Hello. I am brand new to wine kit making and had the misfortune of receiving, not just one, but two straight leaking EP Cab Sauv boxes. The last one appears to have most of the wine in the bag (90%+), but the boxes are covered inside and out in sticky wine. I am worried over spoilage and realize it may be years before I can really see how it came out. I also will never really know what it is supposed to taste like. I wanted to see what success you have had when making leaking boxes of wine? Being new to this, I want to start with my best foot forward and this has really dampered my feelings about this. Appreciate any advice.
RJ Spagnols Leaking Wine Kits
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Hi Gekko, welcom to the forum.
That is really a bad break. You are saying two kits of En Premier?! They are not cheap. If you bought them from George, I would contact him immediately. I would also examine the boxes to see if you can see the source of the leaks, i.e. are the bags punctured? is the box punctured? are the bags leaking around the caps?
Luckily, I have never had this problem. The worst thing I have had was some wine in the box that was a little sticky. I think the bags are probably placed in the box before being filled and the filler missed the opening. The cap was on good and tight and there were no leaks in the bag so I felt safe.
That is really a bad break. You are saying two kits of En Premier?! They are not cheap. If you bought them from George, I would contact him immediately. I would also examine the boxes to see if you can see the source of the leaks, i.e. are the bags punctured? is the box punctured? are the bags leaking around the caps?
Luckily, I have never had this problem. The worst thing I have had was some wine in the box that was a little sticky. I think the bags are probably placed in the box before being filled and the filler missed the opening. The cap was on good and tight and there were no leaks in the bag so I felt safe.
Gekko,
Thinking a little further, if the cap is on tight and there are no holes in the bag, this may not be a leak but sloppy filling of the bag. If this is the case, you can probably make the wine from the kit.
In any case, I would contact George or one of his guys for guidance. I am sure you will be satisfied.
Thinking a little further, if the cap is on tight and there are no holes in the bag, this may not be a leak but sloppy filling of the bag. If this is the case, you can probably make the wine from the kit.
In any case, I would contact George or one of his guys for guidance. I am sure you will be satisfied.
Wow! Glad to get such fast replies! I have been working with George on this issue. He actually replaced the first one with the second very quickly. After getting the second, he recommends I go ahead and make it. I am not thrilled and it does make me question how I can comfortably order RJ anymore via FedEx, but George has been great throughout. There is a hole that the wine is flowing thru. Tiny and doesnt run if the wine is left still and propped I notice. At a minimum at least several cups have spilled IMO. The wine also stained the outside of the packing box so had to be in transit this occurred. I am conflicted by feeling bad for George cause this has to be costing him some $ but on the other hand I want a good initial experience. Has anyone made wine in a situation like this successfuly? Would you veterans do it?
George indicated over a year ago that sometimes the bags leaked because of a manufacturing defect. I am surprised it has not been cleared up by now. I made an EP Delu Ranch Cab over a year ago and about 5 % if the must had leaked out. George had me make the wine, anyway.
Gekko, the leak will not affect your wine's taste, other than you might have had to add a little more water to get to 6 gallons of must. That, of course could affect the mouth fill. Even though some liquid leaked out doesn't mean anything bad could have gotten inside. Your wine will be great.
Gekko, the leak will not affect your wine's taste, other than you might have had to add a little more water to get to 6 gallons of must. That, of course could affect the mouth fill. Even though some liquid leaked out doesn't mean anything bad could have gotten inside. Your wine will be great.
Gekko, given what you have stated here, I would go ahead with and make the wine. I would pour what you have into your primary, see how much it is and reduce the amount of water proportionately so that the wine is not too thin.
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I am assuming that you kept the first leaking bag of juice. Now you have a second. You could use one bag to get the proper amount in the first to make full strength and possibly make the second one albeit a bit smaller than the first. You will need to adjust the amount of water, What do you have to lose? You could get another bucket and you may need a second carboy, but hey, with this hobby you will soon have a lot more. I have almost 100 carboys, barrels and stainless tanks.
You could also start both of them seperately in their own bucket. For a second carboy, I would get a 5 gallon. That way you will take into consideration the bit of juice you lost. Good luck with it and keep us informed.
You could also start both of them seperately in their own bucket. For a second carboy, I would get a 5 gallon. That way you will take into consideration the bit of juice you lost. Good luck with it and keep us informed.
Don't worry about George, he can file a claim for damages through FedEx and get reimbursed. I would taste the must and as long as it taste fine make the wine!
Oh and welcome to the FVW Forums!
Oh and welcome to the FVW Forums!
Thanks everyone for the advice and encouragement to plod ahead! This is a great forum, as one can tell by all the positive comments throughout! 100 carboys Applemen?!? I thought I was being bold starting out with 2!! Ha ha. Thanks again everyone. I plan on getting started today!
Appleman has finally done what most of us only dream of and cant because we dont have the time, money or ambition to do and opened up his own winery with tons of vines so he needs all the carboys and big tanks as he can get!!!!!
Why couldn't I have been born richinstead of so damned good looking!
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I was lucky enough to be born and to this day remain without either of those attributes. Don't think I am Rich, that is just a name and why on another forum I am knotsorich.
So I went ahead and made my first batch of EP Cab Sauv! Pretty excited. I have 3 quick questions I was hoping you could help me with. Considering the leak issue, I had a specific gravity of 1.10 and I noticed the taste of the juice was very sweet. Very much like a highly sweetened grape juice. Is that what I should have noted to start with? For the record I lost about a liter of wine in the end. I tried to proportionally keep the water and wine content about the same. Figure to top off in carboy back to 23 liters later. 2 other questions. Do I seal the lids on the primary during fermentation? I am loosely covering now per George but I do see conflicting info out there. Last question is I used Star San as a sanitizer in a spray bottle. Can I keep the spray bottle contents for extended time, i.e. 6 months, or does the sanitizer dissapate quickly? I think there are 3 total questions in there. Thanks for any advice!
1.10 is in the upper range of OG's (original starting SG's). The sweet taste of the must is normal. The sweeter, the higher the ending ABV.Gekko4321 said:
No need. The must will be saturated with CO2 until you degas at the stabilizing step, so no worries there.
No idea. My sanitizer has to be replenished every couple of weeks at the most!
Gekko,
With an SG of 1.100, you can expect an ABV of around 13.2% in the final wine. If this is something that you like, leave it as is. If you would like something a little lower, say 12.5%, you could add water to the fermenter SLOWLY until you hit an SG of 1.095. This would increase your final yield slightly and give you a very nice ABV for a Cabernet Sauvignon.
I am not familiar with Star San, but I suspect it is either Sodium or Potassium Metabisulfite. Check the price of these chemicals in George's catalog vs. what you are paying for the Star San.
Good going in moving ahead with the wine. I am sure you will be happy you did. If nothing else, you will learn a lot about the process.
With an SG of 1.100, you can expect an ABV of around 13.2% in the final wine. If this is something that you like, leave it as is. If you would like something a little lower, say 12.5%, you could add water to the fermenter SLOWLY until you hit an SG of 1.095. This would increase your final yield slightly and give you a very nice ABV for a Cabernet Sauvignon.
I am not familiar with Star San, but I suspect it is either Sodium or Potassium Metabisulfite. Check the price of these chemicals in George's catalog vs. what you are paying for the Star San.
Good going in moving ahead with the wine. I am sure you will be happy you did. If nothing else, you will learn a lot about the process.
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