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That's my thinking as well since most Pinot kits do not come with grape skins.

I am thinking about trying their Pinot Noir kit. Should I go with one pack of skins or none at all? Any other thoughts on this kit are welcomed.

I vote for Petite Verdot if you can get it. I did a mini blending class at a Virginia winery and found PV to be an excellent blending grape. I have only have had the Spanish version of Morvedre, Monastrell, but both it and PV seem to have a very long finish. FYI - when I made a small batch of...

I built these pull out wine racks for my cabinet last year. Since they are a somewhat unique style I had to design them from scratch with some trial and error 🤔 . I really am pleased with how they came out so I am also including a pdf of the design in case somebody else wants to give it a try...

Apologizing in advance 😄 love it! Take care Dawg. We'll catch you soon.

Even though we are on the county water supply I prefer to use bottled water. When I don't have it on hand I use the fridge filtered water. Not sure if it is any better but I feel better about it.

For kit wines which provide bentonite, kieselsol and chitosan I still end up with some sediment, especially in the last couple of bottles. I generally look to see if there is any before I open it. If so I slowly pour the glasses so as to leave most of the sediment in the bottle with a little...

Just ordered some! With my attention span, not having to worry about keeping airgaps filled or solid corks blowing out is a good thing. 😥

These look awesome. I'm buying some!

I do the same thing, bottling some now and putting the remainder in a 3 gal carboy for later. To date I haven't done a side-by-side taste test of the two but now I'm going to have to give it a try. Thanks for the info.

I have haven't heard the larger volume of a carboy would have any significant impact on how wine ages. Possibly this occurs because the bottle corks allow a small amount of O2 to enter and react with the wine whereas carboys allow significantly less air infiltration. Also the act of bottling...

When I rack I try to get as much juice as possible into the carboy (or as much as I need to fill the carboy). I really don't care if I end up with some sediment in the carboy as I'll deal with that when I bottle. Typically when I do bottle the last one will have a good deal of sediment. I put...

The one thing I do when I want an early drinker, say a few months rather than years, is add less oak. I'll typically add 1/2 or less of the packet provided and if necessary add some finishing tannins. To me it seems that the initial oak flavor takes a significant time to mellow. I'm all about...

Really interesting points about the amount of CO2 in wine. As for the can of coke, most of the CO2 is stored as carbonic acid (H2CO3H2CO3). When the can is opened or shook it breaks down into CO2 and water. I guess my point is since the can of coke stores most of the CO2 as carbonic acid...

That does seem a bit unusual. According to the Lallemand Catalogue 4x4 fermentation is considered to be medium speed yeast but has high nitrogen needs. When I use 4x4 I also add Ferm-K once i see signs of fermentation and again when it's about half way done.

I think @Fencepost has the correct answer. When the room warms up this spring see if your levels rise back.

Any chance some of the corks are old and not sealing as well as they used to? Either that or your mice are having one big party

It was a little hard to tell since the BM4x4 fermentation was more complete and more dry. ICV-80 is supposed to boosts the tannins structure whereas 4x4 should accentuate the varietals. Theoretically using two different yeasts and then blending them later adds to the complexity. That sounds...

EC-1118 has very low nitrogen needs so you shouldn't need any nutrients for it. RC 212 has medium needs but as I recall BM4x4 has high needs. Bad things happen when the yeast doesn't get enough nutrients. Also the nutrients aren't expensive and last a long time so you may consider picking up...

As far as your sidebar additives, I have only used tannins; Tannin Riche which is derived from French oak and a grape skin tannin which I can't remember the name.