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Are they agglomerated or fully synthetic? Agglomerated are ok, synthetic or bad for reds as they are not great for aging.

The CC malbac is amazing to be honest with you, its aging right now and im glad i did it before they killed off the old lineup. Its an excellent example of Argentina's finest, better than your typical Alamos and Trapiche run of the mill. Alot of the most popular past kit lineups though are...

One time it was must in one of the packs, i never added it and im glad i didnt as i hate sweet wine. Typically its inverted sugar though, just taste it and see. Dont add it into the primary, if it is sugar it will most likely have sorbate which could prevent fermentation to your must if you...

Hmm temps are usually around 65 F for my carboys, And by than I would have racked twice with the third being filtered into a another carboy and bottled after a few weeks of rest. I’ve actually been finding that all kits without skins, even high end skinless ones clear very quickly and they are...

Ive never used my PH meter so far it’s just been sitting there, I usually have a nice number of what I want for sulfites before bottling which is hovering somewhere just under 50PPM for most. Is there any particular reason as to why you are checking PH though if you’re not testing for sulfites...

ive noticed that most high end kits with skins take about 10-12 months to clear on their own to ensure that you don’t end up with sediment in the bottle. What would you say is the clearing time is for cheaper kits though? So far I’m finding about 6 months without clearing agents on the cheaper...

Picked up a VINECO signature red and an original series white, guess I'm a guinea pig here aswell. I was told the whites don't have that sickly yellow color anymore that one could assume occurs from the high heat pasteurization.

Its a sterile juice bucket, So not technically a kit but similar. I also used fresh skins in the primary, up to this point i have always done traditional concentrated kits By Vineco or RJS Spangols. I did add bentonite aswell.

Any thoughts guys? I’ve read that chitosin will take care of it but what is the minimum amount to add? Also I’m assuming to add closer to the end of the bulk aging in case i really need it? I heard someone say that a protein haze will spoil a wine, however i dont see how that is even possible...

Here is one of the carboys with the white crap (protein). Like I said though it's really hard to tell from the pictures. I'm 99% sure it's a protein haze though.

Really hard to show but here is a standard caboy

I’m almost 100% sure this is a protein haze since I squeeze the crap out of the skins bag, plus the wine tastes fine. Will the protein haze settle out over the next year and a few rackings? Will it do anything to the wine over time? If I spin the carboy a little bit It goes back into the wine...

Alright well regardless, if I wanted to add fresh grapes to my kits would I need to sulfite them if I immediately froze them? If so how much? would I than have to let them sit for 24 hours for the sulfite to disapate before pitching in the the must?

Ha now that’s one I haven’t heard. There is some alcohol in the skins, the chickens might get drunk lol.

Several reasons actually, mainly time being a factor since crushing 5-10 lbs of skins per kit vs 100 lbs of skins, Thats 10-20 times the amount of work and time required. I don’t have a crusher/destemmer and I’m not prepared to drop serious cash on it either right now, crushing and destemming...

I ran into someone that was telling me to start buying some wine grapes and putting them right in there with the kits. They said i can crush them up with my hands, than freeze them and add them when I’m ready. I was thinking a potatoe masher in a 5 gallon bucket might do the trick, however how...

Some carboys have more or less headspace, i use a similiar wine to top it up . I’ve tried freezing skins and i don’t feel there is anything left worth freezing really so its not even worth the effort.

so you need to come up with a degassing method and keep it consistent so that it’s easy to identify issues, that’s half your problem there I think. You can’t bottle wine that has alot of CO2 as it’s very unpredictable. I use a wine whip for exactly 4 minutes, i also bulk age for up to a...

How long are you aging in bulk before bottling? what is degassing technique? I also have a theory that a good corker will compress the cork while its inserted so that not as much air is compressed in the bottle, there is mostly equal pressure until the cork seals fully. The type of corks could...

I’m convinced having the skins submerged all the time releases more goodies. It also allows the skins to be submerged in a high alcohol environment for longer because alcohol is a solvent. The alternative is following the instructions and racking off the skins in 5-7 days right when the alcohol...