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I have the chest freezer on temperature controller (inkbird makes one) and the temp probe in a thermowell. The thermowell is just a tube of metal through the rubber stopper. I think you can but such a thermowell but I just made my own. I then use this to control the temp of my wine/beer with no...

$40 more than a premium kit? Are you sure these are just juice and not crushed grapes? That seems really expensive unless there is some kind of premium you are paying out of season or if it’s a shipping cost. I pick my buckets up at the same place I get my grapes so no shipping.

Sorry, yes, AG=all grape. What I meant by “doubling your batch” is that if you spend $150 to make about 7g of all grape wine you can take advantage of those skins after pressing by “reconstituting” them with a $60 6g juice bucket as they have more to give. This spring I’m going to try one more...

IMO they are much different. I’ve made about 15 premium kits (WE, RJS and CC) and while the WE are the worst they almost all have what I perceive as a “jammy” aftertaste but good body. Some are 4 years old now. I have also made 4 juice buckets. The first 2 I made with just the juice but added...

Chest freezer and thermowell allow me to control must temp within 1-2 degrees on the cheap. Only limitation is that I can only fit about 25g but that’s not a problem for my needs. Bonus...the rest of the year it holds kegs!

There are no additives for degassing. You have 3 basic options 1. Stir 2. Apply vacuum 3. Time People here typically prefer 2-3 or some combination of those. The only reason to stir is if you are trying to follow the kit instruction timeline which most people feel leads to drinking the wine...

I would wait until it’s done fermenting before adding the kmeta. Wines can go below 1 Brix so if you add it there it might not be finished. I’d put the airlock on at 1 Brix and then wait until the gravity doesn’t change for ~5 days before adding kmeta. I’d also not advise adding kmeta to the...

I wish, but so far every kit I have made was at best only “pretty good” at the 3-4yr end. Basically most were forgettable and a few were decent enough to make again...but sadly...none were good enough to really make me think twice about the last bottle.

In going to cone in with another opinion. I have made the WE Lodi Cab 2x now, one is 4 years old and the other is 2 years old. I have been equally disappointed with both and will never make this kit again. I find that they both taste similar despite the 2 year difference and just not getting any...

I think that the mega breweries have micro labs but wouldn’t be surprised if the smaller ones just pay a lab to develop/maintain a strain that they use. It can make a big difference IMO as some of these breweries will publish their recipe but it’s hard to replicate without that yeast strain...

Was there any discussion of yeast? I now that many breweries maintain proprietary strains so was wondering if wineries do the same or if they are just using what is commercially available?

Home Brew Ohio said they spoke to RJS and decided to send me a replacement kit free of charge. Good to know they are going to make this right so kudos to them.

Crickets so far. Sent a follow up this morning asking for a response.

I also made an immersion probe so I can control the must/wort temperature directly rather than try to infer what it must be based on air temp. Takes a lot of guess work out of it. I only make ~10/gal at a time so should be really easy to soak @55 for 4-5 days then warm it up for fermentation.

Can do same thing with a cheap/used chest freezer and a temperature controller. I think the issue is more challenging for those making 1000# at a time.

Oh I cleaned it quietly as if I had committed a homicide in the basement [emoji1]

Wow, yours survived that and mine didn’t make a 12” fall! Guess I shouldn’t bet on the Super Bowl.

Yup, I sent them an email so will see what they say. I have never had any trouble with the WE kit boxes that I get from LP but these RJS boxes are not as good IMO not having that nice cutout where you an “lock in” the spout...and also apparently not as much glue! It’s too bad though because I...

Nice mess for sure! https://imgur.com/gallery/3BT09FI

No tape, just glue...and not much...each flap had two ~1” strips.