Mosti Mondiale MM Renaissance Amarone

[fivebk]

Yesturday the Fedex man was kind enough to deliver my order from george. It is an MM Renaissance Amarone. I know many of you have made this kit and I have one question. Can I start this kit in a 7.9 gallon primary bucket without having it erupt out of the bucket. This will be the very first really nice kit I have made and I don't want to lose a drop !!

BOB

 

[vcasey]

That is an outstanding kit and I think you will be pleased with the results. It is also because of the posts I read prior to purchasing this kit that I picked up a 10 gallon fermenter. I am so glad I did because it came almost to the top of that one and would had over flowed the smaller fermenter. If you have 2 of the smaller fermenter you can split of the batch and the combine them one it slows down.

 

[ibglowin]

Hi Bob,

I have made the MM All Juice version of this kit in my 7.9 gallon bucket. The problems usually arise with the addition of yeast nutrient and oak and MM recommended transfer to glass (all in one fell swoop no less) at SG ~ 1.04

Your first few days (1-4) once it gets going make sure you watch the temps and don't let it get away from you temp wise, try and keep it below 74 and no less than 70. Unplug the brewbelt or heating pad if you have to for a few hours if you need to just don't let it get going towards 78. For a few days you may not even need a belt much if any at all. You may also want to add a little less water (under 6 gallons) to lower the volume a tad, you can always top off later.

Do not follow the MM directions and transfer to glass, add nutrients and oak . Instead, add the nutrient and oak into the Primary at ~1.03 and then just let it finish to SG ~1.0 in the primary. When its down to 1.0 you can do the first quick rack and transfer everything over to glass including the oak. The oak can be a pain to transfer so if you don't want to mess with it just leave it out until you transfer to glass. A few days won't matter as you will be leaving the oak in for bulk aging anyway so its all going to get extracted out.

If you are careful and follow these steps your 7.9 gallon primary will hold it all just fine. No wine volcano!

 

[vcasey]

Actually I made the kit before MM started adding the yeast nutrient to the kits. So the active fermentation was not due to that, and all the kits with raisins have had similar results with out the added nutrient, for me anyway. So I would still go with a larger bucket or split the batch with 2 smaller ones. However the advice about not transferring to glass is should really, really be considered.

 

[ibglowin]

I think if you keep the temps down (71-73) you should be OK. You may have some foam hit the top of the primary but it should not boil over. At least that was my experience with the All Juice bucket I made.

YMMV with the Renaissance version I suppose.

 

[robie]

I made this kit. Yep, Mike is right, its the addition of the oak and the nutrient (and at the same time) that made mine balloon.

To start fermentation, use the brew belt. During active fermentation, you should probably unplug it, because it will get pretty warm all by itself. Mine was at 78 in a 65 degree room without the belt. When things slow down you may or may not need the belt; I did need it.

Mike's advice about when to transfer to glass is what I did and it worked great. Some don't transfer to glass until fermentation is finished. Personally, I wish I had left it on the raisins a little longer and I will next time.

The main thing here is to not put in the nutrient and oak, then immediately transfer to glass. In the glass it will go off like a rocket if you do. Its important to put the oak and yeast nutrient in the bucket and make sure it has settled down before ANY transfer to glass.

Transferring the oak to glass was a pain. Next time I will put my oak in a small bag in the bucket and use a Better Bottle for that next stage. My Better Bottle's opening is twice the size of the glass carboy's opening. That's the only time I use a Better Bottle.

Following these instructions, I did mine in a 7.9 gallon bucket. It got close to the top, but didn't go over. Be sure to stir when the directions say to stir. Seems like the act of stirring would settle things down some.

 

[Scott]

Bob did raisins come with your kit?


Imade it in a 10 gal crock to be on the safe side and it didn't froth up too bad during ferm or when adding nutrient and oak so should fit in 7.9.


Man does that juice smell great.

 

[fivebk]

Thanks for all the advice it will be put to use.

Scott, Yes it came with raisins,

By the way does anyone chop the raisins before adding them to the must????

 

[fivebk]

I was looking at the contents of this kit and 180grms of oak sure seem like alot. Is this normal for this kit and how long do you recomend leaving it in the wine.

BOB

 

[robie]

I would chop the raisins up some. I believe I read where George recommends it, but am not sure.

Note: Appleman got a gold medal from this kit. I would certainly try to get his advice. He also bumped up the ABV. Can't argue with a gold medal!

 

[fivebk]

The SG was 1.100 or 15% when I started this kit this morning and I have not added raisins yet.

BOB

 

[robie]

That's about where mine started, but I bumped it up some more.
Here is the link of appleman's comments:
http://forum.finevinewines.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=9131&PN=1

 

[grapeman]

This was indeed a vigorous fermenter. Once it took off, I split it between two buckets until it settled down and then I added them back together. I now have a larger 10 gallon container and will use it soon to start another one I got a while back. I want to keep this one on hand for special occasions when I want a wine better than I can make from my red grapes- although I am working on that and hope to get some super blends going soon.


Good luck with this one Bob and everyone else. I still have one little secret procedure for this one I reserve for myself! mmmmMWMWWAAAAHHHAAAAHHHHAAAAA or however that evil sound goes!

 

[fivebk]

I don't blame you " DR. EVIL ". Never give away all secrets to an award winning wine.

Thanks for the help I started this this morning and it is in a larger fermentor and will get transferred to a smaller one later.

BOB

 

[ibglowin]

Hows the Amarone doing this AM Bob?

You should be hitting F-Max about today?

We should know if the 7.9G bucket was a mistake or not.....

 

[robie]

Hey Bob,

You probably don't remember but I started bulk aging my MM Ren Amarone in late January. It was so tart I couldn't swallow it. I tasted it about two weeks ago and it was much better.

This past weekend we had some friends over who want to start making wine. I stole a small sample of my amarone for them to taste. It was even less tart than two weeks ago and was good enough that my friend finished the glass.

Right now the tartness is a little more than where a finished malbec (one of my favorites) might be. It is going to be good by August and really nice in a year or so.

You will be well pleased with this kit and have something nice to wait on.

 

[fivebk]

Mike, I started this in a larger container and it has behaved very nicely. The SG is down to 1.040 this morning. The temp has stayed right around 72-74 degrees. I think the larger container helped it from building heat thus causing a less agressive fermentation. I did move it to a 7.9 gallon bucket this morning.

BOB

 

[RickC]

Bob,
Based on what it did in the 10 gal bucket, do you think it would have stayed in a 7.9 gal?

 

[fivebk]

Yes I think It would have been just fine in the 7.9 bucket as long as the fermentation temp was controlled.

BOB

 

[fivebk]

Racked to glass on oak yesterday morning with the SG at 1.000This is what it looks like this morning

BOB