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i usually rack off solids first woth a stainless steel straner . it doesnt need to be perfect. and then dump the slurry into the bag to filter and press out large stuff. the press run is saved into an 1 gal carboy for a day to clarify and then merged to the free run. volume wise no difference...

I use bag only after fermentation is complete.

No skin no buy for $80+ kits. That is my logic. Rigid criterion. I am a fan of EM by the way. I am in the camp of RJS now.

Not s smart decision.

Sorry to turn this nice kit thread into a mud discussion. For the kits, the bentonite is typically not that difficult to dissipate since we can use a good volume of water. Typically, a light stirring can work nicely. The headache is the granular clay I bought from store for my fruit wine as...

The any way to avoid clumping is to stir hard to create a swirl and slowly drop the powder into the swirl. That works nicely with an electrical mixer.

For high to medium reds, ($70+), I only play skin kits. Even for the cheap kits, I often add skin packs, since taste of the reds is majorly from the skin. I believe the extraction of taste during kit manufacturing cannot be complete without the participation of alcohol. Otherwise, the commercial...

I got a 2 gal glass jar from Walmart for kombocha. That should work for 1 gal wine batch. You can even fit in a lot of fruit. There are quite a few two gal drink dispense jars to choose from. Most have a spigot which can be very handy for racking.

I use bentonite in white and my fruit wines like DB even in larger dose than recommended both at the beginning and during fining, since I have experienced quite a few times of haze issues after bottling for several batches of fruit wine. By the way, addition of bentonite as fining needs a...

For reds, tannin settles protein especially after long aging period. Bentonite is not required. That is why bentonite is typically only recommended only for white wine fining in wine book. But for rushing production following instructions, it cannot be skipped for sure. Protein can be combined...

Simple rule is that if you want to drink early, follow kit instruction royally and bottle asap. If you are patient enough, forget about the instructed timeline and throw out unnecessary additives and leave it in carboy as long as you can. The downside is you need a lot of carboys and space. My...

That is exactly what I have got.

Hi Joe. About to start mine with MM grape pack. Just in time to see your post, A question: did you measure the SG after F-Pack was mixed in? Just curious to see the difference before and after. Thx.

I hold up to 1 gal or 2 at the beginning and add it incrementally in order to consistently produce CO2 for extended maceration which lasts for 8 weeks. It worked in my last batch. It is easier than starting one batch to feed another with CO2. I tired chocolate powder but it generate an oily...

I just bought the MM Allgrape pack in a local shop and it is sitting in my freezer now to wait for next dual Costco cheap Cab kits. Very glad to know you are also trying this. Waiting for your result. Planning to split one grape pack to two kits (2 kg each) to make the two cheap kits into a...

I toasted oak chips in an oven until seeing smoke for the latest batch to make the wine smokier. This is learned from a YouTube video. Still need more practice. The first try is a little bit over-smoked.

Some WE kits provide two different yeasts and instruction doesn't say you must either split into small batches or pitch at different time. That mean is kit manufacture's mine that the mixed yeast can work. Many professional winemakers are pushing natural fermentation with native yeasts to...

Mine still has 3 months to go before bottling. The color is very light. But taste is very dense. a little smoky.

My RJS EP Amarone is 6 weeks into EM. Stir at least twice a week with continuous CO2 feed until now. The "CO2 provider" batch died out and I dosed 1/4 TSP of KMS and let SO2 do the safeguard job for the rest two weeks. Tastes surprisingly nice with a lot of fruit flavour.

Thanks again. Always attempt to add more even I know it is not good. LoL. Actually I failed in a Fontana-looking Pinot Noir kit due to overdosing a flavouring and threw the balance out of roof even it is still drinkable. Typical tweaks: 5 gal, some more oak, some fruits in primary etc...