Recent content by Dukeisaac

Right after the second racking a week ago, the wine appeared much lighter in color and insipid. I'm glad I was asked for pictures. During that one week, it has changed completely. See attached pictures. The color and the taste have improved a whole lot. I will not mess with it any longer...

I believe the OG was 1.090. I do not have my notes in front of me.

The flavor is okay but it lacks body and finish. I think the color is important since one does not expect a PN to be so light. The mind plays a huge role in the perception of taste and enjoyment. I recently improved on a bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc by justg adding a pinch of tartaric...

I started the PN with 2 skin packs + seeds and pitched in the yeast on 7/27. By 8/1 the S.G. was already 1.008 and I locked the fermenter and installed an airlock. On 8/13, I racked to a carboy, squeezed the muslin bag to extract as much wine as possible, then I proceeded to degas, stabilized...

I started a FWK Pinot Noir Forte, with 2 skin packs, back in July 2023. After 2 polishing racks, I noticed the color is lighter than expected. Besides adding some red grape concentrate, which will make the wine sweeter, what else can be done to turn the color a deeper red?

Inspiring! I would love to try their wines if they could be purchased outside of Wisconsin. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your inputs. From all the comments and suggestions., I've deducted that the best course of actions after primary is to first degas as much as possible using the AIO and HSE, then add SO2 (k-meta and sorbate when necessary if residual sugars are present). Top off with similar wine...

Do you wait until right before bottling to degas, assuming that most of the CO2 didn't escape during aging? Instead of nitrogen or argon, can I add CO2 since I already have a system that I used to make seltzer?

I didn't see many CO2 bubbles when I degassed with a drill mounted regarding wand and later with the head space eliminator (HSE). Its after I added the SO2 that a whole lot of bubbles started appearing.

After degassing a FWK wine, I stabilized wine by adding the packet containing K-Meta and sorbate. Instead of topping off the carboy with a similar wine, I used a AIO head space eliminator.which draws a vacuum to eliminate any oxygen that would sit on top of the wine. When drawing the vacuum...

That's what I thought, but wanted to make sure. Thanks.

After reading so many positive reviews of the FWKs, I decided to try their Forte Petite Sirah and Forte Pinot Noir, both with 2 skin packs. Since this is my first attempt at making kit wines, I'm following the instructions line by line, though I plan on bulk aging for a minimum of 6 months and...

Correction. The good words about the AIO were from bearpaw8491 and not ryansrtimmel. My bad.

I second everything that ryanstimmel said re the all-in-one wine pump. The AIO has been a game changer. No more lifting heavy carboys and possibly break your back or run the risk of dropping a full carboy on your feet. With its bottle filler, no more bending down to fill bottles. With the Head...

My wine smell and taste fine. It's just these bubbles that won't go away. Bubbles do come out when I degas but, unlike in other wines I've made in the past, the bubbles take a long long time to dissipate and form a thick layer of foam on top of the wine. Eventually, 5-6 days later, the foam...