Mosti Mondiale Vinifera Noble Cab Kit

Hello all! Very new to wine making, but have been a beer brewer for some time now.. Wife finally talked me into making wine so went all out and got additional equipment and the VN Cab kit.. Started this past sunday and all is going very well at this point.. Initial SG at 1.095 @ 70 degrees and has been fermenting away very well at 66 degrees.. One bubble every second or so.. Been stirring it the past 2 nights and plan on stirringit onelast time tonight, on target for secondary this sunday.. Went out and got a wine thief yesterday to make it easier to check SG. I did one thing different than the directions to this point.. I added the 3.0 oz of oak chips to the primary, and plan on adding another 3.0 oz to the carboy at first racking. If you can't tell, we love the oaky cabs like J Lohr etc.. Just as brewing beer, I can see this is very much a learn as you go affair! Just want to make sure that what I have done so far looks on track.. I use Iodophor to sanitize as I have had good luck with it in the past.. My wife and I are doing this together.. She wanted nothing to do with the beer side of things ... It's amazing how much info you can find on the internet these days, and have enjoyed reading and learning from sites like this!!


Why do we "brew" beer and "make" wine?? I mean you dont call someone that makes beer a "beer maker" or the person who makes wine a "wine brewer".. I kinda attribute it to the fact that there is alot of cooking involved in brewing beer and thankfully I get a break from that when making wine..


Kinda like driving on parkways, and parking in driveways..


Well anyways, I am very glad to have found this site and look forward to the great info and support provided here!!

Everything looks good there!

Idophour is OK for beernot wine. I would suggest to get some potassium metabisulfite for sanitizing. You will need that for other things as well.

Don't rush your wine and follow the directions. Remember it needs to age before drinking unlike beer.

3 new words to remember...

Patience

Patience

Patience

By using those words you will make great wine.

tepe said:

Idophour is OK for beernot wine. I would suggest to get some potassium metabisulfite for sanitizing. You will need that for other things as well.

Don't rush your wine and follow the directions. Remember it needs to age before drinking unlike beer.

3 new words to remember...

Patience

Patience

Patience

By using those words you will make great wine.

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Thankyou.. I did get some potassium metabisulfite yesterday along with some other goodies and will use that from now on.. Do you think I hurt anything by sanitizing my primary and misc toolswith Iodophor?

wade said:

Everything looks good there!

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Thankyou wade.. I am actually loving the smells coming out of the airlock!! Is that wrong??

Thankyou.. I did get some potassium metabisulfite yesterday along with some other goodies and will use that from now on.. Do you think I hurt anything by sanitizing my primary and misc toolswith Iodophor?






You should be fine.
The "smell" of the wine fermenting is kinda like the nice smell when boiling the beer.

Iodophor and Starsan are excellent sanitizers! Just to put them in your wine!

Wade,
Are you saying that I can use Iodophor or Starsan in place of K-Meta when racking and santizing?

I got home today from work and was hit by the smell of fermentation! Very active now and the temp of the must is 70 degrees, 3 degrees warmer than our room temp.. I have run into this on some high sugar beer recipes.. I am not going to worry as temp up to 75 are considered normal.. Still planning our stir tonight at bedtime. With fermentation this active, should I be prepared for any surprises when opening the lid??




On the Iodophor, I guess we have a split decision here?? It seems like a very stable sanitizer to me.. Not supposed to impart any bad tastes or smell in the beer/wine(or so I was told by my LHBS). I am going to be using a sulfator at bottling which is at least 4 weeks away, that is the main reason for me buying the potassium metabisulfite.. I also got a Fermtech Degasser.. Waste of money or good investment??


Thanks again all!

I have this wine nearing the end of secondary. I too added some extra oak to the kit. I looking forward to this one sometime this summer for a first taste.

admiral said:

I have this wine nearing the end of secondary. I too added some extra oak to the kit. I looking forward to this one sometime this summer for a first taste.

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That is going to be the hardest part for me.. The wait!! But, as in brewing beer (especially at the beginning) I am going to be sampling it at each step along the way, so that may be the silver lining which keeps me going!!

I'm very very new to wine making too. Some things I've found that really help me is to take detailed notes during the wine making process. I even made out my own check lists and put all my notes on each wine there. About the tasting-sampling as you progress in the fermentation/making stages, I've found the wine to go from sweet, grape taste, to down right yuk and back to starting to taste like wine with hints of fruit or oak or vanilla types of tastes. Wine improves w/age !! TinaLouise

Checked the SG tonight when I got home and it was at 1.030, so I racked it.. It was a little early according to the directions, but the numbers looked good.. Put the extra oak chips into the carboy, added yeast nutrient to the must, and racked... Noticed I needed to keep repriming my auto siphon to keep the flow going.. Think maybe some of the oak chips in primary may have affected that.. All looks good at this point, airlock still showing signs of very active fermentation.. Schedule is now to stir nightly and wait for SG to be .996 or lower.. Couldn't help myself, ordered an extra bucket from George and am going to use it at next racking so I can work on my Riesling kit!!

Moved on to step #3 last night.. SG at 0.996 for 2 days.. I racked to 2nd carboy and degassed... Little bit of rookie mistake here though. I was using a Whip degasser and everything seemed to be going great, but little did I know, the end of my drill was in contact with the rubber stopped so as I lifted the drill up, little rubber sheds were all over the place! Luckily none made it into the carboy... Lesson learned, do not let end of drill contact rubber stopper!! Close call there.. There was actually very little gas in the wine, and after I was done degassing I used my wine saver on the top of the airlock to create vacuum in the carboy, and this method worked well, and did manage to pull some extra gas out(thanks for the tip in your video George) . I also added K-Meta, finning agents and topped up with a bottle of J Lohr Cab.. Now the 8-10 day wait until bottling... Not going the route of bulk aging in carboy on this batch, so time to start removing labels from my bottles... Overall I have been very happy and confident that things are going well.. Seem to be a little ahead of schedule by directions, but have been right on the mark for SG/racking conditions..

Sounds like everything is going well there!

I am going to be bottling this Sunday.. My plan is to transfer to a 6.5 Gal bottling bucket... During the bottling process is it a good idea to put the lid w/o the airlock on the top to keep oxygen to a minimum, or just leave open.. I will be using a Ferrari bottle filler and a double lever corker. Bottles are already cleaned and sanitized, and are on my bottle tree ready to go.. I tasted the wine last night, and it's a little harsh as expected, but has alot of flavor.. Seems a little low on the oak factor so I got some oak essence and plan on adding about 1 oz right before bottling.. I was also thinking I may bottle half and add 1/2 oz essence to last half only.. Any last minute advise on first attempt at bottling wine and the use of oak essence??

If they already sanitized then you will need to sanitize again, sanitizing solution only keeps them sanitized to open air for approx 6-8 hours! Keeping the bucket lid on wont really help keep any more 02 out as the bucket will be full of 02 but for that little time it will be fine. Ive never used the oak essence myself and recommend tasting earlier next time and just adding more oak as needed to taste.

wade said:

If they already sanitized then you will need to sanitize again, sanitizing solution only keeps them sanitized to open air for approx 6-8 hours! Keeping the bucket lid on wont really help keep any more 02 out as the bucket will be full of 02 but for that little time it will be fine. Ive never used the oak essence myself and recommend tasting earlier next time and just adding more oak as needed to taste.

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Thankyou!! Will sanitize again before I bottle.. At least that'sthe easiest part..

Pretty successful bottling adventure... Decided I don't like the double lever corker, so am going to get a floor corker before my next attempt.. Bottled 29 1/2 bottles.. Had friends over so we decided to give the 1/2 bottle a try.. Pretty impressed with it! Can't wait for it to age!!

You will love either the Italian or Portuguese floor corker, I have the Port. and it works great and even my 5 year old son can cork bottles successfully.