Newbie

[wildvines]

Hi

I just wanted to intro myself as a newbie. I been collecting wine for a while but never thought of wine making at home until a few weeks ago.
I been researching and have ordered my first two kits. WE eclipse Pinot noir and WE premium cab/merlot. It should get here in the next few days.

Dies anyone have experience with any if these two kits?

Well I am happy I found this site and can't wait to start.

 

[JohnT]

Welcome aboard

 

[olusteebus]

All I know about them are that they are really good kits. I bet you are going to love making wine. I wish I had started earlier. This is a great forum, very helpful and knowledgeable folks here. Welcome

 

[wildvines]

Thanks. I'm excited. I will certainly prob need some pointers down the line lol

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome aboard. Like olusteebus, I have not made those in particular, but the Eclipse line is highly regarded. Good luck!

 

[wildvines]

Ya hopefully it all come out good. My wife is doubting kit wines. So I want to prove her wrong! Lol

 

[jamesngalveston]

welcome to the forum...I would imagine your wife will be buying your next kits after you bottle and taste what your making.

 

[wildvines]

Here's a question. Should I start my first batch with my eclipse kit or use a lower value kit to stock up first? Also what is the timing to be able to start another batch. In regards how many carboys do I need. I have two buckets and carboy now. I was going to the local hb store to buy another carboy today.

 

[sour_grapes]

Well, whether to start with a high-end kit or a low-end one has no clear answer. I started with a medium-level kit (to gain experience with a grape pack without much $ investment), then did a low-end kit (to get drinkable wine more quickly) and did a high-end kit third.

Timing of batches is something I have spent time thinking about. I decided to roughly follow Tim Vandergrift's schedule (given in this link: http://winemakermag.com/blogs/making-your-kit-wine-shine-redeaux ).

I also wanted to always have an empty carboy available for when it was time to rack from one carboy into another. (You can rack into the bucket, then clean the carboy, then rack back into the carboy, but I want to minimize air exposure.)

At first blush, then, it seems like you should just take the total length of time that you will use to process a batch from secondary to bottling, and divide by the number of batches you want to be doing at one time, and then add 1 to find the total number of carboys you need.

However, you can do slightly better than that. For example, all four of my carboys are filled right now, but I will bottle the oldest batch before I need to rack one of the other batches. I wrote a spreadsheet that showed me the expected dates of rackings, so I can tell how to space them.

In my case, I am doing one kit per month. The wine spends 5 days in primary, 15 days in secondary, 20 days clearing, and then 70 days aging. I can do this with 4 carboys, and always have one empty when I need it.

Edited to add: some of that did not make sense. See post #14 below to clarify.

 

[wildvines]

Great details. Thanks.

 

[cmason1957]

Be careful with those carboys. If you get them wet, I hear they reproduce. Everytime my wife turns around, a new one shows up in our basement.

 

[wildvines]

Be careful with those carboys. If you get them wet, I hear they reproduce. Everytime my wife turns around, a new one shows up in our basement.

I totally believe that. I'm already itching for more carboys. I received my WE eclipse Pinot noir today and cal cab/merlot. Now I'm trying to figure which on to start first. I'm happy that the Pinot cam with RC212 yeast and to my surprise it came with 60 g of oak dust

 

[HenryMae]

I am currently in secondary fermentation of my WE cab/merlot. This is my first kit. I've been following directions and been working great. On Monday I will rack from 6 gal carboy to 5 gal for bulk aging (6 months) then bottle.

Welcome to WMT and good luck!

 

[sour_grapes]

Above, I said this:

At first blush, then, it seems like you should just take the total length of time that you will use to process a batch from secondary to bottling, and divide by the number of batches you want to be doing at one time, and then add 1 to find the total number of carboys you need.

That didn't make sense. What I meant to say was:

Take the total length of time that you will use to process a batch from secondary to bottling, and divide by the time interval you want to use between starting batches. This gives you the number of batches you will have going at one time. Then add 1 (to always have an empty one) to find the total number of carboys you need.


As I explained above, however, you can do a bit better than that.

 

[wildvines]

Thanks henerymae. Can't wait. Sour- grapes. I think that will work and I will keep a calendar as well