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Its been 6 months or so since my last kit but this always happens to me when my wine is finished. I do not have time to immediately bottle my wine before I get into drinking it. Will I do damage to my wine if I steal a bottle or two from the carboy? My concern is leaving air space in the carboy...

I splashed racked and had quite a lot of foam. Also while drill stirring I had lots of foam and gas. I basically kept tasting the wine until I didn't have any fizz on my tongue. I also think I ended up over stirring by mistake, and introduced to much O2, Because the taste of the wine became more...

I moved the brew belt near the bottom of the carboy, about 1/4 of the way up, and I have the temp at 73F(23C). I am glad I have the temp up now. I am going to rack this weekend and do some stirring, vacuum pump, shake test, etc. I'll let you all know how it turns out. Thanks everyone for all...

I got the brew belt on yesterday. And I only have the temp up to 66F(19C). I have the belt 1/3 of the way down the carboy(as the instructions said, but that was only for the bucket). The wine feels warmer above the belt. I am thinking as heat rises maybe I should put the belt further down the...

I am looking to bottle very soon. The gas doesn't bother my wife and I so much since it is faint. I am concerned with the corks popping out. We can always decant when we open the bottle.

Makes sense. I only do the 4 week kits and at the rate my wife and I go through our batches(I haven't been able to get ahead), I cannot wait too long after the 30 days. I am doing a few more kits this winter, do you think I should keep the brew belt on for the whole 30 days? I usually only...

Ok great thanks. I'll most likely use the brew belt. Maybe give it another month in the carboy. How long should I apply the heat? I can rack it again no problem. Can I use my drill powered stirrer? I have a vacuum hand pump as well. There is a little sediment in the bottom(I plan on...

I just did a 4 week kit. I haven't done one in a while and I didn't degas all the way. I didn't notice until now that it is done and there is a little fizz on the tongue. Is there anything I can do to release the gas now? I have low temps in my wine making area 60-65F, which may have been...

I am no wine expert either. I have done about ten 4 week kits so far. I was talking to a co-worker today who does the Costco kits as well and he said he cannot even get the corks in the bottles with his corker. He's a rookie as well so who knows whats going on there. I never had problems getting...

Has anyone else noticed that in the past two years the Argentia Ridge Chateau double wine kits have changed their corks? I had an issue a couple of years ago with wine leaking through the corks from these kits. I just made another kit from that brand and I noticed their corks have changed...

Great! Thanks for answering my question and also thanks for the great tips.

I am transferring my 23L batch of red wine into the carboy from the bucket(after 7 days of primary fermentation) now that the specific gravity is .998. I am transferring into a Better Bottle that is 22.7L. Is it okay that there will be no air space (other than whats in the neck) in the...

Thanks again robie for the helpful information. After following your advice I believe I successfully degassed the wine. I stirred as you said and then tasted. I would check with the bottle vacuum pump after each stirring. after about half a dozen or so stirrings I could not sense the presence of...

The carboy has just a small tiny crack, its like in the shape of a letter W and a letter V. Looks like this: WV. And it is like an inch long and 1/2 inch high. I am not sure if it goes all the way through but when I scratch my fingernail across it I feel something there. I just hate to see a...

I had a carboy with stress lines from lifting it with the handles. I used it for a while after the stress cracks surfaced but got nervous and threw it away. Today I put a small crack in another one when I knocked it over, it was empty at the time. After racking my batch of white wine to it, I...

Thats great information robie. I tried some wine earlier today and I found it kind of fizzy on the tounge. As soon as I get the wine up to 23C (thanks Dugger) I am going to start the degassing process. Can I add the Chitosan right after I am done degassing?

The kit I am asking about is: Argentia Ridge Chateau Shiraz Four Week Premium Wine Kit. I have only used my drill powered stirring rod once before during degassing and I made a big mistake of over stirring. This time around I want to do it correctly. Here are the instructions I have after...

Using the method of wrapping the belt around the bucket(white wine primary fermentation) and the carboy(red secondary fermentation) I have the bucket at 73F and the carboy is 70F. I think the red in the carboy is fine because it is at SG 0.990 at the moment. The white in the bucket seems to be...

The red in the carboy is at 66F without the brew belt. The white in the bucket with the brew belt, with one cork in between the belt and bucket, is at 74F. I could try to double them up. The belt only goes two thirds around the bucket. I am not sure how much surface area I will get using the...

I just put on a white and put a couple corks between the belt and the bucket. Hopefully the temp will be lower now for this batch. I only have one belt so the red that just got transferred to the carboy is at 17.5C/63.5F. For this kit it was in the primary for a week and now in the carboy for...