WineXpert Newbie- Florida

[Bplewniak]

Hello fellow wine kit making enthusiasts. I'm new to this hobby after attending a dinner party hosted by someone who made their own wine from kits. Im by no means a wine expert but enjoy drinking it.

Since then, I've purchased 6 kits (thank you LP for your 40% discount). I imagine my next purchase will come around Black Friday. Will there be decent deals then?

Carboy- cru international Washington merlot. Followed the kit instructions.

Primary- eclipse Chardonnay. Following kit instructions.

Extended fermentation- eclipse Lodi cab.

On deck- WE Eclipse Sauvignon Blanc, WE Esclipse stags merlot,and WE selection Amerone.

After reading reviews and videos online, I see no downside to the extended fermentation process of 8-12 weeks. I plan to make all my reds this way to start. I also plan to leave out sorbate, potassium metabisulphite and fining agents. These will sit in a carboy for 3 month cycles up to 6-12 months before bottling.


Questions:
1) Being in Florida, what issues do you see me having? I keep my AC on 79.
2) humidity here is always high. Will this be an issue?
3) For my extended fermentation of my Lodi Cab, do you recommend I add the oak cubes to this process (4 days in right now), or add after transferring to a carboy? Oak chips were added on day one that came with the kit.

I appreciate your feedback and I'm thankful for this forum. It's so hard starting out and not having a good inventory. I recently did a Costco run and picked up a few cases to hold me over till my kits mature. I look forward to seeing how these turn out over time. I've enjoyed the process so far and excited to see if I can make a drinkable product to share with friends and family.

 

[Smok1]

I dont think id extend the fermentation process to 8-12 weeks, fermentation should be 2 weeks max for a kit, 12 weeks fermenting is 12 weeks without adding sulphites to protect the wine. It would be hard to make a fermentation last that long anyways unless something was wrong with the yeast or your planning on trying to ferment it in a fridge. I imagine if your house is 79 that you will have quite a fast fermentation, i ferment in my wine room at 65f and takes about 4 days in the primary and maybe 5 days in the secondary and i rack it off the lees and hit it with sulphite as soon as its done. You dont want it sitting on the gross lees for too long after fermentation because thats all dead yeasties and fermented fruits it can give your wine off flavors, after when aging in the carboy it will drop some fine lees, i dont mind letting my wine sit on that for a while.

The oak powders and chips go in primary and the cubes or staves go into the secondary in the kits.

 

[pillswoj]

Do not leave out the metabisulfite, in fact if you are going to do extended bulk aging you will need to add more, 1/4 teaspoon every 3 months.

 

[mainshipfred]

Welcome to the forum. Unless you get some stuck fermentation you should be dry at 2 weeks max probably sooner, especially at 79*. Not sure if you want to keep it on the gross lees too much longer but it appears you are planning on racking it to secondary. Be careful of not adding the K-meta unless you have a way of testing the SO2 levels. Oak is done at different times by different people but commercial wineries by the use of barrels oak after fermentation. I avoid sorbate and clearing agents whenever possible. You better make a few more Costco runs if you plan on aging 9-12 months. Occasionaly I will bottle 5 bottles and put the rest in a 5 gallon carboy. It normally isn't the greatest at 3-6 months but it's something to think about and you have something for topping off.

 

[mainshipfred]

I dont think id extend the fermentation process to 8-12 weeks, fermentation should be 2 weeks max for a kit, 12 weeks fermenting is 12 weeks without adding sulphites to protect the wine. It would be hard to make a fermentation last that long anyways unless something was wrong with the yeast or your planning on trying to ferment it in a fridge. I imagine if your house is 79 that you will have quite a fast fermentation, i ferment in my wine room at 65f and takes about 4 days in the primary and maybe 5 days in the secondary and i rack it off the lees and hit it with sulphite as soon as its done. You dont want it sitting on the gross lees for too long after fermentation because thats all dead yeasties and fermented fruits it can give your wine off flavors, after when aging in the carboy it will drop some fine lees, i dont mind letting my wine sit on that for a while.

The oak powders and chips go in primary and the cubes or staves go into the secondary in the kits.

You type faster them me. I had the exact same advise.

 

[Bplewniak]

Welcome to the forum. Unless you get some stuck fermentation you should be dry at 2 weeks max probably sooner, especially at 79*. Not sure if you want to keep it on the gross lees too much longer but it appears you are planning on racking it to secondary. Be careful of not adding the K-meta unless you have a way of testing the SO2 levels. Oak is done at different times by different people but commercial wineries by the use of barrels oak after fermentation. I avoid sorbate and clearing agents whenever possible. You better make a few more Costco runs if you plan on aging 9-12 months. Occasionaly I will bottle 5 bottles and put the rest in a 5 gallon carboy. It normally isn't the greatest at 3-6 months but it's something to think about and you have something for topping off.

Thanks for the insight. I have a 5 gallon carboy so I'll put the rest in bottles as you suggested

 

[Bplewniak]

You type faster them me. I had the exact same advise.

If I wanted to go through the extended maceration process, wouldn't I keep everything in the fermentation bucket for the extended period of time? From what I've read, it does a lot of good. I guess trial, error and a lot of time will tell.

 

[Ajmassa]

Any extended macerations with kits are done in those "better bottle" or "fermonster" things. Which have a wide screw on top and able to be airlocked. And they leave it sealed to keep the co2 protection layer in it probably after the 2nd week or so. Leaving it be until 4 or 6 weeks or even longer.
There's a great YouTube series of videos Tim Vandergrift did with EM on 2 Amarone kits. One with extended maceration and one without. I'll try and dig it up. Also a few threads on here and they got into pretty good detail too

I don't know how many videos, but it's at least a few. He calls it "grapeskin experiment". Here is one. He's still posting updates of the results as they age as well. Tim Vandergrift. He's like the kit godfather. Dude knows his chit! https://youtu.be/0qkKYoym2g4

 

[Bplewniak]

I've watched Tims video and it is the major reason why I plan to try this as well. I'll try and update this thread but I'm so new, I will not have much to compare it too other than my personal opinion.

 

[Ajmassa]

I've never done it, so I can't offer advice aside from I think you should be particular is making sure the wine is protected from exposure during the process. What vessel are you thinking about using?

 

[Bplewniak]

I have one of those monster fermentation buckets that holds 36 liters and has a screw on cap. I put the skins in the bag and will be punching down for 8 days. After this time, I will leave it untouched for a few weeks before transferring it into a carboy.

 

[Ajmassa]

I do think it's a pretty awesome idea and I was intrigued by it the first time I saw those videos too. But I don't make enough kits to try it. The few that I do, I don't wanna add any more risk to jeopardize the wine. I'm sure I'll do it one day though.
And Research research research! If your like me you'll just impulsively jump in and figure it out as you go. Just not in a bucket. Gotta get one of those better bottles. 6.5 gal

 

[Bplewniak]

My next kit I think I'll keep 3 gallons in the monster Fermentation bucket and use my 3 gallon carboy to finish per the kit instructions.

Maybe that will be a better test instead of doing 2 separate kits.