Ageing Problem

[lockwood1956]

here is a step by step picture tutorial

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=913

if you have any questions following this please ask away.

The most important thing in ALL winemaking (kits or otherwise) is that once ferment is over, it must be topped up if ageing longer than a couple of days.

Do:
Follow the instructions as close to the letter as you can.
Try to keep the temps at the recomended level
realise that the kit is meant to produce 23 litres of finished wine, and so is designed to be topped up along the way.

Dont:
Worry too much about the number of days quoted in the kit instructions, use your hydrometer to judge when to move to the next stage....days are a guide only, hydrometer readings are a much much much better guide.

leave finished wine without topping it up.

Hurry things, the wine knows what to do. An active ferment is protected from spoilage by the CO2 blanket covering it, produced by fermentation.

[jljarvis3]

Olive Oil sounds like a mess to me. I have used Argon for 2 years now, It is the heaviest of inert gasses. It can also be used to push beer or wine out of the (corny) kegs. I use Sankee at 15.5 gals. Paid 25 USD which is the deposit fee at my local bar, I mean Pub.

[robwrx]

Thanks to one and all for replies. Bob, thanks for the dos and don'ts and the link for the picture tutorial, very useful.

Mamgiowl, I used your marble advice in the end so thanks for that.

Rob

[Mamgiowl]

You're welcome - glad it helped solve the problem

[bzac]

not sure why topping up is an issue , all kits are blends anyway so there is no need to be puritanical about it .

it might even make your wine better with a touch more complexity , but most likely you won't notice any impact. I just use white for white and red for red without issue.

failing that a smaller container , bottle as soon as clear or using an oil (please don't use olive oil it goes rancid, I've first hand expireince losing a batch) mineral oil sold in chemists (pharmacies) as a digestive aide works perfectly and won't impart any extra virgin flavours or go rancid on you.

if it was my wine I'd just top it up with something similar and be done with it.

[robwrx]

not sure why topping up is an issue , all kits are blends anyway so there is no need to be puritanical about it .

Hi bzac

It was a newbie question from someone with nil experience. With djs varying so much in volume I had a situation where after racking from a small dj to a large one left a substantial air space. I assumed that adding in excess of .5 litre of a different wine to a 6 bottle kit would alter the quality considerably and didn't want to do it.

I've now sorted my djs into size and I'm not being quite so anal about it

Rob

[Cellar_Rat]

Indeedy - ages ago had the same issue so decided to make sure everything was the same size. (same problem different fix).