Mosti Mondiale Rojo Grande with AllGrape Pack

[John Prince]

I started a batch ofRojo Grande with AllGrape Pack</font>tonight. It almost filled my plastic bucket up when I added the grape pack. I'm guessing it will overfill my glass carboy. When I do my first racking. What should I do?

 

[vcasey]

I use gallon jugs, half gallon jugs and wine bottles with a stopper &amp; air lock.
You'll find them at the bottom of this page http://www.finevinewines.com/XProdListMain.asp I think wine bottles use a #2 stopper. You can also buy apple juice in the glass jugs and use those.

 

[Bartman]

Instead of a stopper on the wine bottle, you can just use a cork, of course. You 'waste' some corks if you bulk age the whole kit for one or more rackings, until you reduce the volume enough to not need the second container(s). Sometimes the sediment that precipitates from the grape pack kits can yield enough volume, over a few months' time, to require a liter or more to "top up." So, having that extra volume now can be very helpful later.

 

[ibglowin]

You'll probably want to get a couple of those #2 drilled stoppers. These will fit into a wine bottle and you can still insert an airlock. This way you can fill up the carboy as much as you can (for secondary fermentation to complete) then fill up a wine bottle or 1.5L bottle what ever you need, slap a stopper and airlock in it and keep it warm as well as the carboy and let both finish out secondary. Rack off the gross lees on both, combine back into a single carboy and finish out as normal.

 

[John Prince]

I bought (3) one gallon carboys from George the other day. I was planning on making some homemade wine. I'll use those.

Next question. Why does the kit come with raisins and a grape pack? The instructions says don't use both.

 

[ibglowin]

Good question, I think they want to give you the winemaker the option to decide which flavor profile you want to add. Raisins add a different flavor profile than grape skins.

I wish they would just put raisins in the Italian varietals and grape skins in the rest of the stuff and be done with it.

 

[ibglowin]

Those 1 gallon may be a little on the large size. Keep a 1.5L wine bottle (cleaned and ready to be sanitized on hand as well as a regular wine bottle) in case you don't have enough extra to fill the 1 gallon jug. You want to use the size closest to what the volume you have extra. You don't want to have a lot of extra headspace at this point.

I bought (3) one gallon carboys from George the other day. I was planning on making some homemade wine. I'll use those.

Next question. Why does the kit come with raisins and a grape pack? The instructions says don't use both.

 

[John Prince]

Thanks. I guess I'll use wine bottles. This is my 5th kit in 2 months. I'm sure they will taste like crap and I won't know what I'm doing wrong until next summer. By then, I plan to have 500 bottles. Maybe the guy that lives under the bridge will drink them. Can use that as a tax deduction?

 

[ibglowin]

Your making some of the best kits out there. Some might be better than others (better juice to start with) but they will all be very drinkable IMHO. I made the Mosti Renaissance Rio Grande Rojo and its one of my favorite kits and it had no grape pack, no raisins, nothing extra.

Watch your head space, get the sulfites in on time, rack off the fines in a timely fashion and don't over sulfite. That rule about adding 1/8 tsp every 90 days is way too much sulfite. I have done the testing that proves that you can bulk age a red up to 6 months in a carboy (topped up) and still be fine on the SO2 levels at bottling time.

I can smell sulfite in a wine at 20ppm and to me that is the biggest flaw in my wines that I made the first year. My second year wines are now just about ready to ease into and they all have much less SO2 in them.

Whites on the other hand need more or they will brown prematurely. They will benefit with a small 1/8 tsp addition before bottling.

 

[robie]

FYI
To put an air lock on a wine bottle-
The multi-fit soft carboy bungs, which George sells, work great on wine bottles. Just turn them upside down, so the bung slips OVER the top of the wine bottle.

http://www.finevinewines.com/XPListDet1.asp

They don't leak, either.

 

[vcasey]

FYI
To put an air lock on a wine bottle-
The multi-fit soft carboy bungs, which George sells, work great on wine bottles. Just turn them upside down, so the bung slips OVER the top of the wine bottle.

http://www.finevinewines.com/XPListDet1.asp

They don't leak, either.

Wow - just tried it and it fits!!! Cool idea and thanks for sharing.

 

[RickC]

That is a good idea.


I also agree with using wine bottles. With these higher end kits you always have more than a carboy will hold and you don't want to waste anything. I usually have a 1.5L, 750 ml, and 375 ml clean,sanitized, and begging to be called off the bench. With the heavier sediment in the wine bottles I find it easier to slowly pour off the wine once fermentation is complete and it is settled.

 

[v1rotate]

With the heavier sediment in the wine bottles I find it easier to slowly pour off the wine once fermentation is complete and it is settled.

I use a 4' length of plastic tubing as a siphon. I just stick one end into the bottle just above the sediment and suck a bit to get the wine flowing. Works great, no sediment transfer.

 

[ibglowin]

That small diameter tubing that comes with the Vinbrite is perfect for this.

 

[Flem]

With the heavier sediment in the wine bottles I find it easier to slowly pour off the wine once fermentation is complete and it is settled.

I use a 4' length of plastic tubing as a siphon. I just stick one end into the bottle just above the sediment and suck a bit to get the wine flowing. Works great, no sediment transfer.

If I tried that Jim, I'd probably forget to take it out of my mouth---Oh darn!

 

[John Prince]

Why does the kit come with raisins and a grape pack? The instructions says don't use both.

 

[Brent2489]

Must be a Multi-Fit stopper but which one?? The links above don't return anything.

 

[ibglowin]

Answered in post #6 of this thread.

Why does the kit come with raisins and a grape pack? The instructions says don't use both.

 

[John Prince]

Thanks.

 

[robie]

Must be a Multi-Fit stopper but which one?? The links above don't return anything.

It is the 5151 multi-fit bing for the 6-gallon glass carboy:
equipment/stoppers/5151