wine kits

[grumpy]

I recently returned to winemaking after a gap of over 30 years, and for the last few months have enjoyed making various fruit wines using tinned fruit and fruit concentrates.

For my birthday earlier this week the family bought me a 30 bottle wine kit, a number of wine bottles, a corking device, corks, a five gallon fermenting bucket. and a new wine rack. I opened my presents and started off the wine on Wednesday, Yesterday morning SWMBO rose from her bed and then told me their was a problem with the water pipes somewhere, there was a loud gurgling noise, this proved to be the air lock on the fermenting bin going like a train.

I realise the taste of the end result will probably be superior to my tinned fruit and diluted concentrate wine, however, it was not so much fun. Also knowing the how the wine will taste takes away the mystique, will the end result be a great wine or a good drain cleaner, will I be able to taste the Blackcurrants or Gooseberries?

Do you prefer wine kits, or the great adventure of travelling in the vast unknown of trying out your own recipes?

[fatbloke]

Well I've only made 1 kit wine and that was a sort of accident.

My friend, "mad Keith" had been badgering me about how good Chenin Blanc juice/concentrate is for back sweetening meads.

Now it happens that the only way I could get some to try was as a kit. So I opened the juice, used some and despite excluding the air and keeping it chilled the remaining juice started to get a bit of mould in it.

So in a bit of a panic, not wanting to lose about £50 worth of kit I strained the remainin juice sulphited it, put about 4 litres in 2 pop bottles (didn't have anymore bottles at the time)and then just figured that I'd run the rest as a batch - it'd either work or it wouldn't.

The result, apart from the 2 and a half week "lag phase", is 2 gallons of (to me anyway - not really being a white wine drinker) amazing tasting, deep straw coloured miracle.

In future, I won't worry about the juice so much, I'll just sulphite it straight away and then store it in bottles. If it takes up too much room in the fridge, I'll just run it as a batch.

If it was evaluated by someone who knows about wine properly (Bob or one of our other accredited wine judges) they'd probably slate it. Eitherway, I don't really care as I greatly prefer the "hit 'n miss" techniques. Which to me, is half the fun........

If "it" turns out rubbish, then as I make mainly meads I just leave it another 6 months and try it again...... the luxury of meads over other types of wines IMO!

regards

jtfb

[modofodo]

I do both and enjoy both for different reasons.

I enjoy making wine from elderberries, blackberries, tinned rhubarb etc and I never know how they are going to turn out (I just had to ditch a gallon of sloe wine gone bad) - and that's great, I won't stop trying!

I have more recently also started playing with kits for the predictability. I also want some grape wines that I can enjoy reliably without shopping for them.

[goldseal]

I think you will find plenty of people here who make kit and non-kit wine.

I make some mid-range kits for predictable everyday drinking, along with fruit juice wines (quick, cheap, early drinking)

I also make some high-end kits for longer-term loveliness, but also wine from tinned fruit, fresh fruit and, my favourite, grapes.

There isn't much of an emotional attachment to the mid-range kit wines and the fruit juice wines, but I do all I can to make sure the result is as good as it can be. The high-end kits require a large financial investment, but the resulting wines are supposed to be fantastic. I therefore lavish a great deal of attention on them .

In my opinion, kits have their place(s), but in an ideal world I'd make most of my wine from scratch, from grapes.

What kit were you bought, by the way?

[grumpy]

The kit is a Beaverdale Muscadet, started Wednesday and still making a heck of a racket, bubbling away as though their is no to-morrow.

If it does turn out well i think I may invest in one of the better kits, although £90 does seem a lot for thirty bottles.

[fatbloke]

The kit is a Beaverdale Muscadet, started Wednesday and still making a heck of a racket, bubbling away as though their is no to-morrow.

If it does turn out well i think I may invest in one of the better kits, although £90 does seem a lot for thirty bottles.

not really, if you're getting a decent wine for £3 a bottle, then that's gotta be a bonus.

I keep meaning to try one of the chateau de roi kits, as those that have made them, say that they're pretty damn close to a "chateau neuf du pap", which tend to be in the region of £9 a bottle, even with some of the supermarket "special" discounts......

Damn, if someone did a kit that was as good as a Margaux, then I'd pay more as Margaux's tend to be in the £15+ per bottle range....

regard

jtfb

[grumpy]

The new 25 bottle wine rack, mentioned in my original post above, is a DIY kit. This cosists of 36 short wooden posts, 124long strips of notched and drilled metal and two short strips of deilled metal to act as stiffeners and a quantity of nails.

For those who haven't seen this type of rack the idea is that 12 of the long metal strips fit into slots cut into the one end of the wooden posts, whilst the othe twelve, together with the stiffeners, are nailes into the opposing end of the posts.

After about an hour I managed to get the front strips into position, then turning it over proceeded to nail the other strips on the reverse. As I did this the strips front strips were jumping out of position with the vibrarion of the hammering. The rack was also twisting, and as the last of the nails were hammered home the first nails were coming loose.

I then started to remove the nails one at a time and replaced them with wood screws. Great . However, all this work had succeeded in twisting the front metal strips which I then had to attempt to correct and refit.

I finally managed, after a great deal of effort, to achieve a wine rack which looked almost respectable.

My advice to anyone considering purchasing this type of DIY wine rack is ensure you have a good set of tools and at least three hours to spare for the assmbly, stripping and re-assembly plus a large towel to dry the tears of frustration. Also, most importantly, make sure you are out of earshot of family and friends who may hear you expressing your frustration.

[goldseal]

Been there, done that

Try it on a 90 bottle rack - it gets REALLY frustrating then!

I found that it made life easier to fit a few wooden post randomly all over the rack first, rather than doing a row at a time. It seemed to keep the metal strips pinned in roughly the right places.

[koomber]

Also, most importantly, make sure you are out of earshot of family and friends who may hear you expressing your frustration.

Heh. My oldman regularly admitted that he wanted my help when hje was doing DIY so he'd have someone to shout at when things went wrong. That way he'd not get mega frustrated and start chucking things around. In my own little way I was integral to all the DIY projects in my house.

And to think, todays 'Think of the Children' brigade would consider this wong lol

[mcblades]

If you store your wine in the garage, and have recently (last 5 years or so) had kids you can use cot sides and bases as a floor standing wine rack. I store the wine in pyramids on the bases.

cheers

Mark