I am working on the kit mentioned in the title. It is currently bulk aging. I pitched the yeast back on April 15 2014. My plan is to age this at least a year before bottling. SG measured before and after worked out to about a 13% alcohol content.
I basically followed the directions very closely. I added the extra sulfite pack that came with the kit for aging in the bottle up to 2 years. The only mistake I made was adding a little too much water (700 to 900 ml too much )for the primary fermentation. I've always topped up when I needed it with a similar wine instead of water hoping to reduce the impact of my mistake....
Anyhow I have a couple of questions. The WE kit doesn't have bulk aging instructions but I have my wine in a 6 gallon glass carboy and initially stoppered it with cork (for aging only) as instructed by the guy at the wine store. It's now stoppered with an airlock.
1) after a few months my wine developed a bit of an unpleasant odor. If you stick your nose down into a glass of beer it's the same smell. When I poured a glass and let it sit for 20 minutes the odor dissipated greatly. So, I decided to try vacuum degassing just to see what would happen. By doing the vacuum degassing I eliminated the odor. I rigged up my wife's food vacuum sealer and it worked very well. My theory is that the odor was from the extra added (per kit instructions) which was not permitted to off gas due to the cork instead of using an airlock. So, first I'm wondering what others think of this theory.
2) I'm bulk aging one year,then bottling and expect it will take me a few years to drink my product. I could use some recommendations about how much more sulfate to add at bottling time.
Thanks for your comments.
Afterthought ....This post is more appropriate in the kit wine forum but I cant move it. I'm sorry if I put it in the wrong place. Although I've made wine before this is my first kit so its a beginners question as far as kits go (sort of)
I basically followed the directions very closely. I added the extra sulfite pack that came with the kit for aging in the bottle up to 2 years. The only mistake I made was adding a little too much water (700 to 900 ml too much )for the primary fermentation. I've always topped up when I needed it with a similar wine instead of water hoping to reduce the impact of my mistake....
Anyhow I have a couple of questions. The WE kit doesn't have bulk aging instructions but I have my wine in a 6 gallon glass carboy and initially stoppered it with cork (for aging only) as instructed by the guy at the wine store. It's now stoppered with an airlock.
1) after a few months my wine developed a bit of an unpleasant odor. If you stick your nose down into a glass of beer it's the same smell. When I poured a glass and let it sit for 20 minutes the odor dissipated greatly. So, I decided to try vacuum degassing just to see what would happen. By doing the vacuum degassing I eliminated the odor. I rigged up my wife's food vacuum sealer and it worked very well. My theory is that the odor was from the extra added (per kit instructions) which was not permitted to off gas due to the cork instead of using an airlock. So, first I'm wondering what others think of this theory.
2) I'm bulk aging one year,then bottling and expect it will take me a few years to drink my product. I could use some recommendations about how much more sulfate to add at bottling time.
Thanks for your comments.
Afterthought ....This post is more appropriate in the kit wine forum but I cant move it. I'm sorry if I put it in the wrong place. Although I've made wine before this is my first kit so its a beginners question as far as kits go (sort of)
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