Juice Pails - Newbie

[Longtrain]

I am not new to wine making, LOTS of kits and a fair amount of fruit and novelty wines. I just got a flyer from my HBS for pre-ordering Chilean 6 gallon pails of juice. I ordered a Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc. I have not yet spoken to my HBS, who is pretty good and supporting his products, but I thought that I would get a heads up on the process of making wine from juice pails. Can you provide a quick primer or direct me to a site with information on this venture?

I have pH testing strips, but nothing to check SO2. I know to top off with wine, but I have, I guess lots of questions surrounding yeast, additives, advice on adding bananas or raisins for body, oaking, clearing and bulk aging times prior to bottling. I know this is a lot to ask, so I truly appreciate any advice so that I can get my hands around this process.

Thanks, Tony

 

[Runningwolf]

Tony can you post the price list. Does this juice come with the yeast added?

 

[Longtrain]

They listed many wines, Cab Sauv, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Voigner, Sauv Blanc, Camerere, Pinot Grigio, Cab Franc and I'm sure a few others, everything was $67.50 a pail. I don't know about yeast being added already, I'll give him a call today.

Tony

 

[novalou]

I am not new to wine making, LOTS of kits and a fair amount of fruit and novelty wines. I just got a flyer from my HBS for pre-ordering Chilean 6 gallon pails of juice. I ordered a Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc. I have not yet spoken to my HBS, who is pretty good and supporting his products, but I thought that I would get a heads up on the process of making wine from juice pails. Can you provide a quick primer or direct me to a site with information on this venture?

I have pH testing strips, but nothing to check SO2. I know to top off with wine, but I have, I guess lots of questions surrounding yeast, additives, advice on adding bananas or raisins for body, oaking, clearing and bulk aging times prior to bottling. I know this is a lot to ask, so I truly appreciate any advice so that I can get my hands around this process.

Thanks, Tony

With juice the options are limitless. First you have to decide on the style of wine that you want to make. Then you can choose the yeast, acid level, body, oak.

I do recommend an acid titration test. It's about $20 and give you a handful of tests.

I let my wines clear on their own. Usually after a couple of racking in the secondary they are clear.

Bulk age as long as you need to.

 

[Rocky]

Tony, I have only used the Chilean juice pails one time and I was very pleased with the results. The whites, and I see you have ordered a Sauvignon Blanc, turned out great just as I bought them, but I did enhance my reds with grape packs and/or raisins. I have never made a Syrah and perhaps on your first try, you will want to try it without enhancements and see how you like it. One thing is that they are likely refrigerated and will be very cold when you get them to you home. They need to warm somewhat before you can get a good ferment going, particularly the reds.

 

[deboard]

If you plan on leaving the red bucket dry then you might want to do a malolactic fermentation (mlf) on it as well. I did mlf on both of my fall buckets. If you decide to do mlf then I'd suggest waiting until after it is done before doing any other acid adjustments. It's a good idea to check it beforehand, then check again after mlf to see what else needs to be done.

 

[Longtrain]

Great replies, thanks. I will order the test kit, good call, thanks.

Rocky: glad to hear you had good results, my daughter especially likes Sauv Blanc, so I am looking forward to that one. I did follow your advice about adding raisins and bananas to reds and was very pleased with the body that it gave, will be bottling that Barolo, probably in May, after 6 months in the carboy. (But, it's pretty good now.) so, I'm inclined to add a few things to the red, body is not a bad thing.

I understand that they may be cold and need to come to come up to temp before fermentation. I have heard of but, never done MLF, how do I go about that, I understand that it is a secondary fermentations that converts one of the acids to a more palatable chemical. So what are the what, when and how's of MLF? Do I need to buy it? When is it added and how do I know it's done, etc. etc. etc.

Thanks for all your advice and patience, I feel like a neophyte again...

Tony