first attempt with wine making question.

[gizmothing]

Greetings all!

My wife and I decided to try making wine to give to our friends for christmas presents this year after hearing multiple times how easy it is to do. We purchased a beginners wine kit that included everything but the bottles. We have been following the instructions diligently, but we are now at a point where we are not sure what to do.

Our wine is currently in it's first fermentation, and things appear to be progressing rapidly. Our first SG reading was 1.084 which the instructions told was was bang on the money. We have stirred it every 12 hours for about 2 mins each time. Now here is the confusing part.

Our instructions tell us that after 5 days, we should get a SG between 1.000 and 1.020. Just for kicks today, i decided to check the SG, and we are now at 1.018. my issue is that we are at this point after 2.75 days....

so, my question is this, do we start the transfer to the carboy now, or do we wait the full 5 days?

we are making a cab sauv if this has any bearing on the answer...

 

[djrockinsteve]

Those directions are just guidelines. You may rack now.

Differences in temperature, yeast, sugar content along with enzymes and nutrients etc. all effect the wine.

Go ahead to the next step and keep us informed or post questions.

 

[Tom]

Yep follow the directions. The time may be off thou and thats OK.
What are you making?

 

[Dugger]

As others have stated, you should rack it to the carboy at the appropriate SG reading.
The reason for this is to protect the wine from oxidation. When wine ferments, the yeast consumes the sugar in the juice and converts it to alcohol and carbon dioxide. The CO2 bubbles produced rise to the surface and are what you "see" as fermentation and this CO2 forms a protective blanket over the wine, keeping it from being exposed to the air. As the sugar is consumed the SG goes down and less CO2 is produced and less protection is afforded the wine, so it's important to put it under an airlock when it gets to the SG indicated.
Good luck with your first wine!

 

[Julie]

Hi gizmothing,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. Glad you found your way here. I think everyone has given you some good advice but I have one comment. You said that you are planning on giving this wine away for Christmas, I hope you will tell them that they are going to have to let it age for a year before they can open it.

A cab sauv is not a wine that you will be able to drink 3 months after starting.

 

[Runningwolf]

Hi gizmothing,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. Glad you found your way here. I think everyone has given you some good advice but I have one comment. You said that you are planning on giving this wine away for Christmas, I hope you will tell them that they are going to have to let it age for a year before they can open it.

A cab sauv is not a wine that you will be able to drink 3 months after starting.

Hey Gizmothing welcome to the party. As Julie said everyone gave you good advice but I also have one comment on giving this away at christmas. You didn't ask me for my address yet.

 

[cpfan]

You didn't ask me for my address yet.

Gizmothing:

Don't give any to my brother (who lives in Calgary) unless you get a trade in return.

1. Which kit are you making? It's always a good idea to tell us. Differenht instructions, etc.

2. IMO, 1.018 is too high to transfer to carboy. I wait until 1.005 or lower. Transferring too high can result in wine bubbling thru the air lock.

3. Welcome to a great hobby and a great forum. Hope you enjoy your new hobby and the results.

Steve

 

[gizmothing]

Sorry for the lack of a response, I was in a pretty bad car accident, and wife had our baby, so life has been a bit crazy.

Those directions are just guidelines. You may rack now.

Differences in temperature, yeast, sugar content along with enzymes and nutrients etc. all effect the wine.

Go ahead to the next step and keep us informed or post questions.

Thanks, we went ahead with the next steps and followed the SG of the wine rather than the instructions and did a lot of researching on the net.

 

[gizmothing]

Yep follow the directions. The time may be off thou and thats OK.
What are you making?

We are making a "California Cabernet Sauvignon" and an "Italian Chardonay"

We bought both in a complete starting kit from a company called "Vino Europa". The whole kit is called "Vino Europa complete winemaking kit 3".

 

[gizmothing]

As others have stated, you should rack it to the carboy at the appropriate SG reading.
The reason for this is to protect the wine from oxidation. When wine ferments, the yeast consumes the sugar in the juice and converts it to alcohol and carbon dioxide. The CO2 bubbles produced rise to the surface and are what you "see" as fermentation and this CO2 forms a protective blanket over the wine, keeping it from being exposed to the air. As the sugar is consumed the SG goes down and less CO2 is produced and less protection is afforded the wine, so it's important to put it under an airlock when it gets to the SG indicated.
Good luck with your first wine!

Thanks!

We were a little, ok, A LOT worried when we went to bottle the Cab Sauv. We followed the directions down to the T with the exceptions being on day 18 do this, we went by the SG.

At the bottling stage, it advised us to try the wine, and quite frankly, it tasted horrible. My wife described it best as watered down kool-aid that someone added too much vodka to. We decided to bottle it anyways, and see if some time in the basement under the stairs would do anything.

We just opened a bottle of it a couple days ago, and our opinions have done a 180. It tastes great now! nice flavor, and the aggressive bite it had has mellowed dramatically.

 

[gizmothing]

Hi gizmothing,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. Glad you found your way here. I think everyone has given you some good advice but I have one comment. You said that you are planning on giving this wine away for Christmas, I hope you will tell them that they are going to have to let it age for a year before they can open it.

A cab sauv is not a wine that you will be able to drink 3 months after starting.

while I suspect you are right, the kit we purchased stated it would be ready in 28 days. we are now about 8 weeks in, and it seems to be doing well!

 

[gizmothing]

Hey Gizmothing welcome to the party. As Julie said everyone gave you good advice but I also have one comment on giving this away at christmas. You didn't ask me for my address yet.

lol, this could probably be arranged.

 

[gizmothing]

Gizmothing:

Don't give any to my brother (who lives in Calgary) unless you get a trade in return.

1. Which kit are you making? It's always a good idea to tell us. Differenht instructions, etc.

2. IMO, 1.018 is too high to transfer to carboy. I wait until 1.005 or lower. Transferring too high can result in wine bubbling thru the air lock.

3. Welcome to a great hobby and a great forum. Hope you enjoy your new hobby and the results.

Steve

lol, I only know one other person in Calgary making wine, and I already owe her a few bottles.

see above for the wine kit brand.

I have actually been looking for a new primary fermenter, one that I can put the lid on tight, and use an airlock. the one we have, we just have to rest the lid on top, and can't close it tightly.

We have completed both batches of the wine that came with the wine kit, and both have been bottled and are in our "cellar" under the stairs to let them age before we pass them out for christmas.

With how well the Cab Sauv turned out, we decided to try another wine kit, and bought an orchard Breezin' mist wine kit. it is a strawberry white zinfandel. The wife is excited for this one. it is another 4 week kit.

But I am getting even more curious now. I want to try making wines from scratch, and see the results. I particularly want to try making a watermelon wine, just need to find some instructions on how to do so lol.

 

[mmadmikes1]

I see the costco kits are back in the forums, The Chardonay is not at all bad but the Cab Sav is a little weak. If you get this kit again make it as a 5 gallon , not a 6 gallon wine. It does improve it a bit

 

[closetwine]

But I am getting even more curious now. I want to try making wines from scratch, and see the results. I particularly want to try making a watermelon wine, just need to find some instructions on how to do so lol.

Watermelon is a pain FYI. But there are probably recipes on here. Julie prob. has a good one!

 

[JohnT]

This is normal. Was there a lot of sediment in the wine bottle?

 

[gizmothing]

This is normal. Was there a lot of sediment in the wine bottle?

Well, I don't have any prior experience to say if it was a lot or not. I thought that it was though. My wife and I were both amazed at the amount of solids that were suspended in grape juice and filtered water.

 

[JohnT]

The only reason I ask is this. A lot seems to have happened to your wine since you bottled it. There are literally millions of chemical reactions that occur in wine that produce sediment. With the big change that you describe, I would expect that the wine has produced a lot of sediment as a by-product.

Tip: Wait longer to bottle and do a few more rackings.

 

[Tom]

The only reason I ask is this. A lot seems to have happened to your wine since you bottled it. There are literally millions of chemical reactions that occur in wine that produce sediment. With the big change that you describe, I would expect that the wine has produced a lot of sediment as a by-product.

Tip: Wait longer to bottle and do a few more rackings.

Yes, let it clear more before bottling. There should be no sediment in the bottle. If there is you need to rack more and age more

 

[gizmothing]

well, i have not seen any sediment in any of the bottles so far...not sure if that is a good thing now...