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I found a family member to take all of the equipment, so it can all be considered sold. Thanks to those who responded !

Thanks guys. The problem is the hobby is TOO good. Having a cheap source of good alcohol around the house isn't always a good thing!

This is all off the market now - a family member is going to pick up the wine-making torch for the family. Thanks to those who responded ! ---------------------------------------------------------- I'm going to get out of the hobby. I've got quite a bit of stuff I accumulated over the past...

I refrigerate the opened F-pack as well. Just warm it back up to room temperature before adding it at the end.

I bought a kit that was almost expired earlier this year, and it turned out fine. As Jeff mentioned, just use a new yeast packet if the old one is expired - that's the part that seems to have the shortest shelf life in the kit.

I had two batches that I didn't de-gas properly, which annoyed me enough that I bought one of the 'medical aspirator' pumps off of Ebay that are discussed in these forums. You just hook the pump up to the wine in the glass carboy with a stopper that has a hole in it, and run it for a while - it...

In my case I don't think the wine is ruined - it's just not very good. There is definitely residual gas in the wine - when I pour a glass I wind up with bubbles around the edge of my wine glass. So what I do with the wine is decant it after opening the bottle, which helps some. Do some...

For what it's worth, I did a VR riesling as my second kit, and it was much better than the cab. Maybe the watery thing isn't such a problem with whites as it is with reds. So if you want to try a VR, maybe try a white... I'm doing the chilean merlot (Selection International) now, and I can...

If I remember right it came with one small pack of oak that was added right at the beginning with the yeast.

I did the Vintner's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon as my first kit, and it was a wreck. I don't think it was the kits fault though. If you get the kit be sure to degas the snot out of it, and when you top off the kit when clarifying in the carboy consider adding some wine instead of just water...

Thanks Wade. I will pick up one of those pumps today. One question though, based on your info and other posts here... It looks like after a while with a pump like this you stop pulling CO2 and you start pulling oxygen from the wine ? How is that possible ? If it's a vacuum and a sealed...

Can you give more details on the electric vacuum pump you are referring to ? I'm not against spending some money here if it will make my wine start turning out better :) I'll definitely pick up one of the 'mix stir' drill stirrers you mentioned ! Thanks !

My temp is probably around 70 when I degas - it's in the 73 range during fermenting, but by the time I'm degassing I'm sure it has cooled a few degrees. So that's a good tip - I will bring it upstairs and warm it up a bit next time. I AM stirring like crazy with a long plastic spoon, and then...

I've done 5 kits now. 3 of them have been fine, but two have had gas issues. The latest is an 'Island Mist' kit. I have the little Zip-Loc vacuum pump thingey that I used during the de-gas cycle, and I stirred the heck out of the wine at that time as well. I did this because my first kit was...

Awesome - thanks !

1.048. This is one of those 'wine cooler' type kits, so it will wind up with a lower alcohol content than normal wine.

I have an Island Mist 'Strawberry White Merlot' kit that I am doing. When I put it in the secondary it had a SG of 1.005, and now, after two weeks, it is only down to 1.000, and the airlock hasn't shown any activity in a while - it's about 'done'. The paperwork with the kit says the SG...

I'm starting my third wine kit now. In the first two kits I did, the primary fermentation has been very agressive - the wine has been almost done fermenting before going into the secondary. I have the primary in a relatively warm area of the basement, wrapped in a blanket, so the temp stays at...