Finer Wine Kit Finer Wine Kits

[joeswine]

Way to complex for me,numbers after alphabets.
To old .

 

[David Violante]

Way to complex for me,numbers after alphabets.
To old .

LOL 89.6 - 95 F

 

[jgmann67]

I’m tempted to order a chard and sauv Blanc... But if I keep buying these finer wine kits, I’m not going to have money for fresh grapes this fall.

 

[mainshipfred]

I’m tempted to order a chard and sauv Blanc... But if I keep buying these finer wine kits, I’m not going to have money for fresh grapes this fall.

Um, excuse me!

 

[jgmann67]

Um, excuse me!

it’s fine. I’m fighting that temptation.

 

[winemaker81]

I am not going to use the Sorbate, partly because I'm using bentonite and partly because I don't plan to back-sweeten.

Is there a negative interaction between bentonite and sorbate?

 

[Old Corker]

Beginning SG was 1.100 on the nose.

I'm curious about the beginning SG numbers. I got 1.095 from my Sangiovese kit before I added the skins. I pitched the yeast 24hrs after adding skins but did not take another SG before pitching. Are others taking two readings? Getting any increase from the skins? I usually get an increase in SG from the typical skins packs from WE and RJS but these are difference. I tasted one from the Finer Wines kit before adding to the must. I detected no sweetness by tasting. I did bite into it and got a bitter taste from the seed.

 

[MarcOlivetti]

I didn’t see an increase in SG the next day after adding Skins, before pitching the Yeast. ST was 1.112 after stirring the must and the same the next day after skins (added skins after stirring & starting SG). The Cabernet was also the same 1.110 before & after too. Way different than when adding RJS jammy Skin Packs which always have added to the SG.

 

[David Violante]

I'm curious about the beginning SG numbers. I got 1.095 from my Sangiovese kit before I added the skins. I pitched the yeast 24hrs after adding skins but did not take another SG before pitching. Are others taking two readings? Getting any increase from the skins? I usually get an increase in SG from the typical skins packs from WE and RJS but these are difference. I tasted one from the Finer Wines kit before adding to the must. I detected no sweetness by tasting. I did bite into it and got a bitter taste from the seed.

My Zin was 1.100 pre- and post- skin pack.

 

[heatherd]

Started my Super Tuscan and Cabernet Sauvignon yesterday, both with double skins. I have to say I really like the smaller juice bag format from a lugging stuff around standpoint. I bought 10 gallons of distilled water per the instructions so that was easy. Did my yeast starter for 30 hours and that was obviously jumping. The dried skins are lovely and smell delish! Also like that they give you oak chips specifically for primary and oak cubes for aging. So far so good - my only compunctions are: using the superkleer, whether to put it under airlock during rapid fermentation as they did in the video, and using sorbate. I guess I will follow the instructions on these two and see how it goes.

 

[David Violante]

Is there a negative interaction between bentonite and sorbate?

Bryan, thank you for pointing this out...

I've had it in my head that there was some negative consequence of using Bentonite and Sorbate. Alas I cannot find it anywhere. Literally. Actually I've found more of the opposite, to not use Bentonite unless truly necessary. RobS asked Scott Labs and Lallemande the question about Bentonite and Pectic Enzyme in this post and the ones that followed. Purdue Extension has a fact sheet about Bentonite that explains it well also. I was under the impression that using Bentonite would provide yeast a better place to do their work, help in clearing, and help in stability. It seems that there are many more cons than pros.

Bentonite and Sorbate? I will have to plead the 5th. I cannot find it in my notes, nor in a search here, nor in the Journals. @Spencerthebuilder don't listen to my ramblings about Bentonite and Sorbate. I'm going to slowly take it off the shelf behind my back while everyone is reading this....

 

[Sailor323]

I'm curious about the beginning SG numbers. I got 1.095 from my Sangiovese kit before I added the skins. I pitched the yeast 24hrs after adding skins but did not take another SG before pitching. Are others taking two readings?

I did not take a reading after adding the skins. I racked both of my kits today. SG for both .994 6 days after pitching the yeast!

 

[SLM]

Hi @mainshipfred hope you're well!

Making red wine all year is a valid advantage, like you say. These are also great options for folks who don't have all the equipment and testing for grapes, don't have access to fresh local grapes or juice.

These new Finer Wine 6-gallon red kits have yeast, yeast starter, oak, nutrients, all chems, non-pasteurized juice, and two ginormous fresh skin packs, shipped cold to me for $114, including shipping. Everything is engineered to go together, everything is pH-balanced, and the instructions are 10 pages. That would be roughly $20 per gallon for a brand new type of kit without kit taste.

For me to do red in the off-season it would be working with 5 gallons of frozen must, like from Wine Grapes Direct and theirs are $225 including shipping, not necessarily balanced, need chems, need $20 MLF bacteria, need yeast, I press by hand, etc. So that would be roughly $59 a gallon.

Juice + All-grape pack would work, too. Walkers has 5 gallon cab juice shipped to me for $132. The grape pack shipped to me is $44. Need chems, need MLB $20, need yeast. So that's $196 for 5 gallons, or $39/gallon.

Walker's chardonnay is 5 gallons shipped to me for $119. So $23.60 per gallon.

The fresh stuff picked up locally in Spring and Fall is really the way to go. That gets your bucket into the $65 range and the lugs in the $40 range for 6 gallons. not necessarily balanced, need chems, need $20 MLF bacteria, need yeast. That's $125 or $21/gallon.

Finer added some6-gallon whites recently. Their whites again include all chems and are balanced, shipped to me for $86. That's $14/gallon.

I would normally do whites as fresh juice that I pick up locally for about $65 + chems. That's $11/gallon.

Food for thought, anyway.

Not exactly on topic, but still related to economics, I just read an article on US grape statistics. 2019 figures, but enlightening.

"In California, the statewide average price for a ton of Cab was $1,769 — not that much more than in Washington state. However, in the Napa Valley, the average price per ton was $8,008. A rough industry estimate projects that a bottle of Napa Valley Cab would go for an average of $80 vs. about $17 for a Washington-grown Cab."

Early freeze, drop in demand lead to smallest harvest for Washington wine since 2012 - Great Northwest Wine

 

[heatherd]

I got my pull tab to open, using the arrow even!

Then I promptly spilled a tablespoon or two of super-concentrated extract, damn, I've poured 18 liters with less of a mess. Still wound up at 1.098 after a good stirring. I tasted the skins and they had flavor but almost no sugar so I don't expect much of any gravity boost from the double pack (but I will get a bit of a boost from the 12 oz. of dried raisins and apricots I added, see below). I liked that the skins did not include seeds like the RJS EP sweet and jammy skins do.

Yeast starter from last night wanted to foam over but did not breach the fabric which covered it (as it was rubber banded in place).

Besides using BM4X4 yeast and not starting the must till just before yeast pitch I also added 8 oz. + 4 oz. of organic non-sulfured raisins + apricots (since I did the same with the RJS EP Super Tuscan which I'm trying to compare to). As I racked then squeezed then emptied the jammy skin plus raisin/aprictot muslin sacks from the RJS batch, I tasted an apricot and a raisin (which were in for 25 days) and they had both given up their sweetness to the yeast / wine.

I ended up doing my starters in tall pint tumblers with a paper towel on the top and didn't have an issue with foaming over.

I agree on the skins, these are lovely!

 

[joeswine]

Rack my Sanginovese with skins tonight ,there I'll let it sit for a week before moving forward.
Very easy kit little messy I also had a problem with the pull tab and yes cutting off a corner is another way to control the process.

 

[Boatboy24]

I ended up doing my starters in tall pint tumblers with a paper towel on the top and didn't have an issue with foaming over.

Ha! I did the exact same thing!

 

[my wine]

I'm curious about the beginning SG numbers. I got 1.095 from my Sangiovese kit before I added the skins. I pitched the yeast 24hrs after adding skins but did not take another SG before pitching. Are others taking two readings? Getting any increase from the skins? I usually get an increase in SG from the typical skins packs from WE and RJS but these are difference. I tasted one from the Finer Wines kit before adding to the must. I detected no sweetness by tasting. I did bite into it and got a bitter taste from the seed.

I took an SG reading before adding a double pack of skins and 4 days later (cold soaked) before I pitched the yeast starter. SG was 1.100 both times. Not that that's a bad thing.

 

[G259]

I ordered my Zin kit (/w 2xskins) on Sunday night, I got it today (Wed.), at 10:45, standard shipping. OH to MA is not a huge distance, but I am very pleased. (Oh yeah, and probably twice the juice than that low priced Chardonnay that I bought!) Thanks everyone, I looked to this site to find a reputable company, I haven't even started the wine yet, and I don't think it will disappoint!

 

[MarcOlivetti]

I racked both the Super Tuscan (ST) & Cabernet with Skins over to Big Mouth Bubblers last night at 1.014 and 1.010 SG. Having the wide mouths made moving the Skins in 2 muslin bags much easier. The plan is to leave the skins on for another 6 weeks for EM.

There’s more headspace than I would like, but when the bags of Skins rise, it will give then room for now. I did add the 1/4 tsp of K-Meta, just out of habit when racking, hope it doesn’t hurt The Cabernet had quite a bit more lees than the ST as you can see. I’m wondering if I should add the Oak cubes in now? or wait?? Thoughts ?

 

[winemaker81]

There’s more headspace than I would like, but when the bags of Skins rise, it will give then room for now.

Don't sweat the head space as long as you have active fermentation. This is no different from being in the primary.

If it were me, I'd have waited until the wine was at 0.998 to 1.000 before racking the first time. Some go all the way to "done", a minor difference in opinion. However, you kept the skin packs, and that's what's important, as it gives the wine more contact time. [My comment here is just food for thought.]

I'd wait until you rack off the gross lees to add cubes. The question has been asked if having cubes resting in gross lees affects the way the oak flavors the wine. I do not have an answer to that, but if the cubes are covered in sediment, it makes sense that this will reduce the effectiveness. Besides, if you put cubes in now, you'll need to clean them after racking off gross lees.

I'm lazy, so I don't do things that make extra work for me!