Other No Degassing a Cabernet Sauvignon kit?

[Bostaevski]

Hello,

I am a total noob. One of the kits I'm working on is called U.S. Elite Winery Supplies Micro Winery Series Cabernet Sauvignon. I can't find any real info on this kit. I go to their website and through a bizarre idea of customer service - they only let wholesellers into their site!

Anyway I've already started the kit and following the instructions exactly. 14 days of primary (no secondary?) and then rack to carboy, add 1/4 teaspoon metabisulfite, post tannins, and sparkaloid.

I've read and re-read the instructions and at no point does it even hint at degassing the wine.

Is this ok?

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

You can try to degass it before adding clarifiers, you will find there is very little in it. Doing the complete fermentation in primary, then racking seems to take care of it.I made this kit some time back, it is probably the best cab I have ever tasted. I agree , the directions that come with it are very vague. I am thinking of trying a few others in this series.

 

[Bert]

An important thing to remember is to go by the SG. rather than number of days for all wines.....Some will ferment fast , others can be a bit slow....Good luck....And welcome to the forum....

 

[uavwmn]

Bert is right - go by the SG as this is your guide. Sounds like a nice wine you have going. Let us know how it is doing.

 

[Wade E]

These are similar to RJS instructions which have you ferment to dry in primary. Doing it this way helps get rid of much more gas with so much surface area. I would still degas though and believe they should include that in their instructions.

 

[wctisue]

I'm intrigued by JW's comment of best cab I have ever tasted so I went to that website. Lots of reference to Lodi District 11. I've done the WE Ranch 11 Cab many times and it is one of our favorites. Good wine comes from that region of CA.


Who sells these kits? How expensive?


Wayne

 

[Bostaevski]

I have not found anyplace that sells them yet (mine was a gift). It's encouraging to hear "best cab I have ever tasted". Since I can't find any real info about these kits I sort of assumed it must be a cheap knockoff.

I had already fermented about 15 days and then racked to a carboy, added some kmeta, post tannins, and sparkaloid(? - that stuff you microwave). THEN I made that original post

Is it too late to de-gas at this point?

 

[Wade E]

If you have the fining agent in there I would give it time to see if it clears, if it doesnt then stir it up really good and degas at the same time and let it settle again or you could rack off that stuff and use SuperKleer. I have never used that Sparkaloid so dont really know how long you should have that stuff in your wine so hopefully someone else here can advise you on wether this can be done. Im betting that it will work fine though and that it will clear up very nice.

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Bostaveski the sparkaloid is a very effective clarifier, you should see it work in about a week. Its not a "right now" clarifier, but very good and gentle on the wine. I use it often. Wayne I first heard of these kits some time ago on another forum. I do hold a wholesaler's license, FDA registry , etc. , so I tried one. They are $69 plus shipping of course. I was very impressed, especially for a red wine, from a 6.4 ltr kit , and no, I'm not in the wine kit biz, but I can get them. I'd like to talk some of the local winemakers here into going in on one of there bigger kits, the 19.3 ltr, but you run into the issue of what variety, hard to get everyone wanting the same one.

 

[Bostaevski]

Ok so this goes to show how uninformed I am but...

Is the purpose of degassing to get out C02 that would otherwise prevent stuff from clearing and falling out of solution? So if the sparkaloid is effective then it should overcome any issues of not degassing (instructions never mention any kind of vigorous stirring/degassing anyway).

I had thought degassing was to prevent your corks from popping back out when you bottled.

 

[Wade E]

No clearing agent will overcome the gas issue but the way these kits are fermented dry in primary does help rid the wine of much gas compared to other methods where the wine is transferred into glass much earlier with little headroom for gas to escape. C02 in your wine will not make your corks pop out, re fermentation in the bottle will make your corks pop out.