so i have this theory

[georges]

or maybe its just a hope.

regarding kit wines, would it be fair to say that a 12L kit would have a better chance of making a really decent white wine than red? as whites may depend less of skins, juice for achieving that really deep red rich body?

i ask this cause i have two 12L whites on the go now and im hoping they are going to be great! (Cellar craft sterling californian reserve chardonnay and pinot grigio)

any thoughts?

g

 

[rob]

I seem to always do better with the reds, not sure why they just always come out a little better

 

[Tom]

Not true. You can make good wine both Red and White.
Now if you get a 17ltr kit this is where you can make great reds and whites.

 

[ibglowin]

I have had great success with my Whites to date. The Reds are pretty darn good as well but the tannins are not quite what a good commercial bottle of Red has for sure. The Grape skin pack helps with solids but lets face it. Fermenting 2lbs of grape skins in a grape pack is not quite the same as 100lbs of grape skins from fresh grapes for 6 gallons.

 

[Runningwolf]

I agree with Tom. I've made mostly whites and the bigger kits are remarkably better. I was always buying the smaller and mid size kits and was very happy with them. That is until I tried the WE Washington Columbia Valley Riesling. Stay within your budget and you'll never know what you're missing. As I said I was perfectly content till I tried a bigger one.

 

[Flem]

I'm with you guys, I won't buy anything less than a 16 liter kit. For the small difference in price, it's worth it for the increase in quality. When you spread that increase in price over 30 bottles of great wine, it actually becomes pretty insignificant. But that's just my opinion.

 

[Runningwolf]

With all this being said do not discount the Island Mist and Orchard Breezin kit's as they can be very good as is or with a bit of tweaking.

 

[ibglowin]

So what is your favorite tweak for those kits?

 

[Runningwolf]

On the majority of them, add 1/3-1/2 of f-pack up front and sugar to 8.5 sg.
Also Glycerin before bottling. Be careful with the abv on lighter fruit wines like peach.

 

[ibglowin]

My SWMBO would probably like one of those but not sure if I could pull the trigger!

Do you have a couple of fav's?

 

[BigDfromTN]

My SWMBO would probably like one of those but not sure if I could pull the trigger!

Do you have a couple of fav's?

This goes a bit against advice.... BUT, I did a Cornucopia Tropical Reisling from Amazon dot com ($48.00 or a 30 bottle kit incl. shipping). My SWMBO really likes it. Ordered another and may try some of the tweak by adding part of the Fpack into the primary to boost the starting SG, and lower the final SG. Im thinking this will boost the ABV a little and cut down on the sweetness a little. Others feel free to correct me if im wrong!!