WineXpert 2 Questions Advanced Wine Makers

[Lenore]

I have made 9 kits so far and I have a couple of questions for those of you who have been doing this far longer than myself.


1- Cleaning and sanitizing: I clean and sanitize everything after I am done with it and prior to storing it. When I need to use it again I feel compelled to reclean and resanitize. Do you feel it is necessary to reclean and santize items? How long is it "safe" to allow an item to sit before needing to resantize? Reclean and resantize?





2- Degassing: After stirring up a wine kit, do you ever feel you wine is 100% still? I always feel the smallest bit of fizz on my tongue despite my best efforts. However, I have had many commercial wines that had a bit of fizz to the tongue as well. If you do get your wine still like water, what type of stirrer do you use and what method do you employ?





3- Kit vs. Scratch: How much different is it to go from a kit to doing it solo?





Well those are my questions for the experienced ones out there!! I appreciate the help,

 

[MedPretzel]

1. Clean when finished, sanitize before you use it.


2. Fizz-Ex - beat the heck out of it. It attaches to a drill and go go go.


3. Not much difference except that you usually don't have perfect acid, perfect SGs or perfect fruit. You cannot say "I'm making a strawberry wine, so it will taste like strawberries when finished." Sometimes it's a lot different than what you expect. You have to decide on the yeast you want to use, how much sugar, how much acid, etc. There's a great website out there: Jack Keller's, where you can get practically any recipe under the sun. If you follow those recipes like you would a kit wine instruction sheet, you're probably going to do fine.





Good luck

 

[Lenore]

When you say beat the heck out of it: About how long? I have the fizz-x and will stir it for about 10 minutes broken into 2 minute stirrings and doing a couple with the whip-stir so I can reverse the flow. Do you stir for longer? I also use a timer so I am not cheating myself.

 

[Funky Fish]

1 - I agree with Martina. If you clean you equipment after you've used it and store it in a clean place (similar in cleanliness to where you store your plates, bowls, and utensils - it doens't have to be a sterile environment), then you only need to sanitize it before you use it next.


2- Beat the heck out of it until it stops producing foam. Something else that some people do is use a vacuum to help degas the wine. Also, I've heard using a filter like the Mini-Jet will degas the wine.


3 - Doing a kit wine is similar to baking a chocolate cake from cake mix. You just add water, oil & eggs, and you are good to go. Doing a scratch wine is similar to baking the chocolate cake from scratch.

 

[smurfe]

You might be mistaking the "bite" from the tannins as opposed to CO2. I use a Mix-Stir device and it has worked great on every kit outside my very first one where I just stirred it for like 2 minutes and that was it. I usually stir for a total of 5-10 minutes and it works every time.


I normally check for CO2 using my Vacu-Vin and a stopper on an orange carboy cap. Sometimes I even degass that way and not stir at all. I just did that to a batch of Joe M's mead and it worked great.


Like I said, I would still wonder if you feel the acidic bite of the wines as opposed to CO2. Put a sample in a bottle, give it a few shakes with either a stopper in it or your thumb over the opening and listen if you hear a "poof" when you open it or take your thumb off the top.


In regards to cleaning/sanitizing. I used to use a combo cleaner/sanitizer. Now I clean with the One Step and put away, then sanitize with Sodium Metabisulfate. Works great for me so far. As others said, clean, put away to store then sanitize to make wine.


Smurfe

 

[masta]

1. Rinse/clean until visually clean after using. Before using rinse with hot water and inspect for cleanliness then sanitize.


2. I use a Fizz-X and stir a total of ~ 3 mins when degassing and stabilizing. Never noticed any fizz on my tongue when drinking my kit wines. Degassing at proper temperature is key 70-75 degrees F.


3. I found the transition from kits to fruit wines/meads fairly easy and straight forward. Do some research and prepare before starting batch.

 

[Lenore]

What is the Vacu-vin and how do you use it to de-gas the wine? Maybe I am mistaking the tannins for fizz. I would never profess myself to be an expert in wine tasting but I am trying!!





If you had to choose: Mix-Stir or Fizz-X, which would it be?Edited by: Lenore

 

[smurfe]

What is the Vacu-vin and how do you use it to de-gas the wine? Maybe I am mistaking the tannins for fizz. I would never profess myself to be an expert in wine tasting but I am trying!!





If you had to choose: Mix-Stir or Fizz-X, which would it be?

This is a Vacu-Vin

This as a Carboy Cap

You can take the cap off the center large port on that cap and one of those stopper plugs for the vacu-vin will slide over the top of it. You place it on the carboy and put the pump on the top and start pumping.


You will see foam and bubbles from CO2 rise. I pump and pump till the bubbles are gone. If you do this with gross LEES in the bottom of the carboy, you will disturb them so it is best to do it after an extra rack and right before bottling. Works great for me.


I think in regards to the stirrers that any of them that have the solid shaft are fine. I believe the one that is like a wild spring whipping around isn't real effective from what I have read others report.


Smurfe

 

[Lenore]

What would your opinion be on using the Vacu-vin in lieu of stirring the wine up after you add the chitosan or inisglass to your wine kit. At that point you are suppossed to stir up the gross lees. Anyone try that method?

 

[peterCooper]

You are supposed to stir like crazy, when you add the finings. If it is a kit
wine, you stir three times during that part of the process... to begin with,
after adding the sorbate and K-meta and again after adding the isinglas
or chitosan. Don't rely on your internal clock. Set the timer for 2 minutes
each time. If you want to vacuvin after that fine. If you have trouble
keeping to the two minute regime just pretend it is that irritating boss in
the bottle and let go some of your frustrations.

As for sanitizing. K-meta is effective for a couple of months, If you
clean, sanitize and stopper your carboy, it does not need cleaning and
sanitizing again if you use it within that time frame.

Personally I add the K-meta solution and leave it in the carboy. Then I
always have ready made solution to sanitize other implements when I
empty the carboy in preparation.

Edited by: peterCooper

 

[Funky Fish]

I'd still stir the snot out of the wine before using the vacuvin. Otherwise, you are pumping and pumping and pumping and pumping and pumping just to try and get the CO2 out. Stirring will knock a lot of the CO2 out of suspension, and the vacuvin will kind of "finish it off."

 

[PolishWineP]

Because we already have sanitizer out when we are doing anything with wine, after we clean equipment we sanitize too, but I know that we don't need to do that. We do it because it makes Poor Bert feel better about it.


We (Read Poor Bert) stir and stir until he says it's done.(We use a Fizz-X and a dedicated corded drill.) It all depends on the wine. Some wines seem to have more CO2 than others. We go till we don't get any more foam in the wine.


Fizz-X is Queen, King and Ace of stirring equipment.

 

[Lenore]

I truly appreciate all the response. It is helpful to get the advice of those more experienced. I really enjoy this hobby and would like to do a "from scratch" wine. I have never had anything other than grape wine so I don't know what to expect as far as taste goes. Any recommendations on a first "scratch" wine? I was thinking strawberry...