Recent content by Grabo

$31.08 to ship a Private Reserve Old Vines Zinfandel to Southeast PA. It's definitely been going up the last couple of years for me.

Yes Keystone is not too far from me, so I have been there a handful of times, and they have a nice setup. I've never ordered from them for shipping, but they are the biggest homebrew store near me, so when I need to buy something locally or order grape juice, I look to them first. I also like...

It looks like the wayback machine stopped recording updates around February of this year. Here is a link to the first page of recipes: https://web.archive.org/web/20191020135940/http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/recipes.asp

I've been using Home Brew Ohio for my last few RJS kits, and I have had good service with them. They have had the RQ kits the last couple years, but they don't post them as quickly as other sites. They look to have a placeholder on their site for the new RQs. They seem to also occasionally...

If I remember correctly, Winexpert went on a whiskey barrel kick. First they released the Eclipse Bourbon Barrel Zinfandel/Cabernet (w/skins) in 2018, then the Selection Whiskey Barrel Cabernet/Merlot (no skins) in 2019, then the mentioned Selection Cabernet/Syrah (no skins) in late 2019. I...

I made Winexpert's Cab Franc "Icewine Style" back in 2017. I believe it was a Selection kit then, so I'm not sure if Apres is just a rebrand. My taste on the wine: it's okay. Of the 28-ish 375mL bottles, we still have 16. I'm not much into sweet wines, but I really like icewines we had in...

I made this about 3.5 years ago, and it darkened over time, too. I have a few bottles left, and they are now almost the color of a mead. I don't think the flavor suffered from it, since it kept tasting better over time. However after about 3 years I think the flavor starts to mellow.

My Eclipse OV Zin is about 21 months old now, and opened a bottle last week. I did an extended maceration for about 6 weeks, then bulk aged 1 year. This kit is my favorite Eclipse kit so far. I have a thing for a good Zin or a good Syrah, so I have an obvious bias, but I like it more than SL...

In case you haven't seen this link from other threads: https://morewinemaking.com/web_files/intranet.morebeer.com/files/wyeastpair.pdf MoreWine doesn't look to have a recommendation for RC212 with Merlot, but I've used RC212 on my Stag's Leap Merlot, and it turned out well. Note that in this...

I agree, it sounds like there is a leak in the bag. I just wanted to add that you could also contact the store that sold you the kit. I've had leaking kits replaced without much hassle, but they were due to shipping damage and not a manufacturing defect. Every store I've purchased from has...

I haven't heard/seen that yet, but I'm very curious. Do you have any pictures of the packaging?

I work about 15min south of the Lansdale area, and agree with these choices. To add to these wineries: https://vivatalfawinery.com/ - this is an old style winery and has really good dry Riesling and Gewurztraminer. Their reds are good, too, but lower any expectation for reds in this region...

It's not a super early drinking red, but the Winexpert Selection Enigma is a good red blend as well. It's similar to Apothic Red. In my notes, I have that it turned the corner into a "remake this" kit at 12 months from pitching the yeast.

Here's a cross pollination post, but interesting to this topic as well. From the Peach Icewine post, there appears to be a 13% off coupon that works on the pre-orders of the RQ kits. I haven't used this website before, but it cuts the cost down a bit if the coupon does work...

I was just lurking and googled the name instead of the website. It looks like with their 13% off coupon, the RQ kits are more reasonably priced. The Monastrell ends up being $136-ish shipped to southeast PA. Do note that this is the first I've heard of this site, and I've never ordered from them.