BeerBorg

Awhile back I posted a comment that with lack of time, making wine kits is an easy peasy way to fill the pipeline in a pinch. I received a few comments so wanted to detail the process I went through Sunday to put together a Winexpert "Vinteners Reserve" kit. Just like brewing there is a whole range of levels one can take depending on time, money, and drive. The longest part of this particular process is taking the labels off the darned bottles I get from the tasting room (which can be skipped if you take advantage of Adventures In Homebrewing's sale right now - five bucks for ten bottles).

The kits I have done have all been 6 gallons so you will need a 7.5 gallon primary and 6 gallon secondary. Why they decided to pick this standard rather than commonize with 5g homebrews (or vice versa) is beyond me. This will make about 30 bottles. If they did pick 5 gallons it would have been more a standard case size but oh well. You can usually find a Groupon for Midwest for a good deal and which usually includes a box of wine fixins.

1) Add the benzonite to about a half gallon of hot water. Add to primary.
2) Dump wine juice from bag into primary. Take a half gallon or so of water and swoosh around in bag to get the leftovers.
3) Top off to 6 gallons and take a hydrometer reading.
4) Add yeast and ferment for 5-7 days.
5) Take a hydro reading. If 1.010 or less transfer to secondary.
6) Once the hydro has stabilized to 0.996 or less, add metabisulphite, sorbate to carboy. Stir to drive off any gasses (I just bought a wand the other day for this).
7) Add clarifier. Still again to drive off CO2 and O2.
8) Top off carboy and clarify for 14-21 days.
9) Bottle
10) Wait 3-6 months and drink. Note if you will be saving for much more than 6 months additional sulphite should be added for longer term storage.

For those that dont rack to a secondary it is a bit more work, but hey, you dont have to wait for 5 gallons of water to come to a boil so you can babysit it for an hour before cooling it down. The primary portion took less time than making a MrB kit, so this is something perfect to do when time is lacking and you want to keep your pipeline full. If SWMBO happens to be a wine drinker it is also a great way to keep supportive of the brewing hobby even if she has to down a bottle to do it.

This happens to be the instructions for their simplest kit: http://www.winexpert.com/images/VR%20WV ... 202012.pdf
I believe the main difference between the basic and premium kits is that with the premius you do a third rack for about a month to clarify. The higher up you go the more juice you get and the less water so I am guessing that is done due to there being more sediment.

It doesnt get much easier than that!

i do not consider myself a wine drinker.
i have done two wine kits.
one was a cab, the other was a malbec
the cab was over a $100 took 8 months to come true. great after 1.5 years
the malbec less than $100, i like it at 16 months.
i did this for a gf, now an ex, we still share a bottle from time to time.
both were well worth the price.

just my 2 cents.

brewon

Thanks for posting this. I didn't know they weren't 5 gallon batches, that is kind of weird. I got a carboy from a guy but it is the old 5 gallon glass kind; I don't think they are even any good for brewing these days.

Just currious do any of you wine makers know why conditioning it takes so much longer than beer?

Brewbirds wrote:Thanks for posting this. I didn't know they weren't 5 gallon batches, that is kind of weird. I got a carboy from a guy but it is the old 5 gallon glass kind; I don't think they are even any good for brewing these days.

Just currious do any of you wine makers know why conditioning it takes so much longer than beer?

You can actually make most kit wines into 5 gallon batches by adding less top-up water; often times, this improves the finished product. Less water = more flavor. Long conditioning times come from high alcohol content among other things - most wines are 12-15%/abv and taste pretty harsh when young.

My question is what about people with Sulfite issues?

I mean I know that if I drink wine with sulfites I have to limit to only 1 glass or I get a headache from it.

Most wine making list putting sulfites in it and I know many wines in the store have it, I just pick ones that do not use sulfites

Trollby wrote:My question is what about people with Sulfite issues?

I mean I know that if I drink wine with sulfites I have to limit to only 1 glass or I get a headache from it.

Most wine making list putting sulfites in it and I know many wines in the store have it, I just pick ones that do not use sulfites

The reality is that sulphites are naturally occurring in grapes, so even if you add no K-meta during the process, there's always going to be some level present in all grape wine. You can make fruit wines that are completely sulphite free, but their shelf life will be compromised as sulphites act as an antioxidant, preventing oxidation in finished wine.

Meads are another option - I do not add sulphite to mine.

I haven't really made grape wine, only meads, melomel (meads with fruit) and maple wine - mead made with grade B maple syrup - I've never used any sulfites in those. In fact I also never boiled them, I just heat pasteurize my must to preserve as much of the more delicate flavors/aroma as is possible. Never had issues with aging those things at least. The maple wine right out of the fermenter always tasted like bad Cognac mixed with lighter fluid, but if you ignored it for 2 years it became wonderful stuff, and I had bottles of it over 10 years old at one point and it was still great.

If concerned about anti-oxidant/preservative effect, could you not just add Citric Acid instead of Sulfites? That to me seems like it would work, and I don't think Citric Acid would give you a bad flavor profile, lots of folks add acid blends to these things anyways.

Trollby wrote:My question is what about people with Sulfite issues?

I mean I know that if I drink wine with sulfites I have to limit to only 1 glass or I get a headache from it.

Most wine making list putting sulfites in it and I know many wines in the store have it, I just pick ones that do not use sulfites

Hmm, that got me thinking. As sulfites are acting as an antioxidant, could something like this be used?
http://www.amazon.com/Enthusiast-Privat ... B0000DCS18

I'm sure it wont extend shelf life as long as sulfites will, but seems you could get some extra mileage outta it this way.

joechianti wrote:I've always just used ascorbic acid or acid blend, never added any sulphites at all. I must admit, my wine methods are a bit unorthodox, probably just a few refinements up from prison wine. But I've had some very nice reults in the past.

Hey Joe would you jump on in here and share some of your wine lore with us?

Doing more research I found they are stating that Sulfites DO NOT cause headaches but some of the Red wines due to the Histamine, which is weird since I take Histamine for my allergies and no issues.

Might be a different kind that is in the grapes that effect, or the writer is full of B-S

Wouldn't you be taking an anti-histamine for your allergies? If so, just make sure you have one in your system when you drink reds and you're good to go!

gwcr wrote:Wouldn't you be taking an anti-histamine for your allergies? If so, just make sure you have one in your system when you drink reds and you're good to go!

I guess long day at work today

Better yet, just drink BEER!

Brewbirds wrote:

joechianti wrote:I've always just used ascorbic acid or acid blend, never added any sulphites at all. I must admit, my wine methods are a bit unorthodox, probably just a few refinements up from prison wine. But I've had some very nice reults in the past.

Hey Joe would you jump on in here and share some of your wine lore with us?

I'd love to. Probably will try to follow the threads and throw my 2 cents in per specific issues when possible. I must say up front, my "wine lore" is very unorthodox in many ways. About 30 years ago I taught myself how to make wine from library books and asking questions from people I met who had made wine before. Then came trial and error, with incredibly crude equipment, which is all I could afford. There wasn't much internet available, and I never had any formal guidance. But the good thing about it is that my instincts are very good, even if my intelligence is not. My methods are often crude and labor intensive, but I use a lot of "old backwoods tricks". I say all this because I don't want anyone to be surprised if some of the things I might say seem crazy. I'm sure they are. But they almost always work anyway. In time, I'd love to get into discussions about wine. It was my first love, long before beer. Actually, one of my grandfathers made wine when I was a small kid, and I always wanted to make wine like him, and now I do(sort of). My other grandfather had a prize fig tree, and I always wanted to have one too, like him, and now I do. Now I can die a happy man.

By the way, thanks for asking. You make me feel like I actually have something to offer.

Trollby wrote:Doing more research I found they are stating that Sulfites DO NOT cause headaches but some of the Red wines due to the Histamine, which is weird since I take Histamine for my allergies and no issues.

Might be a different kind that is in the grapes that effect, or the writer is full of B-S

Interesting. I was having a problem drinking wine for a while. It was never my big thing to begin with but sometimes if I drank a single serving of wine I was guaranteed to have the worst hangover feelings about 6 - 8 hours later. I asked my doctor about it one day and he said it was most likely the tannins in the wine and it was most likely the red wines that were making me sick because they have a lot more tannins. I tested it out and seems like I can drink white wine but red wines still make me sick.

Don't you usually take antihistamine for your allergies? I might have to try taking something before I drink some red wine but not sure I want to really start taking drugs so that I can drink alcohol.