First Batch ever!

[Sailor323]

I seriously doubt that any kit wine would last 15 years. It has been pointed out that ABV, acid, tannins, fruit quality, vinification techniques, grape variety all contribute to how long a wine might last. Wine kits take most of that out of the equation for the home winemaker. Face it, the best grapes are saved for the best wines, not concentrates. I recently opened a 19 year old Concord that was very good and I have a few bottles of decent Foch from 2005. Those are the exceptions and certainly not kit wines. I would expect 5 years for a kit wine. Kits do not yield fine wines, they do yield very decent, pleasant wines at a good price.

 

[Rice_Guy]

A guess is that surviving to old age has as much to do with dumb luck as anything else since we don’t run kits as if a science experiment, ,,

My example is mom’s 1978 black raspberry which was cleaned out of her basement in 2001 or ‘02 when I took her carboys. First of all the carboy had a good solid seal, (a peach next to it leaked and was a wonderful peach vinegar). Flavor was excellent, it lived in a cool farmhouse basement/ dark/ minimal ullage/ was never opened/ and if I was guessing the metabisulphite probably started on the high side when last racked in ‘79. Finally we had raspberries on the farm so mom probably ran high on the pounds fruit per gallon (high flavor/ acid). ,,, all these are technical choices which we can control.

Kits, ,,, if we had the motivation we could do the technical things, push the pH lower/ run the solids high (as if grown in a dry AVA), let it in a sealed carboy in a cool, dark wine cave/ run the metabisulphite high. ,,, We don’t determine the starting flavor (processing damage to fruit flavors before we bought the kit), ,,, we control how fast flavor is lost once we make it.

I seriously doubt that any kit wine would last 15 years. It has been pointed out that ABV, acid, tannins, fruit quality, vinification techniques, grape variety all contribute to how long a wine might last. Wine kits take most of that out of the equation for the home winemaker. Face it, the best grapes are saved for the best wines, not concentrates. I recently opened a 19 year old Concord that was very good and I have a few bottles of decent Foch from 2005. Those are the exceptions and certainly not kit wines. I would expect 5 years for a kit wine. Kits do not yield fine wines, they do yield very decent, pleasant wines at a good price.

 

[The green Dragon]

Ok so the abc cab is aging now. Im going to start a merlot, and a shiraz. We will see what happens. Ill keep you up to date on the progress of the first batch abc cab

 

[The green Dragon]

Just want to make sure im reading my hydrometer right. Is this .996?

 

[sour_grapes]

Just want to make sure im reading my hydrometer right. Is this .996?

Looks more like 0.994 to me, i.e., your stick appears closer to the 0.990 line than the 1.000 line. But I could be misreading where you think you are pointing.

 

[winemaker81]

I agree with Paul -- it looks like 0.994. I don't like the color coded hydrometers, all the pictures make it appear they're harder to read.

There is a thread on reading the hydrometer. It's worth reading.

 

[Bossbaby]

looks like .994 the .990 starts at the longer line under it.