Other Finer Wine Kit questions

[winemaker81]

If I bought another, I think my wife would divorce me. She already thinks I'm crazy. Plus I'm literally out of room at this point. Maybe in 6 to 12 months.

If it took winemaking to make your wife think you're crazy, you are not trying hard enough!

 

[Old Corker]

As far as vacuum de-gasing - don't bother. I tried it, put in a serious effort and guess what, time and Mother Nature do an equal or better job. The secret is time. It's sitting in glass carboys for 2 months and is pretty much degassed. Then it sits in a Better Bottle of 4 more months before I decide what to do with it. No gas issues at all and no running a vacuum pump for anything other than transferring. I use winemaker81's method of a drill mounted whip at the 1st rack where I add the settling agents. If you are running low on wine, don't speed yours up, just go down to Trader Joe's and get some 3-buck chuck.

I bought an AIO vacuum pump for transferring wine so using it to degas is almost zero bother. After transferring I will take the the hose off, put my thumb over the pipe and run the pump for a couple of minutes more. I kind of gage how much CO2 is left by the volume of bubbles produced. I don’t attempt to completely degas at this stage. Just kick start it as @winemaker81 says. I then let time complete the process.

 

[Old Corker]

I for one am definitely looking forward to hearing people's opinions and experiences with FWK and hearing what they would change or not change. Especially as these wines mature.

There is another, much longer, thread about FWK on this site. Search for it and you’ll get sort of a history of our experiences from when they first came out. It’s a lot to read and be forewarned opinions abound. But the debates are very interesting so take what you can use and form your own conclusions.

 

[wineview]

As far as vacuum de-gasing - don't bother. I tried it, put in a serious effort and guess what, time and Mother Nature do an equal or better job. The secret is time. It's sitting in glass carboys for 2 months and is pretty much degassed. Then it sits in a Better Bottle of 4 more months before I decide what to do with it. No gas issues at all and no running a vacuum pump for anything other than transferring. I use winemaker81's method of a drill mounted whip at the 1st rack where I add the settling agents. If you are running low on wine, don't speed yours up, just go down to Trader Joe's and get some 3-buck chuck.

I remember when it was 2-buck chuck.