I bottled it today
This is very good wine!:) I think it is ready to drink right now! I just finished off a large glass of it from the bottom of the carboy and oh my... it is fantastic!
I can understand the concern. I've got a WE white Zin. kit and the instructions say the wine must be at .096 or lower before the stabilizing, fining and F pack are added during step 3 or the wine won't clear properly. Mine has been at 1.099 for 2 days now so I'm waiting.
I had the same problem with my first kit. I got 1.060 for the gravity. I stirred it more and tried again and it was 1.090. That concentrated juice requires a lot of stirring.
Why not use this?
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/SPRING_TIP_FILLER_P180C230.cfm
It is made for beer but I don't see why it wouldn't work for wine. You press it down against the bottom of the bottle and beer starts flowing. You lift and the flow stops. For beer the wand displaces enough liquid...
I'm a newbie like you and I got started by getting a wine ingredients kit for Christmas. I've been home brewing beer for a long time so I had most of the equipment required.
The one thing I would do differently is more research. Find a good book on wine making and then it will be easier for you...
I racked it to a secondary last night and snapped these photos. I took a small taste from the racking cane and it was surprisingly good. It is a bit sweet at 1.010 but is very clean. Almost no lees in the primary just a darker purple film. I noticed today that the secondary already has a layer...
I haven't corked a wine yet and I have no idea which type I'll be using. Dang this hobby seems simple on the outside but there are a lot of details!
I also don't know what type of corker I will use.
Wow! That is great. I will be referencing back to it as I go with my first batch.
The only question I have right now is filtering. Is this a fairly expensive step? I would really love to make my wine Christal clear but I don't know if I can afford the equipment.
Now I like that idea. I would love to have some 3 gallon fermenters for smaller batches. I figure I can find out what I like with 1 or 2 gallons at a time then do 6 gallon batches.
Plastic fermenters definitely take on the aroma of the beer. I haven't used mine in ten years and they still smell like beer. I don't think it would be a good idea at all to use plastic for both.
Rich
I have gotten zero foam from this kit. The surface of the must looks like it is boiling but no foam is being generated. I have a feeling, from what I've read, that this is the exception not the rule. I'm going to get a large plastic fermenter before I do another kit.
I'm a total newbie so I...