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I always boil it with a little water for 5 minutes and pour everything in. The juice smells fantastic. I think since the oak has survived the high temperature toasting and should not have any issue surviving the boiling. Someone mentioned steaming but I like boiling more since it is easier. Some...

Thx for the reply. Maybe I bought the wrong chocolate bar which contains too much oil (even it is 90% coco). Anyway, it should not be a huge deal since I can always pay more attention during next racking to skim it out. I should say in taste, it is not bad. By the way, I just heated it with the...

Glad to see you are playing with the chocolate. I added dark chocolate into my latest red batch (a cheap cab/merlot blend). However, it generated a lot of oily things on the top. Did you see that in your batch and any idea how to deal with that?

I still like double wing opener. It is much easier than the waiter's screw, even doesn't look very professional.

That is what exactly I am thinking. I would think the heavy solids as gross lees to be conservative. By the way, I always tweak my cheap kits with a lot of other solids, such as raisins, fruits etc. So my batch has never been a pure kit.

I did one Fontana Chardonnay kit with half batch in Sur-lie aging. It is still on progress, to be finished in 10 months (A kind of overkill for the cheap kit like this). I stirred up everything after secondary, and allow it sitting for two hours and then racked over. Not sure it was right or...

I am doing degassing only after long aging before bottling, may skip fining if the wine is clear enough . Using vacuum only. Really scared of the aeration effect with the vigorous agitation.

Negroamaro looks the only one I would try. Agree, the kits without skin is not worth the big money. I would play cheap ones with heavy hand tweaks for more fun. Expecting some skin suppliers.

With the price of the kits increases, the intensity of the tweaks should be reduced. You are right, reducing volume might not be a good option in this case. But this is up to personal preference. If you like heavy rich flavor, you can also try that. Instead of go 5 you can try 5.5. Playing...

Agree. Read that thread first before trying yeast swapping. At least first 10 pages. It is a very good thread. Yeast swapping requires extensive research on yeast such as alcohol tolerance, temperature range, nutrient requirements, grape varieties etc. Not as easy as it sounds like. Start from...

I would bulk aging with CO2 to protect against oxidation (racking every three months or something apply sur-lie aging) and then adding fining agent before bottle with degassing if necessary (with vacuum only) and a three-week clarification before bottling.

Agree! 1116 is a monster similar to 1118 but it is better to bring the fruit aroma as lots of people say. Really no reason to use 1118. I would try D47 or Q23 for whites.

I purchased a very cheap vacuum pump (12v 500ma) from ebay. Still waiting for the delivery: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/DC12V-Mini-Vacuum-Pump-Negative-Pressure-Suction-Pump-5L-min-120kpa-With-Holder-/322102446351?hash=item4afecd490f:g:9V0AAOSw3zxXMDVC To make it work, I also bought a 120V AC - 12V...

I would reduce dose of fining agent rather than completely eliminating it, since the commercial wining maker also cannot eliminate using it completely. But I guess we might be able to remove degassing step if we can age the wine for a year or more since I don't think there is such step in...

Tasted a couple of weeks ago, about three month from starting the kit. Pretty sharp in palate. To be honest, not even as good as my $45 Sharaz which is about 2.5 months old. But my plan is to bottle after one year of aging, no rush. I will leave it alone for another 3 months before next steal taste.

The degassing process doesnt exist on commercial winemaking. so i guess this is for kit wine only to speed up the process to achieve the 4 week 6 week promise . so if u have that patience, u can skip it. co2 can be helpful for oxygen protection. i am about to try once with super long surlie...

It is possible that the yeast is dead. I experienced once for 71b. After that, I always re-hydrate before pitching to make sure the yeast is viable. There is a risk of spoiling if you leave the must alone without fermentation for too long.

I am doing a sur-lie aging test for a cheap Chardonnay kit. I will split the 6 gal into two 3 gal carboys after the fermentation together, one for quick fining and clearing and the other one will go through an eight-month sur-lie aging process with a strict stirring schedule + two month...

Exactly. I was almost about to throw 1118 into fermenter 3 days after pitched 4x4 and fortunately I saw the bubbles coming up. once it started, it went very quickly.

That is the chemistry. Clean water doesn't have too much buffer matter in and a little of acid makes big change. The story will be different in a must, where a lot of buffering material is there. The other thing is, the pH scale is in logarithmic scale, from 7 to 4, a little bit acid will work...