First wine

[jzabron]

Good Morning everyone.

I'll be chronicling my first experience making wine. I've gone with Winexpert's Cab Sauv kit.

Sanitizing all of my tools. Countertops completely cleaned off, and then sanitized. I then had a clean sanitized spot to place my sanitized tools.

Primary fermenter cleaned and sanitized.

This is the kit from WinExpert that I'll be using.

Bentonite, Juice, and Spring Water added to the 6 gal mark.

Looks like I'm cleaning up a murder scene. OG was 1.096 at 64 degrees F. Correcting for the temperature curve, OG was 1.097, spot on.

My bulk juice temperature was low (59 degrees F) and I needed to raise the temperature up before I could think about pitching my yeast.

Oak chips mixed into the juice.

Primary fermenter with a brew belt on, blanket insulating it to raise the temperature. I hit 67 degrees F at 11pm and pitched the yeast (I swapped out the EC1118 for Lalvin RC-212) in. At 6am, temperature was 75 degrees F.

I've read up a bit and I believe I should be alright without adding yeast nutrients for the RC-212 due to the kit juice already being infused with nutrients.

 

[sour_grapes]

I've read up a bit and I believe I should be alright without adding yeast nutrients for the RC-212 due to the kit juice already being infused with nutrients.

Where, exactly, did you read that? I don't know whether or not you are likely to have problems, but you should be aware that RC212 has one of the highest nutritional requirements.

 

[jzabron]

@Sour_Grapes: Here's what I had found

Remember that yeast nutrients are not required for any wine "kit". They will already have been added upfront. Anything from fresh fruit as well as most juice buckets etc will require a nutrient addition plan.

I'll continue to graph the SG as fermentation chugs along, if it begins to level out before fermentation completes, I can add nutrients.

My LHBS has the following products readily available: LD Carlson Yeast Nutrient, LD Carlson Yeast Energizer, or FERMAX Yeast Nutrient.

 

[Noontime]

Congrats on your first wine! The kit manufacturers use a robust yeast like EC1118 so they know it will ferment with little chance of complications. Substituting is definitely something many people do, you just have to make sure you choose an appropriate yeast for the the wine, and one that is capable of metabolizing the concentrates used in kits.

 

[bkisel]

Do you maybe have some experience brewing beer? In spite of your nutrient question, reading your post, I get the impression that you've got more confidence than a first time experience would suggest.

BTW, like your photos. Worth a thousand words as the saying goes...

 

[sour_grapes]

@Sour_Grapes: Here's what I had found


I'll continue to graph the SG as fermentation chugs along, if it begins to level out before fermentation completes, I can add nutrients.

My LHBS has the following products readily available: LD Carlson Yeast Nutrient, LD Carlson Yeast Energizer, or FERMAX Yeast Nutrient.

Ahh, but look at posts #5 & 6 in that same thread.

I cannot say that you will or will not have problems. I would add one of the nutrients your LHBS has. (I use the Fermax one.) Cheap insurance.

 

[jzabron]

Do you maybe have some experience brewing beer? In spite of your nutrient question, reading your post, I get the impression that you've got more confidence than a first time experience would suggest.

BTW, like your photos. Worth a thousand words as the saying goes...

I'm actually a complete beginner. I've just been reading all of the forum posts here non-stop while I waited for my kit to ship. I'm fairly certain that there isn't a question that I have that hasn't already been answered, it just requires some Boolean searches to locate the answer!

Ahh, but look at posts #5 & 6 in that same thread.

I cannot say that you will or will not have problems. I would add one of the nutrients your LHBS has. (I use the Fermax one.) Cheap insurance.

I'll stop on my way back from work and mix it in this evening.

 

[cmason1957]

Glad you did some research and study, before you stared. It will pay off in the long run. One thing I might suggest is consider removing the brew belt now. That fermentation will generate plenty of heat to keep your wine at a "good" temp.

Also, I a guessing this isn't sitting on a concrete floor. If it is, you may want to move it up a bit, the concrete will leach the heat right out.

But other than those things, looks like things are going well. Oh and I assume you have a covering of some sort on the bucket to keep dirt and such out.

 

[jzabron]

Glad you did some research and study, before you stared. It will pay off in the long run. One thing I might suggest is consider removing the brew belt now. That fermentation will generate plenty of heat to keep your wine at a "good" temp.

Also, I a guessing this isn't sitting on a concrete floor. If it is, you may want to move it up a bit, the concrete will leach the heat right out.

But other than those things, looks like things are going well. Oh and I assume you have a covering of some sort on the bucket to keep dirt and such out.

My apartment temperature is extremely cool, constant low 60's and I'm on the external side of the building. It's a tiled floor, I've got a beach towel folded up under the primary fermenter currently. My juice sitting on my dining room table was at 59 degrees F. I planned on taking the brew-belt off this evening once I got home from work and seeing if it can sustain it's own temperature before going to bed, if not, I'll keep it on. I know to adjust the height of it as well to increase or decrease the overall temperature.

And yes, I've got the lid lightly placed on the pale for right now.

 

[bkisel]

I'm actually a complete beginner. I've just been reading all of the forum posts here non-stop while I waited for my kit to ship. I'm fairly certain that there isn't a question that I have that hasn't already been answered, it just requires some Boolean searches to locate the answer!

I'll stop on my way back from work and mix it in this evening.

That's great! Time well spent, you'll likely have nothing but wine making successes moving forward.

 

[jzabron]

At 6:00pm I put in Fermax yeast nutrient and stirred it in gently but thoroughly. I had some out-gassing occurring with some bubbles on the surface. Temperature when I was able to get home to it was 82 degrees F. I unplugged the brew-belt and lowered the blanket insulting it off. With the temperature down to 75, I've put the blanket back on and will check the temperature in the AM. Since the addition of the nutrient, the reaction is definitely more active than before.

Moisture building up on the primary fermenter's lid.

A must view.

Edit.
Checking at 6am before leaving for work. Fermentation is progressing well. Temperature is self-sustaining 78.3 degrees. Blanket was lowered slightly to bring the temperature down just a bit. SG was checked and came in at 1.084. Temperature correction brings it to 1.086 for day two.

 

[kevinlfifer]

This was my first kit as well. Here are the mistakes I made that rendered it a cooking wine.
1. I over agitated it during de-gassing, whipping in air.
2. I topped off with water.
3. I added the Sorbate.

That said I've seen the kit as a gold medal winner in more than 1 contest.

I would look at Joeswine, Good wines gone bad thread for his raisin/tannin tweak and consider it.

 

[jzabron]

This was my first kit as well. Here are the mistakes I made that rendered it a cooking wine.
1. I over agitated it during de-gassing, whipping in air.
2. I topped off with water.
3. I added the Sorbate.

That said I've seen the kit as a gold medal winner in more than 1 contest.

I would look at Joeswine, Good wines gone bad thread for his raisin/tannin tweak and consider it.

Thank's for the notes! I'll make sure I am diligent regarding the degassing. Did you degass in the primary fermenter or in the Carboy? Approximately how much time did you spend degassing? Did you use a cordless drill with a whine-whip to degass or stir by hand?

 

[jzabron]

Things are moving along nicely.. Here's a graph and data of how my Primary Fermentation is coming along:

The thick slimy foam has disappeared and I have a large quantity of small CO2 bubbles coming out. Standing next to the primary fermenter you can hear a "Fizz" similar to a pop being poured over ice.

 

[jethro]

I am very anxious to find out how this wine tastes when you drink it.

 

[jzabron]

I am very anxious to find out how this wine tastes when you drink it.

That makes two of us! Some more updates for you!

This morning, I went to a local bar which I have spoken to and I was able to score a bunch of free bottles. I took all that were unbroken.

Here's my wine notes. Don't judge the poor handwriting. You will see that I added the second 3tsp of Fermax yeast nutrient this morning and stirred it in. I was actually surprised that the SG didn't drop from the 1.039.

Here's the updated fermentation log.

 

[cpfan]

jzabron: some of those bottles look like screw tops. Unless you have access to proper replacement tops, they aren't of value to you. Corking the screw caps is not recommended.

You refer to the kit as a Winexpert Cab Sauv in your first post and in your notes. WE makes several Cab Sauv kits. You should refer to it as a Winexpert Vintners Reserve Cab Sauv for future reference and for asking questions.

Also you should record the code from the box (it includes the manufacturing date) in case you have questions to refer to Winexpert. I also record the date on the yeast package.

Steve

 

[jzabron]

jzabron: some of those bottles look like screw tops. Unless you have access to proper replacement tops, they aren't of value to you. Corking the screw caps is not recommended.

You refer to the kit as a Winexpert Cab Sauv in your first post and in your notes. WE makes several Cab Sauv kits. You should refer to it as a Winexpert Vintners Reserve Cab Sauv for future reference and for asking questions.

Also you should record the code from the box (it includes the manufacturing date) in case you have questions to refer to Winexpert. I also record the date on the yeast package.

Steve

Steve, You're spot on with the bottles. Some of them are a screw top. I didn't have the opportunity to choose at the Pick-up phase. I'm using them currently to practice bottling from a carboy of starsan.

I will make sure I include that information going forward.

Thanks,
Jon

 

[jzabron]

Here's an update for y'all:

Here's a close up view of the must now, nice small CO2 bubbles but very infrequent.

Here's a shot of the hydrometer. The reading is 1.009, 1.010 after temperature correction.

Here's me racking the wine over to the sanitized carboy. Everything else has been sanitized as well. I seem to have difficulties keeping the autosiphon running. Some times it will run perfectly after the first pump, other times I will have to try six or seven times to get it to run.

I've got it flowing well now, I had to restart a few times toward the bottom.

I did my best to keep the lees out while getting the most amount of liquid.

Here's the full carboy back in the same location as the primary fermenter. This location seemed to work well once the fermentation was running between 72-74 degrees.

A question for y'all: This is a Vintners Reserve Cab Sauv kit from WinExpert. My kit instructions explicitly say to not top up as I will need this area for additional additives. However, reading around it seems mostly everyone works to minimize this free space.

 

[peaches9324]

looks yummy! And the gasses that are released will protect it