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If you take salcoco’s suggestion that would be 2.5 cups cane sugar to raise the brix by 2.1. You’d have a 12.5% wine, which is more typical of gewurzt. Anything between 20 - 24 brix is common for that varietal.

So all you’d need to add is 50 grams tartaric acid then. You’ll end up with a wine at 11.4% alcohol and a PH of 3.32. It’s on the low end of alcohol for a gewurtz, but still in line. Don’t forget about nutrients and sulfites at the appropriate stages though!

At that price point stick with the whites and you’ll be much happier imo. The line I’d recommend is Master Vitner - Winemakers Reserve. Their Sauvignon Blanc is very good. Haven’t tried their reds but most entry red wine kits are disappointing. Hopefully you can get it across the pond.

Great points you make. For my red wines I’ll always wait 2 days following crush, and will measure and adjust at that time during cold soak and after a few good mixings.

You’ll need to add Tartaric acid and potentially sugar. How many gallons of juice did you buy? And are you planning on making a fully dry wine?

If you’re making wine from grapes I would suggest not using an acid blend and instead only using tartaric acid for the addition.

I’m surprised there was such a jump in PH during primary fermentation. Usually you might see an increase of around .15, with another increase of .12 occurring during MLF. So that jump of .45 just in primary is very surprising. But either way, the most you’ll want to adjust your must with acid...

How much wine did you produce? During MLF you might expect PH to rise upwards of another .15 as well. So if you do nothing you’ll end up near 4.2 which is, by any definition, a flabby wine. Since you’ve already added your bacteria I agree with cmason and you should let it finish. But then you...

Sounds like your adjustments depend on how confident you are in your readings. I’ve routinely found growers will misrepresent their acidity, depending on the quality of the grapes. For what it’s worth I depend on my own readings and not what I read / hear from nondescript growers. Now if I’m...

You're welcome ericsp. I don't disagree with your decision, as I've made excellent wines from some of Brehm's vineyards. But horses for courses, and I find the challenge of making very good wine from average quality grapes is rewarding, sometimes more so than making an excellent wine from...

They are the same company. I’ve actually ordered from them a number of times and have been generally happy with the product, understanding how inexpensive they are relative to Brehm or winegrapesdirect, particularly factoring in shipping costs. Many people on this forum have had negative...

Unfortunately you may end up struggling to keep most Italian clones alive in 6A. The most cold hardy Italian reds are the wines made in Piedmont, being nebbiolo, barbera, and dolcetto. Just keep in mind there’s a reason they’re growing Frontenac and Marquette in Minnesota, and not Pinot Noir...

Agreed. D254 and D21, along with D80. Blending all 3 with varying must percentages depending on your grape qualities. D254 gives polyphenols, D21 doesn’t eat as much acid (great with high PH fruit), and D80 helps extract tannin if the berries are a larger than desired. I made a Merlot with the...

I also ordered a few buckets from them. You can tell the fruit is machine harvested, which is fine, but you should be prepared to pull some sticks, leaves, and bugs from the must after it’s thawed. Also, take their brix and ph readings with a grain of salt. For example the 2020 Cabernet...

So I’m actually in Napa right now and have been walking around the vineyards and looking like a fool counting the flower clusters. Every mature vine is trained in a single cordon system and is pruned to have 2 buds per spur, with an average of 12 spur’s (vine’s aren’t necessarily symmetrical)...

Very interesting recipe! I’m sure we’re all interested to hear how it turns out. I’m with you, 30 days is a long time unless you add a lot of sulfite and probably acid. Otherwise (best case scenario) you have a wild yeast fermentation or (worst case scenario) bacterial spoilage. If it were me...

I built a calculator which helps you understand the oak levels you might want. It’s posted on the forum, linked below. https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/replicating-oak-barrel-program-with-oak-cubes.73487/#post-789820 The 2 oz oak cubes per 5 gallons is a very good rule of thumb, but...

You should definitely check the chlorine or chloramine level in your local water supply. I ruined 3 barrels by cleaning with my backyard hose, and didn’t realize it until I went to bottle. The wine smelled musty but as soon as I tasted I knew it had TCA (cork taint). Ruined $1500 worth of...

Hi Bharat - You need a different yeast, not necessarily nutrient even though it will help. Bread yeast can only ferment up to 6 or 8%. Wine yeast can get up to 17% dependent on the strain. For your purposes I’d probably recommend EC1118. It should be able to ferment your wine dry.

FYI, model attached in a zip format for download here. I'm happy to answer any questions! ZIP files removed as it's being updated.