Finer Wine Kit Finer Wine Kits

[Brian55]

Speidels are $75 delivered on Amazon. I have two of them, a fermonster, a Big Mouth Bubbler and two 8 gal buckets, Speidel is the best I think. I only use the spigot on rare occasions, but my wife likes to use it to bottle her wine instead of using the AIO pump. The big thing is that the are easy to lift and move around vs the others.

They're the same price from Morewine, without feeding the amazon beast: Speidel Plastic Fermenter - 30L (7.9 gal) | MoreWine

 

[Brian55]

Like I said I’ve never seen one in action so I’m trying to learn. You don’t really use the spigot, so handles are the only difference? What’s the capacity? Fermonsters (7g) are half the price but don’t have handles. When full they are almost dangerous to carry because of the weight. That’s the only drawback in my mind. Do you use your Speidel as the primary or for long term aging?

Primary and bottling. Glass carboys for aging.

 

[She’sgonnakillme]

Like I said I’ve never seen one in action so I’m trying to learn. You don’t really use the spigot, so handles are the only difference? What’s the capacity? Fermonsters (7g) are half the price but don’t have handles. When full they are almost dangerous to carry because of the weight. That’s the only drawback in my mind. Do you use your Speidel as the primary or for long term aging?

That and they are much more rigid, and as you mentioned, the Fermonster is hard to move around comparatively. I have the 30 L versions, and only use it as a primary and extended macerations.

 

[Bmd2k1]

Speidels are $75 delivered on Amazon. I have two of them, a fermonster, a Big Mouth Bubbler and two 8 gal buckets, Speidel is the best I think. I only use the spigot on rare occasions, but my wife likes to use it to bottle her wine instead of using the AIO pump. The big thing is that the are easy to lift and move around vs the others.

Love my Speidels! 2x 30L for fermenting & 6x 20L for bulk aging. I bottle right from the spigot

Cheers!

 

[She’sgonnakillme]

Love my Speidels! 2x 30L for fermenting & 6x 20L for bulk aging. I bottle right from the spigot

Cheers!

Haven’t considered using the 20L for bulk aging, but that might be nice. I hate the glass carboys as the 5 gallon is often too small and the 6 gallon is too large. And it would be the same size as my barrels.

 

[Ohio Bob]

You guys sound like Speidel salesmen, I may have to get a few! I use a 7G bucket, hole drilled in it and a spigot, for bottling. Fermonsters are clear so you can see the foam/bubbling during primary fermentation, otherwise wise I think the Speidel might be the better choice. No downsides at all then?

 

[She’sgonnakillme]

You guys sound like Speidel salesmen, I may have to get a few! I use a 7G bucket, hole drilled in it and a spigot, for bottling. Fermonsters are clear so you can see the foam/bubbling during primary fermentation, otherwise wise I think the Speidel might be the better choice. No downsides at all then?

nope, but I sure do like them a lot more than my others.. I do like the ability to see the must that the Fermonster and BMB’s provide, but the pros way outweigh that option for me.
I rank my fermenters in this order:
1. Spiedel
2. 7.9 gallon bucket
3. Fermonster
4. Big Mouth Bubbler

 

[Old Corker]

Anyone started to drink a Forte Petit Syrah yet?I understand it is a bit early, I just ordered on and am curious

Haven’t tasted it yet. Just moved a double kit batch into my BMBs for EM. I’m doing it along side a WE 14L Piedmont Nebbiola. The difference in body, color and nose is amazing.

 

[jgmann67]

Anyone started to drink a Forte Petit Syrah yet?I understand it is a bit early, I just ordered on and am curious

I had my Tavola PS with dinner a few nights ago. It’s still very young, but did not disappoint.

 

[She’sgonnakillme]

For those of you that have done the Frutta Strawberry kit, curious where you landed as far as the addition of the second pouch of wine conditioner. Did you use the entire second pouch? 1/2?

 

[oppyland]

Don't know if anybody else noticed, but I received an email today - Label Peelers is offering free shipping on FWK for a limited time. I ordered a Forte Merlot. It took some restraint to limit myself to only one!

 

[She’sgonnakillme]

Yes sir….just ordered four more, NICE!!!

 

[cmason1957]

For those of you that have done the Frutta Strawberry kit, curious where you landed as far as the addition of the second pouch of wine conditioner. Did you use the entire second pouch? 1/2?

I haven't made this, but even if I had my answer would be the same. Basically you are asking how much should I backsweeten this wine and the answer has to always be the same to your taste. What I think is balanced and perfect you won't think is enough or you will think is to much. My advice, determine how much is in the second pouch. Now measure out five samples to one add none, to the next add what works out to be 1/4 of the pouch, next gets 1/2 of the pouch, next gets the equivalent of 3/4 of the pouch and finally last one gets the equivalent of all the pouch. Decide for yourself what is the correct amount.

So if you made 23 liters of wine and have 2 liters of pouch full would put in 2/23 (I'd probably round that to 1 / 12) so take a sample size of 120 ml, add 2.5 ml for the 1/4, 5 ml for the half, 7.5 ml for the 3/4 and 10 ml for the full) Or something similar like that. That kind of amount gives you enough for a taste test (shoot lower than you think) and you can check PH/TA if you are so inclined.

 

[Gilmango]

Don't know if anybody else noticed, but I received an email today - Label Peelers is offering free shipping on FWK for a limited time. I ordered a Forte Merlot. It took some restraint to limit myself to only one!

Shipping is free but the kit prices have gone up quite a bit. I ordered a Forte Syrah in December and it was $101.99. Same kit is now $127.49! But I live far away from Ohio so the free shipping makes up the difference. Trouble is when they take away the free shipping and we are just looking at a big price increase. In the meantime I guess I need to buy another FWK! The other kit I'm waiting for is shelf stable (WE LE Marselan) so it can wait.

EDIT - the prices I'm mentioning do NOT include the 10% off some of us early FWK buyers enjoy.

EDIT #2 - Sorry, I seemingly bought the Syrah Forte kit during a year end / holiday sale promotion. Purchased December 1st, 2021. So Forte prices maybe were already raised, but I bought during a sale. So now instead of the kit on sale, I will shop during the free shipping sale. Still a good value either way.

EDIT #3 - And now I've gone and bought 2 more FWKs and going to make my first ever Pinot and Zin. This means I need to either bottle a couple bulk agers, buy a new carboy, and/or find some room in the freezer.

 

[Brian55]

Don't know if anybody else noticed, but I received an email today - Label Peelers is offering free shipping on FWK for a limited time. I ordered a Forte Merlot. It took some restraint to limit myself to only one!

Is there a coupon code? It's not showing free shipping as an option for me

 

[She’sgonnakillme]

Shipping is free but the kit prices have gone up quite a bit. I ordered a Forte Syrah in December and it was $101.99. Same kit is now $127.49! But I live far away from Ohio so the free shipping makes up the difference. Trouble is when they take away the free shipping and we are just looking at a big price increase. In the meantime I guess I need to buy another FWK! The other kit I'm waiting for is shelf stable (WE LE Marselan) so it can wait.

EDIT - the prices I'm mentioning do NOT include the 10% off some of us early FWK buyers enjoy.

I “called it”….it was only a matter of time until they align their pricing closer to the WE and RJS products…I suspect another increase is coming down the road too.

 

[shdixon]

We just bottled these three Finer Wine Kits. 8 months in the carboys. Now, 6-10 months in bottles. The Sangiovese and Zinfandel are fantastic right now. The Super Tuscan needs time to take some of the bitter edge out but you can taste the potential. My wife and I have been making wine for seven years now. We have a thousand bottles in our cellar, all WineExpert until now. I think, unless there is a special WineExpert kit, we will be making all Finer Wines in the future.

 

[oppyland]

Shipping is free but the kit prices have gone up quite a bit. I ordered a Forte Syrah in December and it was $101.99.

The Petit Sirah Forte kit I ordered last September was $126.99 plus shipping. The same kit is about a dollar more right now but there's free shipping. If they went up, it was before then.

Is there a coupon code? It's not showing free shipping as an option for me

The code in the email I got is FWKFREESHIPPING - good luck!

 

[She’sgonnakillme]

I ordered a Forte Cab on 1/5 and paid $113….todays price is $127

 

[oppyland]

I ordered a Forte Cab on 1/5 and paid $113….todays price is $127

Dang - I must've bought high!