Cellar Craft First Wine

[snow1510]

I have started my first wine as of 7/29/2011. I have the basic wine making supplies.


I started with the Cellar Craft Red Moutain Cab. Since it is my first kit i wanted to follow the directions to the T.


I have been brewing beer for about 4 years. I am very familiar with the whole sterilization protocal and way fermentation should go. The only question i have is about the fermentation procedure for the wine is do i stir while it is fermenting or not. I have the grape skins in a bag with two shot glasses to help it sink to the bottom. (I used to do this when i would dry hop a beer.)I figured this would help in the extractionof tannins and all around grapeconcentration due to the constant grape skin contactwith the juice. I also put the skins in the bag to keep the cap from forming that way i would not take the chance of contaiminating the way by accident once fermentation started. (I had a co-worker tell me that it is critical that i stir because fermentation will not complete without this step, which i never stirred beer during fermentation and never had a problem.)


My question isdo i stir or not. If so how often and how much doI stir. Ifsomeone couldpleaseenlighten me on the issue i would be greatly indebbted to you.I have read other posts and watched videos but it is not clear which is best to stir or not to stir?


Also, do i ferment till dry in the primary and then transfer over?


Fermentation started 7/30/2011 and is going strong. It had as SG of 1.084 which seemed a little low to me but maybe not. (I am used to only fermenting to 1.000 and then racking it to the secondary for about 2 months with my beer.)


I knowthis is kind of jumbled but if someone could answer these couple of question thatwould be great.


Sincerely,

 

[ibglowin]

Hey Jeremy,

Welcome to the forums and very glad you found us!

You picked a great kit for your first one out of the gates. Excellent choice. Everything sounds like its going great and I see no problems. Yes, stir your must gently 2-4 x a day when its in active fermentation (first 5 days or so) If your grape pack does end up staying submerged, all the better, you want to keep the skins under so it will extract as much tannin as possible. You can also use a your stirring spoon to kinda smash it a bit to assist in the process.During the active fermentation period all you need to do is lay the lid on top and cover the hole with a paper towel. No need to snap the lid until it slows down around day 5-6 or so. Then snap the lid and add the airlock with sulfite solution.

The Cellar Craft instructions have changed recently in that they want you to go completely dry in the bucket for up to day 12 or so. This will give maximum contact time with the skins and your wine should be well below 1.000. When things slow down you can drop the stirring to 1-2 times a day. Again gentle stir for 10-15 secs. Check your SG every few days or so to make sure its headed down, keep it warm at least 70 and its ok if it goes up over 80. The main thing is to sanitize your spoon, hydrometer etc before it goes into the must. A spray bottle filled with sulfite solution works great for this.

This is a big kit that will take 18mo to get good and by 2 years it will be quite amazing. I have made 2 of them now and my 2nd is even better than the first.

Also never top up with water. After you rack off the gross lees and again after you rack of the fines use a similar wine. For this kit, the Columbia Crest Two Vines series of wines is an excellent choice. It comes from WA State and its priced right!

Again welcome aboard and don't hesitate to ask questions, were here to help!

 

[robie]

Welcome to the forum.

With this excellent kit, when it starts foaming and really bubbling, it is unlikely two shot glasses will keep that grape pack submerged; there is so much CO2 bubbling up. Like Mike said, keep it and the foam stirred under. After about 5 days, the CO2 production will start to lessen a bit, so the grape pack with the added weight will more likely stay submerged; just make sure that it does.

With this kit, given proper aging time time, you are going to end up a happy camper.