Hi. We are doing a green apple riesling kit. We waited the full seven days before moving to step 2 (read 1.000, needed less than 1.010). We then waited the 10 days after that before moving to step 3 (read 0.996, needed less than 0.996). The directions mentioned stirring 2 minutes, 1 minutes, and 2 minutes during that step between adding ingredients to completely degas. We stirred and stirred and couldn’t get it from bubbling up CO2, so we gave up and decided to see what would happen in the 14 days it recommends before bottling. It is day 13 and we decided to stir it up some more and it seems like the CO2 bubbling up is just as strong as it was at the end of our stirring from before. Any thoughts? I’m guessing bottling tomorrow wouldn’t be recommended? It looked very clear before stirring and I know some rieslings are lightly carbonated. Thanks for any help.
Properly degassing young wines require much more time and effort than is stated in the kit instructions. What are you degassing with? Are you warming to 75F prior to the degassing?
Agreed. There are a few sure fire ways to degass heavily, and none are mentioned in kit instructions. I use a wine whip attached to a drill and spend a good 15 minutes per wine degassing.
Having the wine at an adequate temperature as mentioned above is also ideal.
If you are using the old stir meathod I would say spending more than the recomended 2 minutes per stage is important. Doing it over the course of a few days can help.
All that being said, you seem to be paying enough attention to detail here that the wine should not give you major problems. I usually let mine sit quite a bit longer in the carboy than recomended to allow the wine to degass naturally and sediment to fall out.
Thanks for the advice.
We did stir significantly longer than the 2-1-2 mentioned that first night (probably in the area of a half hour or so total). We also stirred for probably a good 15 minutes last night in hopes of getting it degassed enough to bottle tonight and have it ready to go for Christmas.
It takes a pretty good stir to get a little CO2 to come up. Since store rieslings often are lightly carbonated do you think it might be ok to bottle or would that be a complete no-no and likely have corks flying off?
Also, to answer the first reply, we stirred with a plastic stake. The first time we stirred it was about 71. Over the past two weeks I’ve been able to keep it closer to the 75 mark, which is where it was when we stirred last night.
If you have to bottle it at this point it should be fine. Especially if you don’t mind a little trapped gas…so long as it is crystal clear.
The only other issue that could pop up would be getting a little sediment in the bottles. But if you degassed well and are in the suggested time frame of the kit, and it is clear, sedimentation SHOULD be minimal.
If you are at all worried about sedimentation you can always filter the wine at this point, but I usually try to avoid it if possible.
Thanks for your help. I’ll probably give it a stir or two a day and give it a few extra days. We’ll have to look into getting one of those wine whips whenever we do another batch.
I tend to use the ‘shake the carboy’ method to degas. Every day when I pass by the carboy, I give a good rocking back and forth. The airlock will bubble away like crazy. Eventually, rocking it, and the airlock will not move; that’s when I know I’ve gotten most of it out.
I should probably get one of those drill attachments, but haven’t had any issues with the half dozen kits I’ve done so far.
Also, you shouldn’t have any issues with those island mist kits. If you’ve stirred like crazy, and followed the rest of the directions, it should be fine. A little bubble in the bottle won’t matter. I’ve done four of those kits this year, and they are hard to screw up. People really seem to enjoy them.
I was going to try bottling last Saturday, but the wine appeared to be a bit cloudy in the glass. Going to check it out again tonight.
Am I supposed to soak the corks in hot water? I don’t think the instructions say anything about it but it seems like most instructions have you doing so.
A little moisture helps the corks go in, but I don’t know about hot water. I typically give them a quick dunk in star-sanz while I am sanitizing the bottles.
Also, not sure how you are corking, but of all my homebrew equipment purchases over the past two years; the floor corker is the best. I did dozens of bottles with two different hand corkers and it was a PITA. Very difficult to get the corks in and consistent depth into the bottle. With the floor corker, I can literally fill a bottle with one hand and cork a bottle with the other. Makes bottling a breeze.
If you are using one of the hand corkers, be patient, and best of luck. I remember being frustrated with it early on.
I don’t recommend soaking your corks either.
Some people like to do a quick steam with their corks. But, a quick dip in starsan or vodka is a quick and easy way to go.
Perfect. Thanks.
We are using a hand corker as I don’t know how much wine we will be making. If we start doing more then I will probably invest in a floor corker.
Bottled. The stuff is a lot sweeter than we would have wanted, but it is still pretty good.
Assume if it was a green apple riesling it was an Island mist kit? Or some other similar product. The island mists are actually less sweet than a lot of similar kits (ex Niagara mist). They are wine cooler style so lots of F pack sweetening. If you are looking for standard table wine, this might not be what you are looking for.
Assume if it was a green apple riesling it was an Island mist kit? Or some other similar product. The island mists are actually less sweet than a lot of similar kits (ex Niagara mist). They are wine cooler style so lots of F pack sweetening. If you are looking for standard table wine, this might not be what you are looking for.[/quote]
Yes, that is what we made. I think I might try a red that needs to be aged for quite a while next. Any recommendations?
Assume if it was a green apple riesling it was an Island mist kit? Or some other similar product. The island mists are actually less sweet than a lot of similar kits (ex Niagara mist). They are wine cooler style so lots of F pack sweetening. If you are looking for standard table wine, this might not be what you are looking for.[/quote]
Yes, that is what we made. I think I might try a red that needs to be aged for quite a while next. Any recommendations?[/quote]
How much are you looking to spend, and what type of red wines to you typically enjoy?
One of my personal favorites is Cellar Craft’s Showcase Rosso Fortissimo. Needs a good year of aging in my oppinion, but continues to improve through 2-5 years.
Winexpert’s new Eclipse series also looks very promissing, but also very pricey. Their Loi ranch 11 Cabernet is their flagship wine and I expect very good things.
I deal in wine kits all day so if you have a specific pricepoint, basic profile idea, and timeframe for aging it I can usually give you a pretty good match. Keep in mind I live in Canada so price points may be a little defferent. That being said, I know Winex and Vineco tend to dominate the market down there and those are the kits I specialize in.
I saw those Eclipse ones came with grape skins. I was thinking one of those might be a good one to try. I wish the NB site had instructions along with aging recommendations online for the wines they sell like they do with the beer kits.
If it helps, all of WE’s kit instructions are available on their website.
http://www.winexpert.com/pdfs/kit-instructions/EclipseWSkinsInstructions_EN.pdf
That does help. Thank you.
Just a heads up… Winex is sometimes vague in their descriptions of things and can contradict themselves at times. If you are thinking of doing an Eclipse, here are a few personal opinions:
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For best results with skins do not use the muslin bag. Just dump them in and let it fly. Winex actually used to say this themselves but had to change their tune because this meathod is not viable for most on site opperations who do not have the time to deal with this.
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Follow the fermentation instructions fairly closely, and degass very thoroughly. I might suggest an extended period in the primary to maximize contact with the skins (say up to 2 weeks instead of 1) and degass and stabilize in the third week.
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I like leaving the wine in a carboy for several extra months and adding an extra racking to remove extra sediment. I never top up with wine as instructed and have never had a problem with oxidation even up to 5 months. If you want to bulk age for a year I probably would top up, but I don’t really see the point of aging this long unless it is in an oak barrel.
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Bottle Aging: This can have as much to do with the varietal as the product line. But as a general rule I’d try to age Eclipse reds for at least 8-12 months (from staring the kit). These are supposed to mature earlier than the Estate series did, but I’m not sure how much merrit I put into that. What I like to do with most of my wines is taste a sample at bottling. Then one bottle at 3 months / 6 months (in the bottle). Then usually after 8 or 9 months I will try a bottle a month until fully mature. This really gives you an idea of the aging process for an individual wine. And I always hold several bottles in reserve to age for several years.
Again this is just my personal way of doing things.
