Okay, it's been a while and a few questions

[crisella]

Hi everyone, it's been a busy year and I have managed to make 3 great batches of wine (rj kits). I made 2 pino gris kits and 1 cab rj spagnols kit.
My questions are, now having a general knowledge about wine making is I want to take a step to fresh juice buckets from Corrados Lodi Gold brand of juice. I want to go and pick up 4-6 buckets but I am a little unsure about what additives I should buy. The kits contained bentonite, k meta, etc. Is there a general rule to follow while going the fresh juice route? My reasoning for this is I figure I can make double the amount from fresh juice buckets as I can from kits. Any input is REALLY appreciated! Thanks, Jim

P.S. I'm looking into a cab sauv, and a pino grigio fresh juice buckets if that helps.

 

[robie]

Making wine from fresh/frozen grapes or juice is somewhat similar to kits, but there are almost always a few more steps, and likely the need to measure such things as total acid, PH and free SO2.

To make fresh juice buckets, you will need at least the same chemicals as with a kit, except the Bentonite added to the fermenter is not necessary..

Depending on the variety of wine, you will also need pectin enzyme and maybe some tartaric acid. Of course you will need Kmeta and any clarifiers you may want to use.

Deciding on the yeast to use and how to properly feed it is very important.

Before you invest in fresh/frozen grapes or juice, what you really need to do is read up on wine making from fresh grapes. It takes a little more and you want to be prepared.

Here are two very good manuals for making fresh grape wine for reds:
http://www.morewinemaking.com/public/pdf/wredw.pdf

and for whites:
http://www.morewinemaking.com/public/pdf/wwhiw.pdf

It's not rocket science and I am sure you can do it, but if I were you, I'd make sure I am very familiar with the process before ordering the juice.

Good luck and have fun doing it. Let us know how things turn out.

 

[crisella]

Excellent! Thank you for the reply!