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  • Supermarket grape skins

    Hi, has anyone any experience with adding the skins from supermarket grapes (the seedless, eating kind) to tweak red wine kits?
    I'm thinking of doing this to a Beaverdale red (possibly cabernet sauvignon). I've made several of these kits but they all turn out a little thin, with the same distinctive 'bubblegum' aroma.
    I have a Winexpert Australian shiraz/grenache/mouverdre on the go at the moment, which came with a grape skin pack and preliminary tests seem to suggest a much better result! Wondering if similar improvement can be made by adding extra grape skins to the Beaverdales.
    Any thoughts?

  • #2
    Originally posted by wardj73 View Post
    Hi, has anyone any experience with adding the skins from supermarket grapes (the seedless, eating kind) to tweak red wine kits?
    I'm thinking of doing this to a Beaverdale red (possibly cabernet sauvignon). I've made several of these kits but they all turn out a little thin, with the same distinctive 'bubblegum' aroma.
    I have a Winexpert Australian shiraz/grenache/mouverdre on the go at the moment, which came with a grape skin pack and preliminary tests seem to suggest a much better result! Wondering if similar improvement can be made by adding extra grape skins to the Beaverdales.
    Any thoughts?
    I make a lot of skin kits in my business. I find the skins add colour acids and body to a red wine. I have never successfully ( or what I would consider successfully) tweeked a low end wine kit up to the same quality as the higher end kits. The reason for this is the quality of the ingredient's used in the lower end kits. The concentrates used in lower end kits is a lower quality than the concentrate used in higher end kits. As a rule of thumb when purchasing wine kits the bigger the box the better quality the kit is. The better ingredient's are used the better the wine will be. As far as the bubble gum flavor this is a common fault when too much potassium sorbate is used in the stabilization process skins will not over come this. I am not recommending not adding the sorbate as it is necessary to prevent certain bacterial infections in kit wines particularly ones that alter acid levels as kits are pre-set acid levels and altering these are not as easy as with a grape must set with juice or stemming and crushing your own grapes and sett up your own must. Changing acid levels or types of acids present in kit wines will render a undrinkable product IE do not let malolactic fermentation happen in kit wines as the wines will be flabby and flavorless.
    Last edited by rjb222; 09-06-2015, 02:50 PM. Reason: last sentence was incomplete.
    http://www.winensuds.com/ Gotta love this hobby

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    • #3
      Interesting, thanks. If I can at least get rid of the bubblegum taste that'd be something. I'll try a one gallon batch with supermarket skins added just as an experiment and keep you posted.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by wardj73 View Post
        Wondering if similar improvement can be made by adding extra grape skins to the Beaverdales.
        Any thoughts?
        You can indeed improve the beaverdale kits immensely by adding raisins or sultanas and switching to a better quality yeast.

        see here for ideas



        I have tasted this tweaked wine and can personally vouch for its enhanced quality following the tweaks

        regards
        bob
        N.G.W.B.J.
        Member of 5 Towns Wine and Beer Makers Society (Yorkshire's newest)
        Wine, mead and beer maker

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        • #5
          Thought I would update with the progress of my 1 gallon experiment!
          I ended up adding about 300g of crushed "Summer Royal" black skinned seedless grapes to a 1 gallon Beaverdale Cabernet Sauvignon. I also added a small can of Young's conc. grape juice, and half a teaspoon of wine tannin. Used Lalvin Ec-118.
          I didn't add any oak powder, then after a few days I transferred the wine off the grape skins and onto some oak chips; a mixture of heavy and medium toast. Racked and degassed after fermentation had completed, and added the preservative sachet. However, I replaced half of this powder with the equivalent weight of sodium metabisulphite, to try to reduce the amount of sorbate I was using.
          The result - well needs plenty of ageing, but has a very rich colour, much more so than the kit on its own. No bubblegum flavour either. The oak is pleasant enough but not much in the way of fruit flavour coming through yet. Will see how it fares with some ageing, but currently reasonably pleased to have eradicated the bubblegum scent!

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          • #6
            You could give my logic a try. Buy a good grape skin kit there's plenty to choose from and then use the skins on a second run in an inexpensive kit. This would lessen the blow of spending £90-100 on the first kit. Lalvin RC 212 would in most instances help keep a fruitier flavour in a red I use it in Rose too when I'm using a second run on grape skins. If you ever do a second run the grape skins should have enough yeast on them to start the next fermentation.
            Life would be better if I could brew it as fast as we drink it!

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