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Just for record purposes, the OG was 1.092.

Ok, so it's taken me way longer than planned but my second wine is finally under way. Vintners Merlot kit. Currently fermenting happily at 28 degrees C with Lalvin Ec-1118. Kit instructions said to add the oak chips at start of fermentation so just stuck with it. Next wine project would have to...

Thanks for the input!

Further projects in the planning is a barley wine. Biggest reason for this is that I have about 30kg of South African Pale Malt which I don't want to be brewing beer with.. And beyond that, I need to try my hand at that Banana Wine and have some grapes lined up for early 2020. Wondering if any...

Bottled the Riesling last night, which means it took me almost 5 months to make this wine. Unfortunately can't say it was my best bottling session ever. Had issues with my bottle filler (one with a spring) and the wine bottles stood open for about an hour in-between sanitizing and actually being...

So did the final transfer this afternoon. Wine has been sitting at room temp which at times probably was a bit higher than what is ideal but was hoping that it would assist with getting the gas out. Seems to have worked perfectly fine and wine is perfectly flat. I therefore am satisfied now that...

Great thanks everyone. Seems I've got some planning and shopping to do. Will do my best to do the recipe justice.

Have been thinking of making a banana wine but it seems to be a hit and miss between people. For the moment my focus and equipment is mostly for grape wines. I would like to know more about tea Wine though. Haven't really delved into it before. I love Rooibos and make a lot of rooibos/greentea...

Yes correct. Didn't want to wait for harvest which is Feb-March. Added difficulty is that grapes will be coming from the cape so it's about a 1500km (900+ miles) to get it up to Johannesburg where I stay... Kind of feel like you need to do at least one or two barrels to make it worth it. Will do...

Also found a supplier of grapes for the coming harvest in 2020 from Stellenbosch so looking forward to making wine with actual grapes next year. Huge amount to learn!

So it's been just over a month since I've added the Potassium Sorbate, Campden Tablets and gelatin. Certainly not yet 100% clear but I'd say we are about 70%-80% there. Decided not to rush the process and will bulk age it for a while longer to degass rather than to force it out with a drill...

So the genius that I am, I seem to have thrown away the rest of my additives with the packaging of the kit... Luckily I've got a packet of Potassium Sorbate and Campden Tablets on hand. Will need to use gelatin to clarify. So will rack the wine off the lees (this is a second racking) will then...

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Other hydrometers I've seen reads "990" in the space where mine reads "90". But assumed that it must be the way in which you described, which would put the gravity at 0.995. Would have preferred slightly lower but that should be ok and might still come down a...

Thanks for the great advice. You all clearly have a lot of experience in this and I clearly have a lot to learn on the practicalities of winemaking apposed to brewing. Though it appears my hydrometer isn't printed correctly for measurements below 1, the results of the FG appears favourable and...

Yes, am sure you can get away with it most of the time. Not sure it's best practice. Probably best I should just keep quiet and go purchase a refractometer.

Thanks for the response Johnd! I guess you are right concerning the risk of measurements over that phase. Was clear that fermentation was still busy and though some might not care, I don't really like losing 80ml of product for hydrometer readings. I suppose more readings could help with...

So it took another week for the airlock activity to die down, surprisingly long time. Will be taking a further SG reading tonight to confirm that the fermentation has reached terminal gravity. Didn't want to take another SG reading until I was confident that fermentation is done. Trying to keep...

Thank you for the input and education. It was my understanding that cold stabilisation is best practice for all white wines. I will do the required reading and decide from there.

Thank you for this response and confirming some points that I've read in other sources. The kit instructions were to transfer once reaching 1.01 or lower, so I just followed with that recommendation. There's clearly still a lot of yeast in suspension at this stage and expecting still quite a lot...

Good day, though I've been brewing beer for about 4 years, I am brand spanking new to winemaking. I'm now busy with my first batch and will post my progress and comments here for anyone interested. Any comments and feedback welcome. So the first wine is a Winexpert Riesling Kit. I chose this...