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Ahh, didn’t catch that your fermenter was sealed so you are sort of talking more of a “purged headspace” than “blanket of CO2”. The only time I tired this was with a wide mouth fermentor (fermonstor) I used to use for beer. It had an airlock but big enough opening to get the must in. Towards the...

Glad this is working for you. Just wanted to point out that you may be giving too much credit to the CO2 “blanket” idea. This is not really true that a steady blanket forms. For example, if you think about air, it’s a mix of gasses and not a series of layers, due to the ideal gas law properties...

Yeah, I’d plan to bring the temp up on the cold soak before I added it to avoid any shock. As far as adjustments, I will make bulk adjustments (if needed) pre ferment as I really try to avoid any of that after ferment. I’ll be using D80 and D254 in split fermenters.

So I have about 8 batches of AG reds under my belt at this point and have found that the wines I did a 3-4 day cold soak have the best color so really like this (I also add enzymes). Problem is I am now doubling my batch size so no longer have cooler space for all of my must. I was thinking that...

I moved to all grape and only wish I had done so sooner. I use my kit wine as top up wine as I can’t really stand it anymore. I tried extended maceration, tannin, different yeasts and barrel aging. None of that really improved the (“high end”) kits that I made, at least not noticeably.

In my opinion, that sweet grapy flavor never goes away. A kit wine it what it is after 18mo, well IMO anyways. I waited 5 years and they never got any better.

True. For reference, I only make big reds.

Maybe, but if that is the case my normal basement temps are probably just as good, if not better, than the controlled cellar temps for wine that will be consumed within a few years. If I wasn’t looking for a difference I probably wouldn’t have found one. That is how similar they tasted. I will...

When I built my cellar I landed on 60F. A few years in, I took a few bottles of a batch and aged them in my boiler room where the temp swings wildly from 60-80F in the winter months where the boiler cycles. In the summer it’s a fairly constant high 70’s. After 2 years I did a blind tasting...

I made the WE Lodi cab 2 times and bottled per the instructions (1st) and also bottles after one year (2nd). Honestly never could tell any difference. I’d say it’s maybe helpful if you are using an oak adjunct that extracts slower but I would expect the differences to be subtle. If you are...

I’ve done the RJS super Tuscan by the book and 6 week EM. Both are about 3 years old now and that exactly the same to me. I’d have to check my notes to see if I thought differently during the first year or so but my 5-6 kit wines done with EM didn’t really impress me overall. Disclaimer: I...

These bottles use natural corks, and thus far I couldn’t see any difference in the cork that were pulled and no change in color. Something to note is that the ambient temp is swinging 20F but I am not really sure how much the actual wine or small ullage is swinging as I have no way to measure...

I thought that a constant temp was key which is why I choose to put it in the boiler room, as opposed to just any room. That room varies between 65F and 85F, every 6hrs or so over the winter when the boiler kicks on. In the summer it’s probably about 78 most of the time. I half expected the...

I have some kit wines for 2-3 years ago that I can no longer stand now that I know what I can get with all grape. I was trying to drink them but it felt like a chore. I still use them for top up as I don’t think that I have the palate to pick up the small difference but I occasionally go down to...

So, when I started making kit wine in 2016 I read about the importance of cellaring so I built a temperature controlled cellar, and kept it at 55F. After a few years I pulled a few bottles to see what the difference would be after a few more years without the controlled temp. These pulled...

I’ve done yeast swap, tannin addition, extended maceration and all the other tricks. Currently have batches 2 and 5 years old. However, IMO, this doesn’t stand up to a decent commercial Merlot. But, as noted, taste is subjective.

Good discussion indeed! I think it can simply be summarized as follows but open to any other conclusions: Headspace Eliminator: Mine seems to max out at about 22 in Hg which is about 75% of atmosphere. Therefore you have 25% of the air in there that you had before. You might not want to leave...

That is probably a good assumption for initial racking but maybe not so good of an assumption for final racking or bottling when the CO2 is pretty much gone. I used to use a Blichmann beer gun for bottling beer. Their design has you use CO2 to “purge” the bottle first and then pressure fill...

I wasn’t trying to imply that the wine was instantly oxidized, just that the only missing ingredient was time. The oxygen was in there from the beginning and didn’t ingress over time.

So I think you might have same problem with ensuring the corny keg is initially void of air. One solution is to fill the keg with sanitizer, push CO2 through to empty the sanitizer, then fill the corny keg directly from another corny keg. Hopefully that makes sense but I can elaborate if needed...