Packlab Experiment with Paklab Italiano kit

I took a Rosso Magnifico kit from Ebay $44

I added :
Water to 5.5 + gal.
2.5K D'uva Merlot grape skin pack in (strainer bag with oak)
1 cup Light toast American Oak chips, boiled, added the water too
1/2 tsp tannin
46 oz can Alexander Red Zin to get to 1.098 sg (instead of sugar)
1 1/4 tsp Peptic enzyme
EC-1118

Total cost $83. The Must is much richer because of the Alexander addition. I thought I would only need to use part of the can of concentrate, but I needed all of it to get the sg up.

Trying to emulate the more expensive kit on the cheap.

I'll post updates

kevinlfifer said:

I'll post updates

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Yes, let us know how it turns out.

I just did one yesterday too. Paklab cheapest 8 liter Vino Cabernet Sauvignon, add water to 22 liter. Add two used grape pack, one CC showcase Melbec, one CC showcase Cabernet. Added 5 pounds of fresh crashed grapes. I will report result too. And if I can find a non tweaked paklab Cab, I will do a test report too.

The reason I only water it to 22 liter is because I washed my grapes. That is a mistake but it's too late to fix. So I reduced the water amount to accommodate the water in grapes

I did the Cab in Mar. I added the packlab cab grape pack, 1 cup med toast Amer oak chips, and 3 cup sugar(sg 1.10) to 5.5 gal.

We are drinking it now it and is quite good for an everyday wine,
Have a case left, I will try to get it to 1 year old to see how it improves.

I am really suprised at how early thes kits become drinkable, and how good they are when you add a grape skin pack.

The Rosso experiment above is bubbling away. It does appear to be as thick/rich as an RJS Super Tuscan so far.

kevinlfifer said:

I did the Cab in Mar. I added the packlab cab grape pack, 1 cup med toast Amer oak chips, and 3 cup sugar(sg 1.10) to 5.5 gal.

We are drinking it now it and is quite good for an everyday wine,
Have a case left, I will try to get it to 1 year old to see how it improves.

I am really suprised at how early thes kits become drinkable, and how good they are when you add a grape skin pack.

The Rosso experiment above is bubbling away. It does appear to be as thick/rich as an RJS Super Tuscan so far.

Click to expand...

Hi Kevin

Paklab mailed two packs of grape packs to me last month. I haven't used them yet. They look like this



Is it the same as yours? Do I need to refrig them?

I will make the second pack of paklab vino after this and will use the paklab grape together with fresh grapes. I will compare with this batch and hopefully find if reusing the CC grape pack is useful or not

That looks the same, They say they are good for 2 years, though I freeze mine if I'm not going to use it right away.

I have reused the grapes from an RJS super tuscan in a paklab 7L merlot kit, added oak and all the other stuff and it definitely helped.

A subsequent Paklab merlot kit that I did with a fresh paklab grape skin pack does have more depth.

I squeezed out the skins bag and Racked the Rosso to secondary on Sat 10/6 sg 1.002. So far so good, body seems much better from adding the Alexander concentrate, but the flavor seems to be pretty much the same as the previous Rosso Mag, which is quite pleasant. SG today (10/8) is .996. I am going to leave it in the secondary a couple of weeks.

kevinlfifer said:

I squeezed out the skins bag and Racked the Rosso to secondary on Sat 10/6 sg 1.002. So far so good, body seems much better from adding the Alexander concentrate, but the flavor seems to be pretty much the same as the previous Rosso Mag, which is quite pleasant. SG today (10/8) is .996. I am going to leave it in the secondary a couple of weeks.

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how many days did you leave it sit on skin ?

I let it set 8 days on the skins, I usually allow 10 days, but I didn't know how the added concentrate would react and I didn't want to risk any sulfur issues.

I am going to try a similar stratagy with a red zin paklab kit, adding Alexander red zin concentrate and a paklab cab sav grape skin pack.

Today I racked and stabilized the Rosso/Zin to clear. SG 0.992. Tastes really promising at this stage. Easily double the body of an un-doctored Paklab Italiano kit. Time will tell.

On the red zin paklab experiment I added:
1 46 oz can Alexander red zin concentrate
8kg of frozen recyled skins (instead of a new cab grape pack,
one from the RJS Super Tuscan)
1 cup light toast oak,
1 1/2 tsp peptic enzyme
rc 212 yeast
Total cost $64

I left all those solids and the oak free, knowing I would be sorry I did when it was time to rack. Then I remembered a post about paint strainer bags. THANK YOU WHOEVER POSTED THAT!! I used a 5 gal paint strainer bag from Home Depot in a clean primary (it has an elastic band so it's like a reverse hair net in the bucket) I simply poured from the original primary into the one with the filter bag and all those solids where captured. sg is at 1.10 so I plan to move to secondary fermentation tomorrow. This one seems to taste better than the rosso, I think it is going to turn out quite nice as well.

Bottled the Rosso today (needed the carboy and was clear)

Very nice, a lot more body than an un-doctored paklab kit, not near an RJS Super Tuscan though,

We'll see what it's like in a few months

The red zin is coming along nicley too, I think it shows more promise and flavor than the Rosso. It's still in the secondary cooking away.

kevinlfifer said:

Bottled the Rosso today (needed the carboy and was clear)

Very nice, a lot more body than an un-doctored paklab kit, not near an RJS Super Tuscan though,

We'll see what it's like in a few months

The red zin is coming along nicley too, I think it shows more promise and flavor than the Rosso. It's still in the secondary cooking away.

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Hi kevin:

Congratulations!

One question, I made my last paklab $23 merlot last night, with the paklab skin pack. When I smelled the skin pack, I find it is acid like. Did you smell yours?

Thanks

EJ

kevinlfifer said:

I did the Cab in Mar. I added the packlab cab grape pack, 1 cup med toast Amer oak chips, and 3 cup sugar(sg 1.10) to 5.5 gal.

We are drinking it now it and is quite good for an everyday wine,
Have a case left, I will try to get it to 1 year old to see how it improves.

I am really suprised at how early thes kits become drinkable, and how good they are when you add a grape skin pack.

The Rosso experiment above is bubbling away. It does appear to be as thick/rich as an RJS Super Tuscan so far.

Click to expand...

May I ask were the skin packs were obtained from? I didn't see anything on their web site.
Thanks
Mike

Ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FIOR-D-UVA-...2?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_210&hash=item2a24b82724

Here is their ebay store

http://www.ebay.com/sch/paklabstore/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3984.m1543.l2654

Opps! SG typo error above sg was 1.01 It has now been in the secondary for 10 days. It still shows very small bubbles and the sg is 1.000 yet. Going to let the zin set for a couple more weeks in secondary.

Tastes good!! good body, still a bit sweet at that sg.

Does rc-212 slow down sooner than the ec-1118?

kevinlfifer said:

Ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FIOR-D-UVA-...2?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_210&hash=item2a24b82724

Here is their ebay store

http://www.ebay.com/sch/paklabstore/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3984.m1543.l2654

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info

I missed the question about te smell of the skins. They do seem to have an off or unexpected oder. I tasted them, they taste like skins with all the good stuff squeezed out, and perhaps rinsed. I think they only add color, tannins and other "feel" builders, not grape flavor.

The red zin is still in secondary and has finnally dropped to sg .998 but still has small bubbles.


I started a amore divino cab/merlot on 10/26
added:
46 oz alexander burgandy blend
1 lb rasins
2 kg recycled frozen skins
sg @ 1.100
going to try the tuscan oak cubes from midwest for a month or so after clearing.

So I have 3 paklab kits going with alexander conc. added. We will see.

I think (not totally sure yet) I have a eureka moment. I racked the red zin experiment to clear today. SG has been at .995 a while.

As a reminder:
On the Vino Italiano Red Zinfandel paklab experiment I added:
1 46 oz can Alexander red zin concentrate
8kg of frozen recyled skins (instead of a new cab grape pack,
one was from the RJS Super Tuscan)
1 cup light toast oak, boiled with water
1 1/2 tsp peptic enzyme
rc 212 yeast

a week into secondary added 1 tsp yeast nutrient and 1/4 tsp energizer, it seemed slow.

Total cost $64

I tasted it after degassing, pretty good. in fact it was way better than I expected.

SOOoo I took the wine thief and stole a couple sips of the RJS Super Tuscan clearing, and a few sips of the Zin, Forced my wife into a blind taste test of both and to pick the "better" of the two. She really likes a big red, she loves the RJS Super Tuscans BUT wait for it she picked the doctored Paklab.

I think I am going to the these results.

The Cab/Merlot blend with burgandy concentrate is in the secondary, added the yeast boost today.

I had sworn off these kits due to the inherent musty taste that I have had in EVERY one of these kits. After about 8-10 months, this taste subsides and the wine is decent for an everyday wine. Making these adjustments makes sense and could make these kits a possibility again. I will keep watching your results.

Tomorrow I am going to bottle the Red Zin. It looks pretty good.

I racked the Cab/Merlot blend off of the lees. This a the second racking, first was from primary to carboy, this one is to reduce the lees and add the tuscan oak cubes blend. The SG is 1.003 and fine bubbles are still being formed. I will leave it on the oak for a month or so.

Either adding the Alex Sun concentrate slows down the fermentation process, especially in the secondary, or the RC-212 yeast is slower.

I took a bottle of the paklab Barolo Divino Amore with a grape pack (Started Aug 4, bottled Aug 30) to the country club, paid the corking fee, and dribbled out samples to the manager, and friends. No one belived it was kit made wine.

The real reason was to justify to the new manager that a member should be allowed to bring their own wine in and pay the corking fee. If the club can't inventory a satisfactory wine then a member may bring their own. I won argument that with the paklab. If I had brought in a RJS Super Tuscan the "friends" would break into the house and raid the cellar.