WineXpert Newbie looking for some Advice

[pkcook]

cheesegod99,


Lenore is correct, the basic kit will do fine and all the other items are time/labor savers. Heck, I've bottled 12 batches of wine with a plastic $5 hand corker and only had one bottle that the cork would not seat. After realizing I had overfilled it and adjusted the head space, the cork went in fine. I have added more expensive equipment over the months (the corker for 1), but not as a necessity, but a niceity (spelling). My advice is get the basic stuff and then what ever items urk you the mostupgradethese first

.

 

[OldWino1]

yep and ask in here if any one has any ideas or like the product.

 

[PolishWineP]

cheesegod99,


My advice is get the basic stuff and then what ever items urk you the mostupgradethese first

.

Now THERE'S some good, solid advice!

 

[earl]

cheesegod


Did you get a kit?? If so which one?


earl

 

[cheesegod99]

Yes, I got the Basic Vintner's Reserve kit with a Chianti as my
first go. I also picked up the "compact" bottle drainer tree and some
bottle shrink wrappers. I actually just started the primary
fermentation today, and other than a small leak from the spigot (which
I finally wrestled under control) everything seems to be going pretty
well. I used the entire bottle of K-meta to mix up a gallon jug of
solution, and I used that to sanitize, so hopefully my first go will
turn out alright. I'm just paranoid over the sanitizing, which is
pretty funny, considering that I've worked with active bacterial
cultures and sterilized equipment in the past...

 

[earl]

Great Job!!


Keep us all posted, take some pics if you can. We all love looking at must.


earl

 

[OilnH2O]

You know... I think ALL OF US have dealt in some manner with that spigot on the first try! Congrats for getting through your first "trial" -- let's hope it's the worst you'll face!

 

[Bert]

Looks like you have a good start on a great hobby....Good luck and have fun..

 

[Pepere]

As a fellow newbie let me just say this forum will not lead you astray. They are the best!! I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you read all the posts under the various headings on this forum, it's like getting a Masters Degree in home winemaking.

Keep us posted on that chianti kit. That's next up for this newbie and I can't wait to get it started. Slight business trip gets in the way before I can fire it up though

Good luck and by the way ..............we love pix!!

 

[MedPretzel]

great job, I bet it will be just fine!





Take a look under "How-To" or Tutorials... There's a great tutorial by smurfe who did a step-by-step.





Take pictures!!!

 

[cheesegod99]

Unfortunately my digital camera has recently crapped out on me, so pics
are a no go at least for a while. Even so my room is full of the
wonderful smell of fermentation. My airlock started to bubble less than
12 hours after I put the whole thing together, and in one day the SG
went from 1.080 to 1.070 - I'm thinking thats a good sign. I'll keep
you posted.

 

[MedPretzel]

Oh yes.....





There's an unwritten code that everyone on the forum gets a bottle of your very first batch.

 

[PolishWineP]

Or at least the moderators...

 

[earl]

Or at least...................earl


earl

 

[cheesegod99]

Alright -a little update- I guess my kit is a little on the fast side
because the SG is already just over 1.010 - at least when I
checked this morning. I'm going to rack it to my carboy tonight, which
I just cleaned with easy clean and is currently soaking with a bit of
K-meta solution. The primary has been bubbling like a madman for the
past few days.

 

[peterCooper]

That sounds about right.You don't do any harm by racking to secondary
today but you can just as easily leave it another day or two. so long as it is
still fermenting when you rack you will be fine. The reason for that is to
keep some CO2 on top of the wine after racking to keep the air off.

You've already heard this a number of times. The biggest think you learn is
to be patient.

Patience is a virute....few of us possess... until we start making wine.

 

[cheesegod99]

Oddly enough my SG is already at about .992 after only about 3-4 days in the secondary. I hope I didn't do something wrong...

 

[peterCooper]

No you didn't. The speed of fermentation depends somewhat on
temperature.The SG is also dependent on the amount of solids in the
must. You should check the SG a couple or three days in a row to make sure
it is stable and you see no more evidence of fermentation.

As this is a kit, you can probably just follow the instructions, even if that
means leaving it seemingly doing nothing for another week.The
instructions on all these kits are excellent. You can't go wrong by doing it
by the book.

 

[cheesegod99]

ok so I did step 3 yesterday - stabilizing and clearing. I used the
wine whip degasser that came with the kit on a power drill so I'm
hoping it was stirred enough. There didn't seem to be too much foam.
There is already a pretty thick-looking layer of sediment on the bottom
of the carboy. My guess is that its all the particulate matter that was
in the wine. I topped up with a cheap bottle of cab/merlot that I
picked up.

 

[Curt]

cg99,


Sounds like you have the method down pretty well. Let it clear, rack off the solids and bottle 'er up.