wine kits, I guess Stone Hill's website would have been a great place to start. :) I remember the name, but did check the info on it.

I do have a local store called High Gravity (Tulsa, OK) and they seem to have a great stock of supplies at very good prices.
 
The equipment I have is the following:

2 2gal fermenters
2 1gal carboys
4 airlocks
1 racking cane
1 bottle filler
5ft of tubing
basic chemicals (acid blend, peptic enzymes, and campden tablets)

I was thinking about going down tomorrow and by a fermenter and carboy for a 6 gal wine kit, but I may go ahead and get another batch or two going of something else (since now my 2 fermenters are empty again :) ) as practice before I drop $100+ on everything I need (minus the bottles) to make a higher quality wine.

Any suggestions on a good 1 GAL recipe that is pretty fool proof? LOL
 
Any suggestions on a good 1 GAL recipe that is pretty fool proof? LOL
You might want to read some of the Skeeter Pee threads. The name might be unusual but it's so popular that it has it's own forum.

Steve
 
I have bought stuff from High Gravity and they are a very good outfit also. I was hoping they would advertise here and they did log in but havent heard from them yet. Please dont try to stop a fermentation in progress unless you have a sterile filter unit otherwise you are asking for big trouble like exploding bottles as they almost always end up starting to ferment later in the bottle which either blows the cork and sprays wine all over or the bottle explodes. Ive had corks blow one time when either the sorbate didnt take or I just plain forget to add it after I noted that I did sornate the batch and was probably interupted right before doing so. Its a big sticky mess trust me!
 
High Gravity looks like they carry "wine ingredient kits" (as opposed to "wine equipment kits") from all the decent manufacturers commonly available in the USA...RJ Spagnols, Winexpert, Cellar Craft, and Heron Bay. I would suggest chatting with somebody in their store. You can always bring their suggestions back here for comment prior to spending the bucks.

Steve
 
High Gravity looks like they carry "wine ingredient kits" (as opposed to "wine equipment kits") from all the decent manufacturers commonly available in the USA...RJ Spagnols, Winexpert, Cellar Craft, and Heron Bay. I would suggest chatting with somebody in their store. You can always bring their suggestions back here for comment prior to spending the bucks.

Steve

I did notice that they have a decent selection of ingredient kits when I was in there last week. I plan on going there tomorrow for shopping/stocking run and will have a chat with the folks at the store to see what their suggestions are. Given my list of current supplies in my previous post, is there anything you can suggest I pickup while I'm there for general uses (i.e. chemicals or handy equipment that are nice to have around)? Of course I will ask them this as well, but I thought I would get you guys' take on this as well.

To Wade: Thanks for the heads up, I will head your warning. Your comment did make me wonder about degassing wine. Has anyone tried to use a bottle vacuum (don't know if thats what its called, but thats what it does) to remove the gas from a carboy? I saw a youtube vid on a guy that does this with his wine saver/bottle vacuum that he usually uses one his single bottles when he is consuming them. He just puts a grommet that fits the carboy on the bottom of the vacuum, puts it on the carboy, gives it several pumps, and leaves it on there. After a bit, you see air bubbles forming at the top. He says that he uses this method because its easier and more efficient than using a degasser on a drill. I was just curious if any of you have tried this and if it actually works.
 
I really dont think myself that you can do a good job of degassing a wine with that Vacuvin unit. I use an electric vacuum pump which is way more powerful and I also use a drill mounted stirring unit and even with these it sometimes can be a task to degas a kit wine or juice bucket. Grape wines that you use a press on degas the wine when they go through the press. As far as stuff to pick up you will need the following

6 gallon carboy
at least a 7.9 gallon fermenting bucket preferably withspigot and lid
bottling wand?
drill mounted Mix Stir
 

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