Thread for questions and discussion on new winemaker series

[lockwood1956]

Happy first post by the way



welcome aboard

[jayess]

Thanks Bob, I'll do that. I presume that the wine will just be a little sweeter and weaker than it would have been - is that right?

Thanks again for the awesome beginners threads - having spent a while trawling the mass of information there is on winemaking, they tipped the balance towards having a go rather than deciding it was all too much hassle/destined to fail. Still very worried as to how they'll turn out but it's been good fun in any case.

[lockwood1956]

No....

Sorry......I'm an idiot!!!!

I see the SG is stil at 1.002

apologies, is it still fermenting?

if yes, then rack and sulphite later.

No matter if you have racked and sulphited anyway as all that will do is stun the yeast, it will kickj back into lfe. so alls good

however sorry for the confusion

[jayess]

Heh, no problem.

It is still fermenting but I've not racked/added the sulphite yet. Will rack on Sunday and, presumably, re-rack & sulphite when I get back.

Thanks,

J

[jayess]

Hi again,

I'm just wondering why wine #1 was racked on day 10 before racking/degassing on day 27 and wine #2 wasn't racked at all until degassing on day 27. Was it something about the ingredients that made the 1st racking unnecessary in wine #2?

Thanks,

J

P.S. Re-racked and added sulphite to #1 on day 22 and had a taste. It was pretty good - not amazing, but I guess it shouldn't be at this stage. It's already good enough for me to be happy with it as a 1st attempt anyway.

[lockwood1956]

The wine No2 took longer to ferment due to lower temps, and I was also away from home for a while....racking happens (normally) when the ferment is finished, but extending the timeline a little wont hurt too much as long as it isnt sat on a major amount of gross lees, and these pure juice wines (no's 1 and 2) dont produce a great deal of sediment

hope that helps
regards
bob

[jayess]

It does, thanks. I'll rack and sulphite the #2 tomorrow (day 20) before degassing a week later.

Cheers,

J

[NV68]

Wine no.2 is now de-gassed and stabilised. The destructions say to sweeten after 24 hours to allow the sorbate to distribute. I presume that some more sediment will drop out now that it's de-gassed. Do I wait for it to clear before sweetening, or go ahead and sweeten tomorrow and allow it to clear in it's own time and/or add finings?

[Delmonteman]

Anyone know if christmas pudding wine would be ready for christmas if I start it this week?

[NV68]

My Christmas pudding wine seems to be nearing the end of it's ferment. I racked at 1.024 last Friday to a DJ and a 1 litre bottle. As it said in the instructions, it has produced a lot of lees. When it's finished I guess I rack to a clean DJ again, de-gas and stabilise, then add finings. I was planning to age in the DJ for a month or so before bottling, but I'm thinking that my litre of extra wine is not going to be enough to cut out any head space after several rackings.

Am I best to just bottle as soon as it's clear?

[SiSandrine]

Anyone know if christmas pudding wine would be ready for christmas if I start it this week?

Daniel sorry missed this. sad to say the answer is not even close but thats no reason not to try!

[SiSandrine]

My Christmas pudding wine seems to be nearing the end of it's ferment. I racked at 1.024 last Friday to a DJ and a 1 litre bottle. As it said in the instructions, it has produced a lot of lees. When it's finished I guess I rack to a clean DJ again, de-gas and stabilise, then add finings. I was planning to age in the DJ for a month or so before bottling, but I'm thinking that my litre of extra wine is not going to be enough to cut out any head space after several rackings.

Am I best to just bottle as soon as it's clear?

The racking method you suggest is right but I wouldn't bottle that soon. Try and leave it in the DJ for a couple of months. If head space is a small problem then either top up with a little bit of other wine if possible, if not cooled boiled water. If it is a big problem then can you add sterilised marbles to the jar for example or bottle some and leave the rest in a 1/2 gallon DJ.

[NV68]

Great, thanks SiSandrine. Sterilised marbles it may well be. Sure the kids must have some somewhere

[Delmonteman]

Thanks Simon, guess I'll wait for the sell off in January before I start one then...

Regards

Daniel

[jayess]

Hello,

I bottled my first ever wine, a #1, last Saturday and stored the bottles in a cupboard. Yesterday, 4 days after bottling, I found that the stopper had popped out of one of the bottles. The wine didn't taste great, but wasn't that bad. I opened another bottle and it tasted really good.

Can anyone shed any light on what happened here? Given the 2nd bottle tasted so good, I don't think I've bottled too soon. Could some contamination in the 1st have caused it to pop? Would the bad taste be from contamination or just from the bottle being left open for up to 4 days?

This has got me thinking about how wine keeps. If I buy a bottle and open it before putting a stopper in I'd expect it to taste off after a few days. How then can the wine I bottle keep for longer? The bottles contain a small amount of air and as it's not fermenting there won't be a CO2 layer. How long will it actually keep for?

Sorry for all the newbie questions!

Thank you,

J