Recent content by gawine

I'm doing a Cellar Craft Amarone which comes with a pack of crushed grape skins. It advises to stir the skins daily or to simply weigh down the bag or wedge it in place in such a manner so that all of the skins remain in contact with the wine. I decided to weigh it done. A glass shot glass...

at the moment it's still bubbling and my gravity reading is not below 1.02 so i won't transfer to secondary. it's day 7. i imagine i will transfer in a day or so once sg gets to less than 1.02. i'll likely move the carboy to the furnace room where it's in the 60's just to be safe. don't think...

Okay, well the WE kit didn't mention secondary temps. the next two kits i have, RJS cellar classic and now a Cellar Craft Amarone mention secondary temp at 68-75 or so.

that one is on my list to try. i was told it was one of the best ipa's out there, so i went and bought the dogfish head 90minute ipa not knowing that there was a 120 and that it had the famous reputation. in any event, the 90 minute was one of the better ipa's i've had and the 120 is on my...

I'm on my second batch of wine a RJS Cellar Classic Cabernet. I noticed it says in the instructions when i rack to the secondary the temperature should still be from 68-75 or so. Should I use the brew belt to keep it that temp or what adverse effects could that have? My basement in Atlanta...

i just purchased the cellar classic california cabernet with wine skins. I went through the included packets and noticed a silver packet with no label. I assume that is oak powder? can anyone confirm? thx!

So you opened a bottle of store bought wine and hoped to just re-insert the cork? won't work with real or synthetic. toss the cork. there are rubber stoppers you can use and withdraw the oxygen. drink the bottle in 2,3 days though or it goes to vinegar. as far as bottling your own wine, i...

After doing lots of digging I see there are some wine kits that have the grape skins and are not even 18L, that's cool. So may go with RJSags Delu Ranch Cabernet, cellar craft Amarone or Red Mountain or WE Sonoma Valley.

OKay, cool. I did top off with wine, topping off w/water does seem to just make it thinner! So for the banana aspect, just cut up banana slices and toss into primary for a week? Or put a cup of currant jelly into the primary?

yeah, I'm okay with waiting, rather have a good quality product and when you average it out per bottle it's still a great savings. One vendor told me you could drink under a year and it would still be better than the less expensive kits, it would've just not realized it's full potential. One...

Hello, I have my first wine kit, a WE Trinity Red in the secondary and for my next wine want to do something of the best quality. Based off what I've read kits with grape skins seem to make the best wine possible. That being said any thoughts/comments on which one I should make next? Thanks!

I'm a first time wine maker, have a WE Trinity Red in the secondary and want to make sure it is not thin. How can I tweak it to give it more body as it sounds like it will be thin based off of people's comments here. Add grape skins or grapes for a few weeks? Thanks.

Well, I've bottled my beer and will bottle my first batch of wine next weekend.. so after having done both I'm leaning towards beer being more work! Now, I'll have to see how the end product comes out as I've heard you can make great beer but it can be harder to make great wine.

Steve, wow, I never heard of making a lower capacity than the instructions tell us to.. interesting. The siphon wand should have a little piece of plastic over the opening preventing it from sucking up the lees. you'll get some but not that much. I've heard of tilting it slightly to one...

Yeah, the process where they allow the grapes to become dried and raisin like makes the wine more expensive I was told. I found a bottle that was a mis-shipment for $15 and it was great. We went back the next day and bought the rest they had left. Hopefully the kit can make wine comparable...