New to wine kits. Tips please

[Wingfan13]

I tried searching for an appropriate thread but didn't find anything. After years of brewing beer my wife finally asked me to make wine after seeing the kits in the homebrew shop. She doesn't like beer. We have done 2 or 3 kits now and they have turned out fine but I wanted to see if there are some things in my process I can change or improve because I always follow the instructions that come with the kit.

We know that beer brewing kits don't always have the best instructions to make the best beer and I am wondering if wine kit instructions are the same.

I ferment at room temp should I ferment lower ?
I wait until I hit the gravity in the instructions, is there a benefit to let it sit longer ?
I bought a wine filter but I don't see how it can be used without a ton of oxygen coming in contact with the wine. I assume oxygen is bad ?

Any other tips that will help make better wine that aren't mentioned in wine kit instructions ?

Thanks in advance

 

[mrchaos101]

I ferment at room temp should I ferment lower ?

Room temp is fine...a lot of us ferment in the 70's. If it is too cold it may slow down the process. I keep my house about 75 and have no issues.

I wait until I hit the gravity in the instructions, is there a benefit to let it sit longer ?

This is how you know your Ahlc content. Most the time it stops at about 1.00. Means all the sugars are eaten up. Cant really go past this as there is no more food for yeast to eat. Once you get to this point the yeast will start to go dormant.

I bought a wine filter but I don't see how it can be used without a ton of oxygen coming in contact with the wine. I assume oxygen is bad ?

This is for speeding up the clearing process....to get the yeast cells out. A lot of use dont do this. We just let it sit and clear. Rack it very so many weeks etc to get the yeast off the bottom so they don't add flavor. The filter, if i remember correctly, also will pull some of the tannons out of your wine. I dont use one. It you are correct on the 02. You dont want your wine to oxidize.[/QUOTE]

Any other tips that will help make better wine that aren't mentioned in wine kit instructions ?

Kits are great. Hard to mess up. You know what you are going to get. Just follow the directions with the kits. When you feel froggy, you can go to so me of the recipes here on the site and start making your own (non kits). I bought 2 cases of Palisade Peaches. Made my own peach wine from them....this was a BLAST and came out great.....even drinking it early....can only imagine what aging will do to this stuff.[/QUOTE]

 

[bernardsmith]

"This is how you know your Ahlc content. Most the time it stops at about 1.00. Means all the sugars are eaten up. Cant really go past this as there is no more food for yeast to eat. Once you get to this point the yeast will start to go dormant. "... We-ell , not exactly true. Alcohol is less dense than water and the specific gravity of distilled water is 1.000 so a wine that has some alcohol in it ought to be less than 1.000 - in fact closer to .995 or .994. In other words, a wine that stops at 1.000 has in fact some sugar in it and sometimes that sugar is fermentable and sometimes it may not be as easily fermented... But that is why wine makers can be surprised that their wine tastes sweet even if the gravity is at 1.000.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Best thing you can do is slow down...a lot. Extra time wll improve your wine dramatically. Find the extended time wine kit instructions on line, look for the 180 day instructions.

Filtering wont change the taste very much, but will make the wine look fantastic. If done correctly, thre will be no or minimal oxygen issues. Oh, and NEVER filter a cloudy or active wine, filtering is only to polish a very clear wine

 

[Chef-Ryan]

I second the slow things down.. the main thing to think about when aging/settling a wine is SO2 levels. Home kits don't talk about that I'm sure so i won't get into it here. yes never filter a cloudy wine.. that being said, I have pushed a somewhat cloudy wine through filters due to deadlines. Filtering can mute flavours aromas of a wine, but usually come back. This is similar to bottle shock, then again I have seen a wine filtered beyond extreme.

 

[rtrent2002]

Newbie here but a few pointers from someone 4-5 kits in... If you plan to leave your wine dry and not back sweeten, don't use the sorbate when stabilizing, just the sulfite. The sorbate leaves an off sweet taste that is not desirable in dry wines. Also, I've found that bulk aging and clearing 3-6 months in the carboy does wonders before bottling. So... Instead of racking, clearing and bottling, I rack one more time and let it sit 6 months, then bottle. Just be sure to add campden tablets every time you rack to keep bacteria out. The difference of wines I bottle immediately and those that bulk age is a dramatic difference in quality to me.