Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
My Cab arrived earlier today. Nice and cool. Had to go into the fridge though, as I probably can't start it until at least Friday.
Finer Wine Kit Finer Wine Kits
- Thread starter SLM
- Start date
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I started the Cab and Pinot Noir today. I’m excited as everything looks good. I also started a Chile Cab juice bucket last week, so I’ll have a rough comparison there. We’ll have to wait a year or so to know for sure though, such the hobby we are in!
I started my Cab last night. The juice is super thick pouring it in the primary. The skins are fresh, real skins - not machined jam-skins like you get in traditional kits. This all has an interesting, unpretentious feel to it. Good quality.
I’m following the instructions closely. Will drop the yeast starter tonight when I get home from work.
I’m following the instructions closely. Will drop the yeast starter tonight when I get home from work.
My Super Tuscan (ST) and Cabernet, both with double skins, arrived while I was at work yesterday. Both kits were well packed, and the juice was a cool 55.3* (temp just happened to be in the 40s yesterday, fully supporting a great Kit experience) 
Couldn’t wait, so started both Kits last night. The supplemental instructions point out to make sure to pull the Safety Seal in the direction of the embossed arrow; the ST worked as designed, but the Cab Seal pull ring broke, then the remaining tab snapped off flush when trying to open using needle nose vice grips (still like the screw cap w/safety seal setup, I wonder if the cooler temp environment makes it more brittle that ideal?). Cut the corner and finished assembling the batches, with both starting SGs coming in at 1.110 
.
Both batching are coming up to temp, while the Starter kit (Packet A) works its magic. The Yeast starter is bubbling away in preparation to be pitched tonight! I’ll give both batches a punch & stir before heading off to the office this morning. I’m planning on taking another SG tonight before pitching the Yeast Starter (interested in what the SG will come in at with time on the Skins & Packet A?). There’s been a lot of anticipation with this launch, Matteo and the LPs Team has done an outstanding job bringing a Brand to life! Well Done
Couldn’t wait, so started both Kits last night. The supplemental instructions point out to make sure to pull the Safety Seal in the direction of the embossed arrow; the ST worked as designed, but the Cab Seal pull ring broke, then the remaining tab snapped off flush when trying to open using needle nose vice grips (still like the screw cap w/safety seal setup, I wonder if the cooler temp environment makes it more brittle that ideal?). Cut the corner and finished assembling the batches, with both starting SGs coming in at 1.110 .Both batching are coming up to temp, while the Starter kit (Packet A) works its magic. The Yeast starter is bubbling away in preparation to be pitched tonight! I’ll give both batches a punch & stir before heading off to the office this morning. I’m planning on taking another SG tonight before pitching the Yeast Starter (interested in what the SG will come in at with time on the Skins & Packet A?). There’s been a lot of anticipation with this launch, Matteo and the LPs Team has done an outstanding job bringing a Brand to life! Well Done
Spencerthebuilder
Member
Received and started my Super Tuscan yesterday. Arrived chilled, but not cold. The instructions say that due to the sugar content the juice is fine at room temp for a few days. Seems reasonable. Maybe I didn't have the right technique but the bag cap is a pia. ended up just slicing the bag. I found it interesting that he included what must be kmeta for suppression of natural yeasts. Also that he suggest - 12-18 hours before the starter yeast is pitched. Maybe just to give the initial kmeta time to work. Skins smell great! A thorough and well thought out kit, without being "slick" or pretentious. Going to be hard to pack this one away for a year
I think the 12-18 hours is more important for the yeast starter, than for the kmeta. At 12-18 hours the yeast should be actively reproducing so that they hit the ground running when added to the must. I think that they also mentioned in the video that the 12-18 hours allows the must to come up to room temp. as it typically arrives too cold to pitch the yeast.
In addition to kmeta the booklet says that Starter Pack / Packet A is also has more yeast nutrients (just like Packets B and C) and also something which 'fine tunes the acidity' -- not sure what that would be?
Still waiting for my Super Tuscan kit to arrive (it made it to Bakersfield CA early this morning but not expected at my door till tomorrow. I'm guessing Super Tuscan got the same RC-212 yeast as all their kits seem to have?
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Skins?
The supplemental notes state: "The safety tabs are directional and should be pulled in the direction of the arrow on the cap."
In this video, they state it's acid to get the starter to have similar pH to the wine, so as not to shock the yeast when putting the starter into the wine. Making A Yeast Starter - YouTube
I read that too. Didn't make since to me. It was like you mean the direction of the arrow on the cap I'm holding in my hand? The pull tab worked fine for me though. Overall I think the instruction booklet is well done. While many of us don't require that level of detail any more, I couldn't help but remember when I first started with kits and how confusing the generic instructions were. I got through them mostly with the help of this forum. These instruction will be very helpful to many.
Can you imagine if this was your first introduction to home wine making 
WE & RJS would never sell another Kit. The booklet is great and they continue to work out the kinks and verbiage (why am I starting to feel like a Guinea pig 
?). Still a great experience, that has been well done!
I would like to see Matteo & Matt to go back after all this, and redo their video series addressing all the call outs, and the snip-it’s that were left out and now identified NOW, if the wine can live up to everyones expectations 
wouldn’t the be something...
WE & RJS would never sell another Kit. The booklet is great and they continue to work out the kinks and verbiage (why am I starting to feel like a Guinea pig ?). Still a great experience, that has been well done!I would like to see Matteo & Matt to go back after all this, and redo their video series addressing all the call outs, and the snip-it’s that were left out and now identified
NOW, if the wine can live up to everyones expectations wouldn’t the be something...
Spencerthebuilder
Member
Yes on the RC-212. Perhaps he could re-define Safety tab to just be pull tab. After emptying the bag with a slice, I pulled the tab. Thought I would rip the tab off without getting it open. If the bag was full certainly I would have worn a couple of ounces of concentrate. I'm guessing the whole cap has more to do with filling the bag than us emptying it. A clip of the corner works just fine.
And to help us un-learn our bad habits, too.
Spencerthebuilder
Member
Can you imagine if this was your first introduction to home wine making
I love it when a small guy goes out and raises the bar higher for the well established big guy. I'll support him. Seems to be a quality product. Just hope he keeps the value in it and doesn't raise prices.
I would like to see Matteo & Matt to go back after all this, and redo their video series addressing all the call outs, and the snip-it’s that were left out and now identified
i wondered about this too. If you look closely at the inside white plastic under the pull tab you’ll see the arrow that basically says to pull the tab in a direction away from the base of the ring (where it attaches to the tab you’re pulling off). Even doing that with my merlot, the ring still broke in my hand and I had to cut it open.
I didn’t know about the arrow with my Cab, so I just grabbed the ring and pulled. Came off no problem.
my wine
Write your epic; live your dream
I have the Zin kit with double skins. I let the skins cold soak for 3 days in a sealed bucket while the outside temps were cool/cold. I pitched the yeast starter into the must around 11:30 PM on the 12th once the must warmed to an appropriate temp. At 8:30 this morning , less than 36 hours later, the SG was at 1.065. I will most likely add the 2nd packet of nutrient later today.
The instructions say to check the SG around the 72 hour mark and it should be at 1.06 and then you add the 2nd nutrient pack. Clearly it doesn't take that long. One should check SG daily after pitching the yeast starter to get the 2nd nutrient packet in timely.
The instructions say to check the SG around the 72 hour mark and it should be at 1.06 and then you add the 2nd nutrient pack. Clearly it doesn't take that long. One should check SG daily after pitching the yeast starter to get the 2nd nutrient packet in timely.
Wine has its own schedule. It sometimes takes longer, other times (like here) shorter. Go with SG markers as your guide always.
I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way but I often wonder why people who make wine from grapes still do kits. It's much less expensive to make it from grapes and even more economical to make it from juice buckets. I usually save all my money for grape season.
That’s a fair question Fred. I don’t do buckets myself - kits and grapes. I do grapes in fall and kits year round. I find doing wine from grapes runs me about $6.50 a bottle, while kits run about $3.50 a bottle. I need to get better at winemaking from grapes before I abandon kits.
I can't quite get the math right. $3.50 a bottle come to $105.00 for a kit, with shipping. Haven't bought one in years but thought they were more than that. Just checked last year's prices and $40.00 per lug was the high end. So it would be $120.00 for 3 lugs which usually give me more than 6 gallons. But being able to make it year round may have it's advantages.
