Recent content by rrs26ja

okay, still no progress with this port. Today a took a trip to our local wine/beer shop where I purchased the kit. The first thing they told me was that the heat belt does not work, I was very surprised, seem like the wine was a consistent 73 degrees. They did write a note to Tim at wine expert...

I have had the heat belt on since I started the kit. I transferred to glass today and will continue to stir and check. Is the next step to read below 1.020?

Okay so now I am confused. I started the kit on 02/26/2010. When do I take the specific gravity readings? I made the kit on 02/26/2010 and took a specific gravity reading which was 1.13. I added the oak and yeast as the instructions said. I let it sit for 7 days covered. Prior to adding the...

Wade, Its still at 1.028 today after stirring again yesterday, what do you mean add a little nutrient?

Yes I did make a mistake with the readings I met 1.028. I just checked it today after I stirred the crap out of it yesterdayand its back up to 1.028. Here were my readings: 02/26/101.13 initial reading 03/05/101.012 before adding the sugar 03/12/101.030 before stirring it up...

I started this port a 2 weeks ago. Everything was fine until I added the sugar. The specific gravity jumped up to 1.32, I let it sit for 7 days with a heat belt on. The temp was about 73 degrees. Ichecked the specific gravity again and it was 1.30. I stirred the crap out of using my drill and...

Thanks Vcasy, you are right on, it was a wine expert Vinters Reserve kit which included no skins and I had to add about 3-3.5 gallons of water to. Reading the reply from Wade and yourself I now understand the difference and when making these bold types of wine, I should make it from an all juice...

Thanks Wade, you posting makes a lot of sense. I didn't realize that there some kits that are all juice with skins and some with a samller amount of juice that I added water. I purchased the Wine Expert Vinters Reserve kit which was 1/2 juice and then I had to add water. Appreciate your...

Being inexperience, I am not sure what you mean by smaller. I would guess yes as the kit was only $68.00, it did make 6 gallons but you you had to add quite a bit of water after adding the juice from the box.

I made a wine expert Borolo kit about 9 months ago. I tasted it at 3 months, again at 6 months and now at 9 months. This was my first kit, I was very careful about the SG readings and following the steps very carefully.. The wine has a fruity taste, but it really doesn't taste like wine. More...

Hello All, I am leaving for vacation on July 5th. At that time I should have my port transferred into the secondary and completed the stablising and cleaing steps that I need to do. It is suppose to sit in the carboy for 14 days but I will be on vacation. Is it okay for the wine to sit for...

Well I just purchased a port from Wine Expert. This is only my third kit, but I was wondering how you canmake a port and have it taste good after only 3-6 months? I was under the impression that ports spend years in the barrell. What is it that Wine Expert does to the juice to make this happen?

Okay so I made my 2nd kit, this time a Pinot. As with my list kit the Borolo, I didn't get any foaming or aggressive bubbling with my primary fermentation. There was action, a lot of fizzing and later hissing or buzzing, but no foam. I took a taste of the first kit when I bottled it and it...

Just started our second batch of wine after bottling the Borolo. Has anyone made the Pinot before?

Appleman, I did use the search routine but nothing really came up for removing labels. As I said in my post I tried the soak in hot water. I have used the scrapper onthem yet. After scrapping the dry labels, I use Goo Be gone to remove the glues, works good. I will try to scrape the saoked...