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Yes. Pre-aged

Received my LE Aglianico Barbera yesterday and it came with RC 212. Leaning towards doing the Rockpile as I recently finished an Amorone kit with it and was pleased with the results. Seems it has the potential to be a bit of a new rock star yeast

Yup, was thinking in carboy terms. Once did batonage on a peach wine with about 2 inches of lees and stirring about twice a week for about 3 months. Definitively added body and complexity.

I've heard it said up to about 3/8" fine lees is no ptoblem through bulk aging as most of yeast sludge is contained in the gross lees. I'll usually hold off a bit on racking off the gross lees to reduce the need to rack again unless desired for other reasons. Just don't want your gross lees to...

Once had someone prank me with that. All of a sudden he acted mildly alarmed and asked "Hey, what time is it?" I reacted and proceeded to pour beer in my lap. Good, wet times.

And what a great way to get your trace minerals!

For what it's worth, it's been my understanding that it is generally better to use from the source spring water since it contains minerals the yeast may find beneficial and also adds more structure or minerality to the finished wine. Also some buffering capacity for pH.

Good point, it does cake down pretty well with a little time

I think I recall, i.e., hazy memory, reading somewhere that the sequence of kieselsol first followed by chitosan is that there can be residual polarities with the bound particles that can lead to a flocculating effect for faster settling of lees.

Since chitosan goes after negatively charged particles and kieselsol goes after positives, theoretically they shouldn't interfere with each other. On the other hand, wine contains various compounds and I suppose there could potentially be some cross interactions if both are added at the same...

Went back and read the ingredients list. Malic acid has been added, so this may be a varietal where MLF is thwarted for a desired profile.

Added Lallzyme EX-V to the must for max extraction from the skins bag. From the ingredients list, tannins have also been added.

I know, right? If we're going through the effort of making a wine kit, why not spring for the not so much extra on the top shelf kits that translate into noticeably better wine at the moment of truth. The Amarone must is bubbling along nicely now and just pre-ordered 2 of the WineExpert...

Sounds like we have similar approaches. I used Rock Pile 15 yeast instead of the RC 212 and 1118 yeast included. The latter is the backstop to make sure the primary starts and finishes. This kit has oak chips for primary and oak cubes for secondary. Love me heavy oak.

Good advice. Kits are generally made for early consumption and geared towards beginning winemakers with built in safety margins. Maybe some day I'll spring for a "real" Amarone, but this will have to do in the meantime lol

Good to know, will stick with the sorbate on this one, recall hearing that before, that kits are pre-conditioned against MLF.

Although was also wondering if MLF is not desired for Amarone, hence the sorbate, will do some more digging...

Was wondering about that too. Thanks! Does seem that step is geared more toward early drinking, appreciate your thoughts

I just received a WineExpert Private Select Amarone kit that includes grape skins. Really looking forward to enjoying this wine down the stretch and I'm willing to be patient with some decent ageing. The kit includes chitosan and kieselsol and instructions for clearing but I'm planning to bulk...

Btw, my previous batch at around 12% ran hot out of bulk ageing and I was afraid it was kind of a lost cause. After a year in the bottle, however, it really smoothed out and has only gotten better.