RJ Spagnols First Kit: Banana Pineapple Viognier

[Wade E]

Just be careful with the solid bung as atmospheric pressure changes could pop a solid bung out, you will want to tape it down or weight it down and your wine will not degas this way either.

 

[jeepbabe]

Just an update on my first two batches. Yesterday the Banana Pineapple
Viognier hit the 14 day mark and was at 1.0 yesterday. I will wait to
check it again on Sunday. Checked the Peach Chardonnay yesterday as
well (day 13) and it was at 1.0 so we will wait until Sunday to check
again. We just used the spigot to fill up our test tube- will that make
any difference in our sample?



Even though I was looking forward to doing the next step I was so happy
to finally get to taste my first wine samples. The Banana Pineapple
Viognier was surprisingly good for being so young and the Peach
Chardonnay wasn't bad but it definitely has a way to go.



vcasey: I bought my husband the Mead book you recommended from George
(as well as more wine kits!) His mead is chugging along. He recently
got into beer making which is why I got interested in wine making. We
are taking a beer making class together next weekend and we are probably
going to take the wine making course they offer as well. It sure is a
great hobby to do together!

 

[vcasey]

I was very surprised at how good the BPV came out. My last experience with with this type of kit was being compared to cough medicine and the kit lost. So I was and still am a bit cautious with these mist type kits. We have force carbed the rest and will be bottling tomorrow (I hope) so I'll have pics under my thread once we've finished.
Have hubby checkout the recipe for Fall's Bounty Cyser. It is simply outstanding. Here is a link to the one I have going now http://forum.finevinewines.com//forum_posts.asp?TID=8265

 

[jeepbabe]

Well today (day 16) my Banana Pineapple is still at 1.0 just like it was two days ago. Is this typical? Should I wait a few more days and check again or should I proceed to step 2? What if it doesn't move over the next few days? It seems to be stuck at that number.

What should I do??? Thanks for your help!

 

[ibglowin]

What is the temp of the must? Are you stirring the must well before taking the S.G.? You should be in order to get a good accurate reading. If your taking a reading from the spigot without stirring that could bias your reading on the high side.

 

[jeepbabe]

I haven't been stirring- just been drawing it from the spigot. I am going to mix it up and draw using my wine thief this time. The must temperature was 67 F today however during most of the fermentation it has been over 70 F.

Thanks for your help. I'll be sure to update after my readings.

 

[Wade E]

If its stopped at that sg I wouldnt really worry about it, maybe just back off adding all the f-pac and go by taste as you should do anyway so that you dont go beyond the sweetness you like because at that point you have 6 gallons of wine that is too sweet for you!

 

[Wade E]

By the way, do you have a drill mounted stirrer? If not this is most likely the reason why the bentonite clumped. This stuff really has to go in slow while stirring the heck out of it at the same time!

 

[jeepbabe]

I stirred and took a reading with my wine thief. Interestingly it went up.

Here's my current reading: 1.02 (temperature 68 F)

I did read that you should try to draw a clean sample as particles can give a higher reading. I am just going to wait it out two more days and read again on Tuesday. Tuesday will be day 18 of primary fermentation.

 

[ibglowin]

I would warm up the temp a little to at least 70 and 72-74 would be even better.

 

[vcasey]

I agree with Mike about warming it up a bit. Kits need to be in the 73-75 range. Mine just dropped. I started it on 2/18 and bottled the first half on 3/10 and the average temps were 73-77.

 

[jeepbabe]

Thanks everyone! When I was at work today my husband took the bucket and placed it the bathtub with warm water and it started going again!

The bucket is now reading 75 degrees.

We will probably let it go until tomorrow and take another reading. I'll update again tomorrow with the new reading. Thanks for all the input. I promise to post pictures when it is all done!

 

[ibglowin]

If you don't have a brew belt you can use a heating pad set on low. Either wrap it around the primary or just set it on top of it. Just make sure nothing leaks on it!

 

[DirkDiggler]

Hello,
I am with Jeepbabe

.
As she has been explaining we have been having issues with BPV staying at 1.000. Well, today I decided to measure plain ol' water from the tap.

I got: 1.003 @ 64F or 1.0034 corrected.

I then used the filtered water from the fridge (I need to replace the filter as the red light is on)

I got: 1.004 @ 49F or 1.0035 corrected.

ok, so that is an overshoot of 0.0034 to 0.0035! This would be considered way off in my opinion. I triple checked the measurements and read from the water level and not the meniscus due to surface tension! Even if I did error and read at the surface tension, the reading would have been around 1.002!

Went to the store and bought distilled water. The reading is 1.003@62F. Therefore, I believe the hydrometer I have is off. I wonder if anyone else has this issue too. Could I have done something to make it off. I am careful dropping the hydrometer into the test beaker, but maybe I shifted the rolled paper with the readings??

So either (or both!) of two things is happening. 1) hydrometer is off or 2) the city water adds a tiny tiny bit of sugar. Even though I filtered, I need to replace the filter.

Therefore, I am going to get some filtered bottled water and give it a go! When we did the wine kits we used Deer Park Spring Water.

In any event, if the reading is off. Our wine was ready to bottle on the 14th or almost 2 weeks as the kits state. We are approaching week 3 in the primary.

 

[vcasey]

The must for wine kits needs to be 72-75 or so to ferment out. So if your must is cooler the first thing I would do is warm that baby up a bit by using a brew belt, heating pad, or just moving it to a warmer location.
As far as the hydrometer goes, I have 3 and each measures a bit differently. Not much but there is a difference.
The choice of water is always up for debate and I'm sure Peter, our water guy will chime in. But most of what I have read says if you like the taste of your water from the tap it's fine for making wine, if not buy water. Just not distilled because it does not have the nutrients needed for a nice clean ferment.
If your BPV is still in the primary after 3 weeks, you may seriously want to rack it to a secondary container (carboy or BB) to protect the wine.
When I made this a couple of months ago it did finish rather quickly. It could have been bottled at the 3 week mark. I bottled half it right at 4 weeks and the rest a month later.
Something tells me the city adding sugar to water would not be a smart thing ...........

 

[DirkDiggler]

The temp flux has been as low as 68 and as high as 76 upstairs. When the must was first fermenting, the temp on the side said 80 degrees. For the past week I have kept the external environment about 75 degrees. I also have the brew belts. We get the occasional bubble but really, there is almost no change in readings since most of the sugar has been used up.

As for the distilled water, I only got it this one time just to use in the hydrometer only. For our wine, we used Deer Park Spring Water so that none of the nutrients are stripped out (same for my beer). The water in our tap has a slight bleach taste and I would never use that.

I am completely convinced that the hydrometer is off by at least .002 and at most .003. If I take this error into account. The OG = 1.057 and the FG is 0.998 and it took 2 weeks to get to the FG (ABV= 7.78). However, I didn't think to try the hydrometer in plain water first.

Tonight, we are going to rack into a secondary and carry on with the directions. Also, I think I verified that city didn't add any sugar

It is going to be lots of fun! We also did a Peach Chardonnay with 2# corn sugar. With correcting for temp and mis-calibration
OG = 1.072
FG = 0.995
ABV = 10.02

 

[PeterZ]

I'm sure the city did not add any sugar to the water. Not only would this be very expensive, it would promote bacterial growth, requiring more chlorine. Any dissolved solids in the water will raise the specific gravity. How high is the mineral content in your water? Mineral content varies around the country, and in some places is very high.


As far as what water to use, if you drink your tap water, use it. Even high chlorine is not a serious problem, because the organic solids in the must will consume it. If you prefer bottled water at home, use bottled water. Avoid distilled water as it has no taste and can make the wine taste flat.

 

[DirkDiggler]

Thanks Peter,
That is a good tip about the tap water. I was kind of scared to use it since it does have a very slight bleach smell. You really notice it in large volumes, like filling buckets.

 

[ibglowin]

Remember you are using a $6 mass produced item. If its only off by 0.002 that's actually pretty amazing.

In reality its not meant to be used as an absolute measurement just more or less an indicator of how things are progressing along from start to finish

 

[robie]

It is a good idea to always have a second hydrometer around, anyway; that way you can compare readings and you won't ever break one.