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Quick answer: use what they give you, both. There's a longer answer, but for now use both together.

It will be fine. You will want to top it off with wine, keep it under airlock, and then get it off the stuff on the bottom when you can, but you're fine for another month. After that it will only get better with age. Bottling can be postponed for a year if you wish.

Welcome. Can you describe the funky smell any better? Is it rubbery? Is it like salami? Is it Sulfur? etc.

We all have different palettes, sensitivities and ways of expressing taste so it can be hard to ensure that we're talking about the same sensation. A quick test would be to pour a glass of wine that gives her the burn. Let it come to room temp, stir it with a fork for 30 seconds or so. Does...

Yes I do, and aside from you maybe jinxing me now I've never had an issue :h I've kept them bare for the cooling effect of the earth underneath. In winter time the AC barely runs. My carboys that don't fit on my shelves are on wooden pallets off the floor. I imagine I may change my...

That's a great question, which is a little different than how to degas. There's a couple 'tests' that are usually discussed: 1. Poof test. Fill your hydrometer tube half full and plug it with your palm. Shake it and when you release your palm if you hear a forceful poof, you've got gas...

I'm 14 months into my wine cellar and I wouldn't change a thing. The window AC unit and Inkbird are a fantastic combination. I've got over 400 bottles in it now along with 2 full vadai 23L barrels and 5 carboys. My wine making spree of the last 2 years has paid off and I'm at the point...

I think you would probably be okay as long as there was still active outgassing. Once you've hit the mark you want I would lock down the fermenter with an airlock and then slosh it around to release CO2. But then leave it under airlock till you rack. My thinking is that the outgassing will...

I applaud your ingenuity, but I'm not sure that it's necessary, or even good, for the wine to be so finely controlled. While the ambient temperature of the fermentation room is important letting the wine naturally ferment is important too. During ferment the must temp naturally rises which aids...

I read an interesting article about humidity and wine. Their study concluded that somewhere about 65-70% is ideal. Not so much from a cork's stability perspective but rather from evaporation. Under that amount and the water in the wine is primarily effected by evaporation. But over that...

I believe the inkbird is rated at 1500 watts which has been plenty for 5K BTU AC unit. I think the compressor surges to about 1000 and then the unit runs somewhere about 350W. I could be wrong on those numbers it's been a while since I checked them. But the bottom line is the Inkbird has...

This is true. The good news about oversized AC units is that they tend to reach to the cool point before sucking all the humidity out as a normally sized AC unit is designed to do. Nonetheless, in summer time I still need to run a humidifier in my wine room to keep the humidity at 70%, which...

I am very satisfied with my inkbird. I suggest that you get one, relocate the thermocouple, set the unit on max and then run in on the ink bird to see if it works. With a digital readout it may give you a problem. If it does you may still be okay if you can bypass the adjustment which should...

You're very welcome. Just my way of paying back all those who helped, and continue to help, me on this forum. Thanks for posting your results, that's terrific. Good confirmation of what I saw and what Tim V discussed. I started a CC Showcase Old Vine Zin in my newest Fermonster last Saturday...

Sorry, just the catalog. Christmas comes later.

I got mine today in Maryland

Sonoita, AZ is a very fine vineyard and wine area. It is about 50 miles southeast of Tucson. I don't know if any of the vineyards sell lugs, but you could ask. The wine I've tasted from there is very good.

Theoretically it should be better for your Malbec. It's designed to be better, and EC-1118 is designed to be fool proof. I've used BM 4X4 quite a bit and have never had it fail to ferment all the way. But my palette can't speak to how much better it may be.

Personally, I won't even read a page like that. I've grown fond of paragraph breaks for an eye rest, location tracking, thought separation and just plain courtesy. Whether I'm reviewing resumes or looking at information like this, if I see a page of text with no paragraph breaks it goes...

For the record, total volume of a fermonster is 7.5 gallons. The extra volume of the other fermenter would be perfect to reduce the risk of overflow. Then the question becomes does that extra volume increase oxidation risk too much over the time after active fermentation?