Cellar Craft Amarone

[ejiang]

I transferred to secondary today. There is some three liters of lees at the bottom. I just have no way to make the carboy to the top!

What happened to you?

 

[roger80465]

Roger, I have made both......the WE with skins (which was off the hook good!) and the MM Rennaisance. To be honest, I love them both and the more age they have on them the more great they are!!!
KAthie

Kathie, you are talking me into the WE version. Always willing to try something new.

Roger

 

[uavwmn]

Kathie, you are talking me into the WE version. Always willing to try something new.

Roger

You won't be disappointed.
Kathie

 

[robie]

I transferred to secondary today. There is some three liters of lees at the bottom. I just have no way to make the carboy to the top!

What happened to you?

If you can, use a like wine to top off the carboy. A nibiolo will work, a Sangiovese will, too, even though it iis a different grape. In a pinch you can always use a Merlot, as it has a somewhat neutral taste profile that won't affect the taste of your wine much.

Regardless, you must top off after secondary is finished.

 

[uavwmn]

I transferred to secondary today. There is some three liters of lees at the bottom. I just have no way to make the carboy to the top!

What happened to you?

You can try using marbles and place in the carboy. Fills the void nicely.
Kathie

 

[ejiang]

Thanks Robie and Kathie.

Other question I have is the timing. The instruction says to wait for 10-12 days to test SG and expect to be lower than 1.0.

The wording is quite different than that of other kits and it seems to imply number of dates has to be 10 at least. However, by the 7th day, the SG is already 0.998. I decided not to wait and transferred to the secondary.

Well, the concern I have is the grapes might not having enough time to extract into the wine.

So, which way?.

 

[Geronimo]

Ejiang, waiting longer is better. Frankly I like to primary for 21 days. I'm happiest to drop my hydrometer into a carboy and see 0.995 or lower after 21 days. While SG is a good indicator of fermentation, the yeast is still doing clean up work at the end of the cycle. Those few extra days won't hurt and might help.

 

[tonyt]

Ej
I think you're fine, That said I would have waited the 10 days. When given a specific gravity target and a number of days target I usually use whatever target is longer. To me longer is better.

 

[ejiang]

Thanks Tony and Geronimo !

One more qestion, kit says to stir must at least one time a day. I spray kmeta to the spoon and am wonder if I should rinse.
If not, I worry the kmeta will kill the yeast
If so, I worry my rinse water may not be as clean

Sorry, so many questions

 

[robie]

Thanks Tony and Geronimo !

One more qestion, kit says to stir must at least one time a day. I spray kmeta to the spoon and am wonder if I should rinse.
If not, I worry the kmeta will kill the yeast
If so, I worry my rinse water may not be as clean

Sorry, so many questions

Questions show your concerns... nothing wrong with that.

That small amount of Kmeta on the spoon won't hurt the yeast.

We all have differing opinions about rinsing. I always like to rinse with water. I take the attitude that my water is sanitary. I have great, clean, clear, Colorado water with low chlorination. You may or may not have such water, or you may have home well water that you don't trust.

If you have doubts about your water, spray the spoon, let it set a few minutes, then sling it hard to remove most of the Kmeta solution. As I mentioned, there is not that much solution on the spoon, anyway.

You do realize that Kmeta is primarily a fumes sanitizer, not a contact sanitizer. When you spray something like a spoon or hydrometer with Kmeta, it is not as effective as spraying it with a contact sanitizer like StarSan.

Kmeta will be OK for what you are doing, but a contact sanitizer is much better for spraying those type items.

My rule is if I can spray it and seal it up or put Kmeta inside it then seal it up, I use Kmeta solution.

If I can't seal it up and I can spray it, I use StarSan.

 

[Andrewwarwick]

I just sampled my Mosti Mondiale Meglioli Amarone that's been aging in the carboy for 6 months. I'm also a huge Amarone fan and I was hoping for this wine to be amazing after 2-3 years, but expecting it to taste like crap so early. It was definitely early but it surprised me because even though it had a lot of KT taste I still could tell it was going to be an Amerone ... comparing this to my multiple top-end WineXpert kits which all seem to taste the same at 6 months (including the new Amerone skins kit albeit @ 2 months in carboy). It dropped a lot of wine diamonds in the carboy, also, but I personally do not mind this, my favorite commercial Spanish Tempranillo has them in every bottle I open and it's one of my favorites.

On a side note, the labels and caps provided look very top-end imo. I will give this wine out as a prize of my collection when it's ready.

 

[ejiang]

My showcase amarone has been in the secondary for two weeks. It looks very thick. Did you use fining agent or not?

I plan to age it long , but this one looks really thick, maybe fining is needed for it?