Mosti Mondiale Nero d'Avola

[Dominick]

Ordered my alljuice Nero d'Avola kit last week and my equipment waiting for it all to arrive.

Seems like this variety is strong and dry from what I been reading about this variety. Hopefully it turns out great, and not ending up tasting like vinegar.

Hehe.. Excited to start!!!

I never read so much about wine in my life...
..also excited about my natural grapes... thats gonna be fun as well.

It seems im gonna need more land I wanna plant more vines next year!!

Im hooked

 

[Bert]

Welcome Dominick......This hobby can get addicting..

..Hope you have some fun with it too...

 

[Mike1973]

Welcome. I've been reading a lot the last couple months too, there is a lot to learn! Good luck with your wine, the nice thing is that with the kits, I think you are much less likely to make vinegar! Just follow the instructions and ask here for help!

 

[grapeman]

Good luck with the kit dominick. It will help you to learn the basics of the winemaking process. Should be a good one.

 

[Wade E]

Dont worry about the land to much, Id worry about needing more room in your house.

 

[Dominick]

Im lucky to have a huge unfinished basement with concrete floor/foundation. space not a problem, can fit many oak barrels down there one day hehe.

 

[Wade E]

Thats a good thing. I took over 2/3rds of my basement and built a wine cellar on 1 side and a wine making room on the other. Im in the process of finishing the rest and turning that into our master bedroom.

 

[JimCook]

See - wade's got the right idea - keep yourself as close to the wine as possible (in case you need a midnight drink).


- Jim

 

[Dominick]

hehe.. got the juice kit today, i have not opened the boxes yet or the compound bucket with the juice. I have 1 concern thats bugging me...

I just went into my basement, and it has an odor of basement.
My question is will this affect the smell and taste of my wine.

I think the answer will be YES, and if it is...

What can i do about it?

My basement is huge, maybe 40x20feet long and fully unfinished and empty. It would be a shame if i couldnt use it for wine making.

 

[Wade E]

If it smells like that then it probably needs a good cleaning and de musting. You can make wine in there but I would use an airlock at all times in this case. the airlock prevents any 02 from entering but allows C02 to escape through the fluid in the airlock.

 

[Dominick]

So now I have the windows open with a fan right near the window blowing in fresh air, I talked with my father he said he had mopped the basement floor with a water/bleach mix few months ago. - Im hoping the fresh air will take care of the problem but will try other stuff to get the musty smell out.

I cleaned the equipment, then sanitized it, then put the bucket together, the funniest thing was the spigot it was in open mode as we poured the juice into the fermenting bucket, so as were pouring you see a stream of grape juice i started laughing saying wheres it coming from then say it coming out of the spigot. not much though, was glad we did this outside.
We live right in the wetlands area so bugs/ants and field mice are our concern, so we cleaned it up real quick. We dont want no ants or field mice in the basement.

My basement temp is at 70degrees with 53%humidity today.

After we poured the juice in, i dropped the bentonite in a cup let it sit few mins then started the yeast, yeast went into luke warm water, dropped yeast in waited 15mins then stirred it in the cup and went downstairs and dropped it in the must. Then grabbed the bentonite, stirred it and dropped that into the must, stirred the must for around 5mins then put the fermenting/bucket cover back on the bucket. I didnt seal the cover its just laying on top as u can see in the pics. I still have the airlock cover on. So I guess I let this sit for few days and stir ocasionally each day. I read in the directions from MM, and in STEP2 says that there is a "Yeast Nutrient" pack but it is not in my kit.

George set me up and I have these chemicals that were for my natural grapes and i see one is Fermax Yeast Nutrient, so maybe i can use some of that. So what I have is:

EZ Clean (small can)
Sodium Metabisulphate (sanitizer??)
Fermax Yeast Nutrient
Tartaric Acid
Potassium Sorbate
Pectic Enzyme
Bourgovin RC212 (Yeast??)

I didnt take any SG reading. - Should I?

Also my floating thermometer was broke in shipping

Well that was my day so far

Edited by: Dominick

 

[Dominick]

ps: the juice smelt nice and tasted good as well.

I took the leftover that was in the MM juice bag and threw it in a 1 gallon plastic milk carton in the fridge.
I guess i should of thrown it in the 3 gallon carboy for backup. doh!


Edited by: Dominick

 

[Wade E]

You should take an SG reading so you can write down and when done know what the abv is. Also you should take an SG reading to make sure that you are within the range given or typical range if no range is given. Most reds like this will have a starting SG of between 1.090 - 1.110. You also need to know this if in a couple of days you do not notice any action you can take a reading to see if it is fermenting as some times those rubber grommets where the airlock goes in the lid leaks and you have no action in the airlock.

 

[Dominick]

Wade I just took a reading.

I never used a hydrometer before, so I dropped it in the must in the middle and it floated i do not know if this reading is accurate as i really dont know how to read it. Not like it shows a redline or anything.

SG = the juice was up to the line that says
1.000
20 <-----


Potential Alcohol
2%


Balling
5


Like I said i never used it before so really dont know how to get or read it accurate. Can use some help. Thanks again.

 

[PolishWineP]

What extra juice?

 

[Wade E]

What size bucket do you have that all the juice did not fit in there????? When did you start this kit as that reading is 1 that tells me that it has been fermenting for at least 2-3 days and is ready to be racked into carboy. The SG reading would read 1.020 from all the numbers that you gave me. Read your instructions that came with the kit and at what SG does it say to rack to carboy.

 

[Dominick]

PWP - there was maybe little less then 1/2 gallon left of juice.

I filled the Fermenting bucket to the 5 gallon line.
I wanted to leave it at the line, just incase it foamed too much during fermentation. Wade today is my first day fermenting.

As per instructions..

When the specific gravity reaches 1.040-1.050 the must is ready for the first racking.

 

[grapeman]

Dominick, use the ridged line on the inside of the primary. That is the 6 gallon line. Put all the juice in the primary. You should have close to 6 gallons to begin with. These are 6 gallon batches not 5. Like Wade says, the hydrometer should read about 1.090 to begin with. Put straight water in something deep enough to fit the hydrometer in. Take a reading to get used to it. Look at it straight on if possible. Water should read 1.000 or close to it. Once you are comfortable with that, take a reading of your must again.

 

[Wade E]

Dom, you should have all the juice in the primary bucket, they are designed to hold a full kits worth. Try to get an accurate reading with the hydrometer.

 

[Dominick]

Ahh i think i should of used the kits compound bucket to ferment in.
That is 6 gallons.

I used a fermenting bucket pictured above which is 4.5 imperial gallons / 5 US gallons.

whoops