Recent content by Crinton

I pre-ordered a kit in early May. I think the pre-orders may be ending soon (i.e. next 1-2 weeks), so if you want to do a kit this year...you ought to order now. I believe George at FineVineWines sometimes order a few extra on the off chance you miss the pre-order deadline.

tweaks I didn't add much powdered coffee to mine, perhaps 1-2 packs (single serve) of Starbucks Via. It was all we had on hand & had gotten it for free. I did notice that there was this strange/fake/sweet taste that was objectionable after adding the f-pack, but before the powdered coffee...

As promised, the judge's comments for my coffee port were: Judge 1: coffee scent overpowers the wine. Would be nice to get some port in there. Finish is a bit astringent. Will mellow with age. My thoughts: I agree with the scent/flavor. I don't see the astringency, since the port is very...

Hey Joe, Once the judges' scoring sheets arrive, let's post them to this thread. It would be good to compare notes on the same kit. Others might also want to see them. In the mean time I'll make some predictions: - I'll bet your coffee port just missed the cutoff for a silver. I...

Sure thing. I checked my notes and made the following tweaks: - swapped out the yeast for Wyeast's bordeaux wet yeast slap pack (I don't think this made a big difference) - added 2 tsp of tannin - used a 3 gallon Vadai barrel. Each half of the 6 gallon batch saw two months of barrel time...

I was lucky enough to get two silvers: one for a Cellar Craft Showcase Old Vine Zinfandel and the other for a RJS coffee port. I must thank Joeswine (again) as one of my wine making heroes. I used his suggested tweaks to improve the coffee port. They improved it a lot. Joe: did you put...

Yes, I think you are right. Stomp them grapes does normally bring them in, though I believe the price is roughly $2 per pound, including destemming and pressing (via a bladder press). Federal fruit sells for roughly half that, but you will need to supply your own Destemmer and press (rent...

The guy you want to talk to is Mike Martelli Jr. At Federal Produce. Their prices are lower than through a home brew shop, though you will need access to a Destemmer (and later a press). Last year they had a wide assortment of grape varieties, some of which I had never heard of. John and...

Joe! You are a genius. I made this kit and the coffee port came out tasting VERY sweet, almost like fake, imitation coffee candy. And I have a sweet tooth! After reading your post about adding oak, I tried it. I added 30 g of dark toasted oak to the three gallon carboy...tasted two days...

I would go with M&M at www.juicegrape.com. They have a wide selection of frozen musts.

Homer - I have the same testing kit and wondered how accurate the results were too. I made up a control solution, targeting 35 ppm and kept getting results 1/2 or 1/3 as high as they should have been. Repeatedly. I couldn't figure out what was off. Turned out my potassium metabisulfite was...