Other Paklab kit- added too much water

[DeniseHogemann]

I started my paklab kit-Cabernet Sauvignon on November 20. I don't know what I was thinking but I added a full 23 liters of water and the grape juice concentrate instead of bringing it up to the 23 liters. I didn't realize it until I was transferring it to the Carboy on November 26. It didn't all fit. So now I have been thinking and reading here what I should do because it will be weak. I think I will buy a bottle or two of the same kind of wine to mix in. Is this the best route to go? If so how many bottles should I add?

 

[Rocky]

Denise, how many liter kit was it? 10, 12, 15? What did you use for a fermenter? What size is the carboy? Do not add any k-meta or k-sorbate to it just yet. Your best course might be to get another kit and kick start the fermentation. What was the starting SG and the current SG? Don't despair, this can be fixed.

 

[DeniseHogemann]

Denise, how many liter kit was it? 10, 12, 15? What did you use for a fermenter? What size is the carboy? Do not add any k-meta or k-sorbate to it just yet. Your best course might be to get another kit and kick start the fermentation. What was the starting SG and the current SG? Don't despair, this can be fixed.

So my kit is a 23 liter kit. Was suppose to add 2 liters of warm water to the fermenter and add the bentonite, stir to dissolve, add contents of the grape juice concentrate and then water up to the 23 liter mark. In the preparation directions it mentions 23 liters with water. So I measured out 23 liters and added it all instead of just what I needed. My fermenter is a food grade plastic pail that holds 30 liters. My Carboy is a 23 liter. My starting SG was1.065 and on stage 2 (november25)when I transferred to the Carboy it was 1.02.

 

[ibglowin]

Hate to tell you this but that is probably lost. You added so much water that the max ABV it could attain is only ~9%. That's wine cooler range. There really is not much of a fix for this, it is going to be thin and watered down. You could help it some when you rack each time by adding nothing but an inexpensive like wine, certainly add no more water!


Good luck!

 

[Rocky]

Hi Denise, Your kit is to be 23 liters of finished wine, but I was asking how many liters of concentrate did you start with?

If I understand you correctly, you are saying you added just 2 extra liters of water because you did not take into account the 2 liters of warm water for the bentonite. Is this correct?

Your wine is likely finished or almost finished fermenting at this point and the ABV would be somewhere around 9%. Have you tasted the wine and if so, how does it taste? Thin? Watery? Adding wine to it to bring up the ABV would take an awful lot of wine. For example, if you added 6 gallons of 12% wine to what you have you would end with 12 gallons of 10.5% wine.

I was thinking that I would get another inexpensive, say 10 liter, kit of Cabernet Sauvignon, add the concentrate from that kit to the wine and try to restart fermentation. This would take some calculations and may be more than you want to do. What Mike said about "wine cooler" is not all bad. Perhaps the answer is to go with what you have and serve the wine over ice with some club soda in the warm weather.

 

[DeniseHogemann]

So I tested the SG today and it was at .995(I have two hydrometers and they both said that). I did taste it. It tasted yeasty and wasn't too bad. If it does end up being a wine cooler that's ok. I have lots of family who don't care for strong wine. Thanks for all your advice.

 

[robie]

You could make a summer wine out of it by, after you add sorbate, making a very concentrated fruit pack (F pack) of some kind of fruit(s), like blackberries, cranberries, ..etc, and sugar and add it.

Or, you can buy another of the same/similar kit; ferment it with less water, then mix the two together. A cab/Merlot blend is always nice.

Either way, the results will be marginal and of lower alcohol level than normal.

Other than that, there is not much you can do. We have all made our own mistakes, too, so don't feel too bad.

 

[Rocky]

Denise,

I like Robie's suggestion about getting another Cabernet Sauvignon kit and fermenting with less water and then blending, better that the idea that I posted, i.e. add the concentrate and try to restart fermentation. If you were able to start with an SG of about 1.110 (by carefully limiting the water you add, stirring and taking frequesnt hydrometer readings) and used a strong yeast (like Lalvin EC-1118) you could end up with a wine that is about 15% ABV. Blending this with what you have would give you twice the wine with an ABV of about 12%.

If this seems too much for you, I would go with his other suggestion and make an f-pack from a complementary fruit, sorbate the wine and add the f-fack. I would taste it after adding the f-pack before adding additional sugar. Of course this depends on how sweet you want the wine. You are at 0.995 now and the f-pack, depending on the sweetness of the fruit, could raise the SG to something over 1.000, where you would start to taste sweetness.

Look at this as a great learning experience. It will help you grow as a winemaker. Buona fortuna!

 

[Cannew]

I did the same thing you did on my first kit. All went well and when I did the final rack, I added 2L of a similar wine. At first it tasted abit green, but after aging it improved (or maybe I just got used to it). Regardless, I'm still enjoying it.

Made several other kits, keeping to the instructions (except for the Port which I added brandy), and expect to see a difference.

 

[DeniseHogemann]

Thanks everyone. I am going to take robie and rocky's suggestion and make a similiar kit but make it with less water. I couldn't find the same kind of wine as i had made (very limited to my wine supplies where I live and wasn't going to Saskatoon any time soon) so I picked up a blueberry/pomigranate merlot. We will see what happens

 

[Rocky]

Denise, that sounds like it will make a very nice wine. Cab-Merlots are great and you will have a background of the other fruits. Try to start out with an SG of about 1.110 and used a strong yeast. Keep us posted.

 

[DeniseHogemann]

Update

Just wanted to let you know what I did with this watered down kit. I went and bought a Niagara Mist Blueberry Pomegranate white merlot, added only 5 litres (1.32 gallons) of water to it and followed the instructions for stage 1 as how they wanted it to be done. My starting SG was 1.114.This was Jan 1/12. On Jan 8 I added 2 litres of the watered down wine just to see what would happen. Everything seemed OK so the next day I added the rest of the watered down wine to make the 23 litres that I needed. Final SG was 0.990. After adding the fruit flavour pack they sent it was 1.010. Anyway I just bottled the finished result. It turned out good. It is a little sweeter for my liking but the rest of the family likes it. I still had some of that watered wine so I used it in place of some of the water in my mixed fruit wine that I have going. So, lessoned learnt!

 

[robie]

Good. Sounds like all is well. Live and learn, what else can one do?