First wine kit

[jonewer]

Hello all.

I have just racked off my first wine kit which I bought on a whim from Wilkos. Its a Young's Cab Sov and I have to say that despite the obvious need for degassing (CO2 on the nose and prickling tongue), its not too shabby! I imagine after degassing and some maturation, I'll be able to feed it to some of my wine-snob friends without them cottoning on!

So thats it. I cant wait to get my next one started!

But a few questions-

1. Bottling. Can I use screw-tops? And if I use the plastic re-sealable ones, do I need a corker or do I just bang them in by hand.
2. Degassing. Is the "Wine Whip De-gasser" a thing that will work or is it rubbish and if so, what should I get instead?
3. Which kit? Are the Beaverdales ones OK? I'm thinking of a Barolo and a Shiraz?

Many thanks!

[Rich]

A Beaverdale Barolo will do you well.

I've no experience with the wine whip, presuming you mean a long bit of bent plastic. I've a stell bar, with two plastic bars on the end to degass. Works fine. Don't get hung up on degassing. Do it, but it can always be done by the bottle when serving (as lots of my 'aged' bottles in the garage prove) A decanter can help too.

Bottling with screw tops is fine if that's all you have. It's taken me years to accrue lots of bottles to use. I tend not to part with them easily now, and will bottle a few screw tops from each batch to part with.

[jonewer]

Thanks.

I'm primarily a beer brewer so its a shame the specialist malt/hop suppliers dont do much wine stuff. Ho-hum, double whack of postage here we come!

[Rich]

I hear you! But, spend enough with Karl at Hobbywine and the postage is free. He also does discount for forum users and big orders where he can. If it's not listed on his website, ring up (Make sure you have at least 10 mins to talk/listen about wine)

Any good all grain recipes you'd like to share too? I'm quite partial to brewing all grain, as are a few on here.

[jonewer]

Well, that was well nigh £150 spent!

Heres a nice fuggly bitter recipe.

For 23 liters:

4.5kg pale male
0.3kg crystal/carared
0.05kg chocolate malt

boil for 90mins
50g fuggle
25g bramling cross

boil for 30mins
50g bramling cross
25g fuggle

at the end of the boil
25g bramling cross for aroma
Good depth of flavour and colour from the chocolate nicely matched by the earthy fuggly hops!

[Emeraldclaire]

I always thought that screw-top bottles were not recommended. If the wine has not been properly de-gassed, or expands because it gets too hot (a rare event in this country...) or it starts to re-ferment, then you have a bottle bomb on your hands. At least a cork will be blown out. ???

[Emeraldclaire]

A Beaverdale Barolo will do you well.

I've a stell bar, with two plastic bars on the end to degass. Works fine. Don't get hung up on degassing. Do it, but it can always be done by the bottle when serving (as lots of my 'aged' bottles in the garage prove) A decanter can help too.

I use the stell bar too, works a treat. Agree about the decanter though.

I don't really make wines from kits anymore, but I have been doing them to use as tasters on my market stall. I am not keen in the budget kits like Youngs, but they do get better if you leave them to mature. And they are a great way for new winemakers to start off and get a 'feel' for wine making. I really like the California Connossieur range; they are named grape varieties so you can choose one that you know you like. The Beaverdale are of a similar quality. You don't need to add sugar to the CC range.

[fatbloke]

I always thought that screw-top bottles were not recommended. If the wine has not been properly de-gassed, or expands because it gets too hot (a rare event in this country...) or it starts to re-ferment, then you have a bottle bomb on your hands. At least a cork will be blown out. ???

Not quite the case. Bottle bombs are likely if you haven't checked that the wine or whatever (meads in my case) has completely finished fermenting, in the case of dry wines etc, or been stabilised in the case of something that needs to be back sweetened.

Once the brew is finished, cleared and bottled, then any dissolved CO2 (carbonic acid) will move, very slightly, between gas and liquid, but the normal atomspheric pressures and temperatures we experience here aren't enough to get the pressure high enough to be an issue.

Screw tops aren't generally recommended, because there's no way of confirming that you are attaining an air/pressure tight seal when re-using a screw cap. Of course, if you have the readies, you can get new screw top bottles and matching pre-formed caps, then you just need the crimping tool to make them tamper proof for storage etc.

If you don't want to do the de-gassing in bulk, you can easily just do it with a "vacu-vin" on a per bottle basis prior to serving. If you do like to de-gas in bulk, you can get a "mityvac" car brake system bleeding vacuum pump, then get a stopper/tube attached and you just fit the stopper and operate the pump (most of them have a little vacuum gauge on the pump), then you can actually watch the gas coming out of solution - the vacuum drops a bit, so you pump the pump a bit more. Once the vacuum stops dropping then it's degassed.

Or again, if you have the readies (or a bit of luck like I did) you get an enolmatic vacuum bottler - it can be used for bottling or with slight adaption, for degassing or vacuum racking.

Just my tuppence worth......

[rjb222]

I always thought that screw-top bottles were not recommended. If the wine has not been properly de-gassed, or expands because it gets too hot (a rare event in this country...) or it starts to re-ferment, then you have a bottle bomb on your hands. At least a cork will be blown out. ???

Actually my supplier just came out with a new bottling system that uses reusable screw on metal caps. They are calling them Stevin bottles. I am not sure if other kit makers are using these as well. The bottles and reusable caps are slightly more in initial cost than a set of cork type bottle but there are no corks to buy. After the first time you are saving the price of the corks. I have no information about how well wine ages in them ETC. as they are new out.

[fatbloke]

Just googled for them Robert, but nothing. Is the spelling right or do you have a link for them, as I'd like to see if they're available here.......

[rjb222]

I will see if I can dig up one John. Right now they have just been added to my catalog.

[Cellar_Rat]

Is it stelvin? The screw on capsule combo?

[lockwood1956]

Stelvin is the term to search for....


Vigo call them Ropp caps

http://www.vigoltd.com/ropp-caps.php

[rjb222]

Correct Stelvin is the proper term to search for. When (in Canada any way) looking for caps for replacement on commercial bottles there are several different threads used so one must make sure the cap fits properly. I do not know if the threads on the bottle I now sell is a new thread again or if they chose the most common one. The difference it the bottle threads is one of the reasons these bottles have not been popular with the home brewer.

[jonewer]

Right, thanks for all the replies. I take back what I said about the Young's Cab Sov being pretty good. Its actually not. Hopefully it will improve with storage.

Got Beaverdale Shiraz and Barolo 1 gallon kits on the go. It seems the defunct sauna in the cupboard in the bathroom holds a steady 20C so thats great!

When is the best time to degass? Is it after stabiliser has been added?