Newbie questions

[Wild Duk]

I've been a brewer for 1 year and now am trying some wine kits. I have a few questions about my 1st kit. Is a 4 week 2007 Grand Cru Petite Sirah.


.....The directions on the kit say just to rack once to the carboywhen fermentation is complete. Ad the stabilizing and clearing agents then, and degass. On these boards, people seem to rack a few times to help with the clearing. Will doing this help my wine???


.....Also can I bulk age the wine in the carboy longer or should I bottle when the directions say.


Or, should I just stick to the directions and their timetable.


Thanks

 

[Wade E]

Different manufacturers have different instructions and you should follow them up to the point of bottling. Once you have a clear wine it is much better to rack the wine off the sediment and into a clean carboy and let it bulk age. There will most likely be more sediment to fall out over more time and it helps us to keep our hands out of the stash for a little while longer to let the wine come around.

 

[Wild Duk]

OK thanks.


How about degassing. Do it just once when I rack from the Fermantor to the carboy, or should I do it more.


How long should I reasonably bulk age it. I know that it was one of the cheaper kits, so I don't want to over do it.


Thanks

 

[Wade E]

For degassing I would rack the finished fermenting wine off the sediment into the new carboy and leave ot a little wine to dissolve the k-meta and sorbate in and then add that back to the wine. I would then degas using a drill mounted mix stir if you have 1, if not use a big sanitized plastic spoon and beging o tear your arm out of its socket and then repeat as degassing manually is quite the task and not recommended by me as thats #1 on the list of new winemakers asking why their wine is fizzy or will not clear up as a gassy wine will not let it clear well cause the gas in the wine keeps the sediment suspended. I would bulk age for around 2-3 months and right before bottling add another 1/4 tsp of k-meta if you plan on keeping these bottles for a year or more after that.

 

[PolishWineP]

You should degas when the instructions for your kit tell you too. That should probably be enough. If you've done it correctly your sediment will drop easier. If your sediment doesn't drop it could be a sign that your wine is holding CO2.

 

[Wild Duk]

Thanks for the quick reply. One more question. After a rack out of the primary, add the additives and degass, should I leave it in that carboy for bulk ageing, or at some point should I rack to another carboy when some sediment drops after a week or 2 or 3 or 4


thanks, great siteEdited by: Wild duk

 

[rgecaprock]

Welcome to the Forum, Wild duk!!!!!



Ramona

 

[uavwmn]

Wild, I usually bottle when the directions tell me too. I always take some out with the wine thief and check for clarity. If it is clear, I bottle it. None of my wines as yet have been cloudy or have sediment. It is all personal choice. Some bulk age while others bottle for aging.


Welcome to the site!!!

 

[Wade E]

You should rack off lees (sediment) to a clean carboy or to a clean primary bucket and then back to clean carboy if you only have 1 carboy. I dont advise bottling from a vessel with sediment in there as you will most likely stir it up in the process of bottling and make it cloudy then youll be in trouble as you will have some wine bottled and have to wait to bottle the rest and then you will have a head space problem while waiting for the wine to clear again. So the best plan is to wait a few weeks after adding fining agent for the lees to compact and keeping the carboy tilted during this process will help you get more wine of your lees when you do need to rack as you will put the racking cane in the side with little sediment thus preventing the chnce o transfrreing lots of lees over. Also start with the racking cane above the lees and when you have a good siphon started slowly lower the racking cane nto that tilted side. More time in bilk aging is better to make sure there is no sediment droping.

 

[Jwhelan939]

I generally always stick to the directions. Every once in a while I will do something a little different, but I know its an experiment and may not come out well. But in your instance I would definitly not stray.


Turning the tables, I thought about maybe trying my hand at a nice wheat beer. Is it more or less complex than wine? Other then a brew pot would I absolutly need any other equipment not already used in wine? How do you Carbonate?

 

[Wade E]

If you are just doing a Coopers or Muntons then the brew pot is about all you need besides what you already have with the exception of corn sugar for carbonating in your beer bottles or using Carb drops. If our thinking of doing an all grain then it can get pretty extensive with Big bre pot, mash tun and lots of research.

Carbonation Drops are a unique easy-to-use homebrew carbonation system.
Each drop has the ability to fully carbonate one 12 oz. bottle.. Each
package contains 60 drops, enough to bottle 6 gallons of beer.
Carbonation drops contain no additives, preservatives, filler or
binders. Just 100% ease in bottling

 

[Jwhelan939]

Very interesting. I may have to think about it. Those pots are fairly expensive though. We will see. Thanks for the info.

 

[Wade E]

If you are doing 1 Coopers or Muntons then you probably already have a
poy big enough. If you are wanting to do a all grain then a turkey
fryer is big enough to do most batches and you can convert a cooler
into a hashtun like I have for very little money.

 

[Jwhelan939]

That is a great idea for a cooler. Nice solder Job too.

 

[jjk1991]

My advice is just another option, but if your new, then yes, keep with the directions. However, I let my primary go all the way down to .992. I rack it off into mysecondary with oakspirals added and then sit for 2-3 months for winexpert and 3-5 if alljuice. I want that lees to make contact for the complexity and richness. I do not take samples nor do I remove my air lock to rule the chance of getting wild yeast into my wine. The wine pretty much clears out on its own by the time a rack again. Its at this process I will degas and stabilize. I have very little CO2 present and the wine becomes crystal clear very quickly. This sits for 2 weeks and then I bottle. I know the wine is clear and ready when I can read a newspaper article through the wine (if it is a white wine and a glass carboy) and wine thief sample on red and a light bulb. My space uses no flourescent lighting, only light bulbs and coolness. Much of my tweaking has come with experience using these kits and knowing the fermentation properties and winery exposures to adjust factory "settings." There's always variances allowed to keep a product within acceptable standards. I push those standards to their extremes and I have been fortunate to never have produces a bad wine and I have done very well in contests abroad. Good luck from beer to wine. I went from all beer to wine to all wine!!