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As I recall, we did a lot of aerating for the first week or so. I should have made notes on that but didn't, but you reminded me. This was my first kit so I was drawing on my mead experience and shaking the bucket 10-15 minutes at a time once a day. After that though, I think I only opened the...

I made this kit, it just came out of an 8 week EM this past week. I didn't have anything like that in mine. I did use both 212 and 1118, and used FermK to fend off the beginnings of sulphur with great effect a few days after pitch. Would Ferm K really stay undissolved like that for so long? I...

I was just about to post a similar thread! Hope you don't mind my jumping in. I have one 27L Fermonster in which I plan to do one EM kit at a time, 8 weeks apiece. I bought the following on sale over the past 3 months due to being 19-36 months out from production date. In what order should I...

I just did a new 20L batch of black-and-blueblood which will land at about 11%. The older batch is something like 15%, which, while delicious, is too strong and therefore a bit dangerous. ;) I used the same recipe more or less, only with less sugar and a few tweaks due to fruit on sale. I used...

Wine is racked to carboy. Have stirred every few days for the past week, starting on saturday will be following this schedule: Once each week for the first 4 weeks, then once fortnightly for the next 6 weeks, and monthly thereafter. as suggested under common practices in this article...

Unfortunately I can only get WE kits here, so CC isn’t an option. I have seen people rave on here about the SL Merlot so I definitely want to get that but haven’t seen as much info about the Argentinian Malbec. If it’s just ok I’ll skip it... its just that both are on sale and I was wondering if...

@sour_grapes I'm looking at this kit with skins as well as the Stag's Leap Merlot with skins. How did this one turn out?

I was wondering about that, it is the WE kit and the only real chunky bits is the oak dust. I haven't been stirring daily and it's still in an airtight bucket, not a carboy yet.

I tasted this morning before and after stirring. Tasted better after stirring actually, more complex. The lees were already quite compact, felt like clay, though the wine was not clear by any means. There's still lots of co2 and airlock activity. I think I'll rack off the gross lees on Saturday...

@sour_grapes so I'm at the point where fermentation is pretty much done. Do I rack into the secondary carboy off the gross lees, or do I want everything from primary in there? It's in a 30L bucket at the moment and the plan was to put it in a 23L carboy with a waterless silicone airlock to...

CY3079 ripped through the must and fermented to 1.000 in 4 days! The temperature was between 22-24C, so within tolerance (15-27C). It was so foamy I was unable to take a hydrometer reading until day 4 after pitch. This was definitely faster than expected. I added Fermaid K and DAP the first 3...

The smell is divine but wow is CY3079 a foamer! At least 4-5 cm of foam when I opened the bucket to stir and add nutrients. Bits of oak dust actually made deep indentations in the foam like if you press your fingers into risen bread dough. I'm using a 30L bucket but I hope it doesn't get any...

I made a slight mistake and added the ~3/4 fpack first without thinking. So when rehydrating I added about 400ml water above 23L and got a temp-adjusted sg of 1.103, so quite close to yours. Rehydrating CY3079 right now with Go-Ferm. The must after adding oak smells wonderful, lovely vanilla...

Very helpful, thank you!

@sour_grapes when you added part of the fpack to primary, did you replace an equal volume of water, or did the fpack create additional volume on top of the recommended amount of water?

It's the Winexpert Island Mist Peach Apricot Chardonnay with 7.5kg base and 1.5kg fpack. I think a sparkling wine might be more the goal, but I've never tried one of these kits so I don't know how strong the flavor is.

I don't taste the mintiness you mention. Maybe it depends on the brand or maybe not everyone can taste it? I don't have any super old bottles with xylitol yet, but so far I've used it in wine and cider and I think it works great. I find erythritol has that sort of cooling flavor you mention. To...

Ok, what do you suggest?

I just saw this kit on sale. Thing is, I'm not a fan of sweet wines. Would it be possible to tweak this by: -pumping up the abv to ~11% (only adding water up to 5 gallons instead of 6 as @joeswine suggests, and adding fpack and sugar as needed after that) -adding most of the f-pack in primary...

I have chips made from old bourbon barrels. Perhaps you can source something similar? It seems a popular choice for beer brewers. Not sure where in the world you are but here's the link https://shop.humle.se/en/additives/flavouring/bourbon-oak-chips-1-kg