First Batch

[JohnKensington]

So me and my girlfriend started our first batch with the master vintner 1 gallon kit. I'm pretty sure everything we have done so far has worked well. We're on day 4 now, and I had a few questions about the process I was hoping someone here could help educate me on. The process in my head is as follows and I would like to see if it's correct. (Strawberry Wine)
1. Let sit for 24 hours after adding everything except yeast in primary fermenter. s.g is 1.080. 2.Add yeast and wait 3-6 days till s.g is 1.030, stirring every day.
3. After s.g is 1.030, rack into a carboy.
4. Wait till s.g reaches 1.000 or lower in carboy (1-2 Months)
5?
What do I do after the s.g reaches 1.000? Is it ready to drink or does it sit for more months for clarity/aging?
My recipe book mentioned adding additives to help with fineness and clarity before bottling. Are there any that I should know about using?
Lastly my wine is fizzing inside the bucket, is that normal?
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome to WMT.

Yes, the fizzing is normal. Your yeast are eating sugar and producing lots of CO2.

I think transferring to the carboy at 1.030 is too soon. I would wait until 1.010 at earliest.

 

[mainshipfred]

I would recommend waiting until it got at least to 1.010 before racking it but you can go lower. You really want it to get to .995 or lower or when the reading doesn't change for 3 days. After that you will want to degas it. It sounds like you are anxious to drink it you really need to wait until it clears. I never made a strawberry wine but I understand it takes some time to clear. Bentonite or Sparkolliod. would be my recommendation. When it finishes at .995 or so it will be dry and you may want to back sweeten it. There might be a tad more to it than you might have originally thought.

 

[Ajmassa]

Welcome John. Glad you are 22 and definitely of legal drinking age. Lol

You can leave it in the primary femtentor till 1.000 too if ya want. No hard fast rules here. 1.030 is def early. Transferring it too early can cause it to stall sometimes.

Could be about a week till it’s hitting 1.000. Transfer to glass and in a few days Sshould stop dropping and be dry. That’s when you can do all the extra stuff to help speed up the process. Degassing it. Adding the clearing agents. (Which grab onto solids and pull to the bottom which then ya need to rack it off that gunk again).

doesn’t need to be too scientific or technical. You get that sucker dry, co2 free, and clear in less than a month if all goes well. Then ya can backsweeten to taste. Give it another couple months to mellow out and let everything fall into place. It will only taste better in time.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions. Certain Things can and should be done along the way that will help ensure nothing goes wrong.
Good luck

 

[JohnKensington]

Welcome John. Glad you are 22 and definitely of legal drinking age. Lol

You can leave it in the primary femtentor till 1.000 too if ya want. No hard fast rules here. 1.030 is def early. Transferring it too early can cause it to stall sometimes.

Could be about a week till it’s hitting 1.000. Transfer to glass and in a few days Sshould stop dropping and be dry. That’s when you can do all the extra stuff to help speed up the process. Degassing it. Adding the clearing agents. (Which grab onto solids and pull to the bottom which then ya need to rack it off that gunk again).

doesn’t need to be too scientific or technical. You get that sucker dry, co2 free, and clear in less than a month if all goes well. Then ya can backsweeten to taste. Give it another couple months to mellow out and let everything fall into place. It will only taste better in time.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions. Certain Things can and should be done along the way that will help ensure nothing goes wrong.
Good luck

Am i adding in any more camden tablets along the way? And what about potassium sorbate when im doing the backsweetening. Is that necesary or do most avoid it?

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

So me and my girlfriend started our first batch with the master vintner 1 gallon kit. I'm pretty sure everything we have done so far has worked well. We're on day 4 now, and I had a few questions about the process I was hoping someone here could help educate me on. The process in my head is as follows and I would like to see if it's correct. (Strawberry Wine)
1. Let sit for 24 hours after adding everything except yeast in primary fermenter. s.g is 1.080. 2.Add yeast and wait 3-6 days till s.g is 1.030, stirring every day.
3. After s.g is 1.030, rack into a carboy.
4. Wait till s.g reaches 1.000 or lower in carboy (1-2 Months)
5?
What do I do after the s.g reaches 1.000? Is it ready to drink or does it sit for more months for clarity/aging?
My recipe book mentioned adding additives to help with fineness and clarity before bottling. Are there any that I should know about using?
Lastly my wine is fizzing inside the bucket, is that normal?
Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi and welcome! Fermenting is often done within 2 weeks...not always, but usually. I've had ferments complete in a week in fruit wines but the longest one I've had is about 3 weeks.

Fizzing is what you want... that's your wine fermenting

Many wines will finish (be done fermenting) at about .996 or lower but follow what your recipe says.

Once your wine has finished fermenting, you want to degass as mentioned by others. The next step would be to let it clear naturally (can be a couple months) or you can use a fining agent which will often clear your wine in a week. My favorite fining agent is SuperKleer.

Once cleared, you want to carefully rack it off the sediment. You can bottle at this point and let it age in the bottle or you can leave it in the carboy to bulk age it. The fruit wines I usually make can be drank right away but most wine will benefit from some aging...again, check what your recipe says.

Oh, you don't want to add any Camden tablets once it starts fermentingting until it's done. You do need to add the sorbate and Camden tablets before you back sweeten so your ferment doesn't restart with the addition of the sugar.