First time poster to the Forum, but have been reading and absorbing all of the great advice, working on my 10th kit as we speak (all of them MM and WE).
Started a MM All Juice Masters Edition Old Vine Cabernet with Grape Pack, SG=1090.
Grape Pack was added loose to the must. Punched the cap down and stirred daily with sanitized spoon, all was as expected. Proceeded through primary in a covered primary fermentor, but let the SG get to 1.00 before racking to secondary (two too many wine volcanoes after adding nutrients and oak chips above 1.10). I removed the skins, etc. with a sanitized strainer before the racking. After secondary racking to carboy, added the oak and nutrients (DAP) with no volcano, the wine continued to ferment down to about .992 where it remained inactively for three of days.
Last night I racked to a sanitized carboy for degassing, kms, and fining agents and encountered a smell I've not had in a wine before, not nasty or rotten, just different, kinda musty or oaky. I summoned my courage, it didn't taste too bad. I'm wondering if my late addition of DAP has affected the wine, any experiences with that?
I'm pretty well determined to stay the course and finish the wine as planned, although I am considering an early racking off of the lees, as they are piling up quickly since last night's fining operation. MM kits direct you to transfer all of the sediment from primary to secondary, which was substantial due to the loose grape pack.
Thoughts??
Started a MM All Juice Masters Edition Old Vine Cabernet with Grape Pack, SG=1090.
Grape Pack was added loose to the must. Punched the cap down and stirred daily with sanitized spoon, all was as expected. Proceeded through primary in a covered primary fermentor, but let the SG get to 1.00 before racking to secondary (two too many wine volcanoes after adding nutrients and oak chips above 1.10). I removed the skins, etc. with a sanitized strainer before the racking. After secondary racking to carboy, added the oak and nutrients (DAP) with no volcano, the wine continued to ferment down to about .992 where it remained inactively for three of days.
Last night I racked to a sanitized carboy for degassing, kms, and fining agents and encountered a smell I've not had in a wine before, not nasty or rotten, just different, kinda musty or oaky. I summoned my courage, it didn't taste too bad. I'm wondering if my late addition of DAP has affected the wine, any experiences with that?
I'm pretty well determined to stay the course and finish the wine as planned, although I am considering an early racking off of the lees, as they are piling up quickly since last night's fining operation. MM kits direct you to transfer all of the sediment from primary to secondary, which was substantial due to the loose grape pack.
Thoughts??