WineXpert I won a wine Kit. ???

[lonesomechicken]

Some friends of mine got me to go to their winemakers club last nite. They are trying to get me to join. I did. $12 why not. Anyway they have a raffle at their meeting I bought a couple tickets and won a Wine Expert White Zinfandal kit. 6 gal. Any suggestions as I have never done a kit.

First suggestion from the elders of the club was to make it a 5 gal. better flavor they said.
Second suggestion I heard was to up the alcohol.

There were a couple more that I dont remember but the first one makes sense to me. Does anyone have any thoughts.

 

[1tonmama]

I believe the kit makers discourage 5 gal batch being made out of the 6 gal kit as it can throw off the chemistry of the engineered-kit - If I'm not mistaken, the instruction in your kit says something along that line too (I'm currently doing a WE cab sauv kit).

 

[saramc]

Congrats on the win! I would make that WE kit per their instructions, no bumping up the sugar for more alcohol and do not turn it into a smaller volume to get more oomph either. They spend a lot of time in R&D to get those kits downpat and you should enjoy the final product.
Though, if you wanted to do a fruity white zin you could eventually split in to two 3-gal batches and let one finish as original and add fruit to the other. Just to play devil's advocate!

 

[Bartman]

It would be unwise to try to 'concentrate' the flavor of the kit by holding out a gallon of the water. I have done that, only to be disappointed by the 'syrupiness' of the final product. If you want to try it, you could hold ~2 liters (<= 1/2 gal) out and make a 5.5 gal batch. One annoying problem - it won't properly fit into any single carboy.

 

[DoctorCAD]

My suggestion is not to listen to them anymore.

6 gallon kits make 6 gallons of wine, not 5.

 

[Boatboy24]

By making it to 5 gallons, you will be raising the alcohol. This is typically not recommended, but I've done it with a Vino Italiano kit and am glad I did. I can't say if the WE kit will have the same results though.

Congrats on the win.

 

[TahunaJR]

I currently have the WE White Zinfandel 6-gallon kit in the secondary fermenter. I had been away from the hobby for quite a few years and decided to do this kit to get back into the swing of things. My recommendation is to follow the directions to the letter. You will end up with a proven practice at making a wine you can enjoy. Get used to all of the nomenclature surrounding winemaking and read, read and keep reading the posts here. Tons of useful information!

Then, once you feel comfortable with all of the processes and choices under your control, you can start venturing out. Trial and error and asking for help are all part of winemaking. But, to begin with keep it simple and follow the directions. You can then enjoy a bottle of White Zin while wondering why one of your future experiments didn't turn out like you thought it would.

Again, just my opinion. You have to learn to crawl before you walk! Enjoy the ride...

Joe

 

[Manda]

Since this is your first kit I would recommend following the directions verbatim. Once you see the results then you can make a decision on how to handle it next time you get a kit. Besides it is free. If you follow the directions you should get 30-32 bottles of good wine. You can’t beat 2 ½ cases of free wine.

 

[wineh]

While chaptalization (adding sugar to must) is a valid winemaking technique, it's not as simple as pouring some sugar from the dish into your must, and you should likely have a few batches by the instructions under your belt before you try. Making a 6 gallon (23l) kit to 5 gallons (19l) will most often result in an unbalanced wine; don't do it. I would be thinking of getting my $12.00 back.

 

[lonesomechicken]

Thanks all. I am following the directions on this one. I wouldnt even have it if I hadnt won it as I have already made to much fruit wine this last fall and winter according to my other half. I dont want to screw it up I can do that with the fruit in the garden.