I did my first kit and made several mistakes along the way. I just bottled it and it tasted a little off (watery, kind of bland, not at all like it tasted at the store). How long should I let it sit in the bottles before I determine that the wine will never improve and start over?
And to add to what Steve said, what mistakes did you make? Some mistakes are correctable, but not all.
On my first batch, my dear hubby thinking our basement was a tad on the cool side, helpfully wrapped a battery blanket around the primary. This brought the temp up to 82F, whereupon all those helpful little yeasties, died a sad and sorry death.
With the help of my Guru, I got it started again in the secondary, but it was a slow process - really slow. This, of course, was not helped by the fact that the gradient inside my hydrometer was just the teensiest bit off and showed the SG higher than it was. I managed to stretch a 4 week kit into 3 months.
In the end, the wine wasn't going to win any prizes, and it was a cheap kit anyway, but it was better than I thought it would be.
Abby
)? Maybe you need to try a better quality kit?
