Other Tweeking Cheap Kits

[Johnd]

Johnd: have you made one of these kits yet?

No, I have not made one of these kits. Does that invalidate my observation?

 

[Tnuscan]

I just took a gallon and thought I would drop the TA from where it is to 5.5 g/L.
Just for experiments sake, as I was doing this I pulled a ceeaton, Ooops, I mean pulled a glass, and yes it is young, a little acidic, but I can drink it right as rain. Staggering a little but right as rain.

 

[joeswine]

No just asked if you did.nothing more.

 

[EastcoastWino]

jlfpa;the flow sounds good just check the PH before you start, always have control of the process. Stay the course.
Throwdown: how has the finial results been?
Tnuscan: nice control, can you answer Johnd?
Johnd: have you made one of these kits yet?

EastCoastWino:..on the trinity just some med oak and good ABV keep it simple.,,The Sangiovese,plums in the secondary,med.oak or dark cherries ( both as home made fpacs)for the cab w/skins1/2 cup of black currents in the primary, then follow the MFG. process, on all three adjust the ABV. to your preference.
to all of you above have fun and always 'think outside the box'

Hi Joeswine,

Thank you for the advice! I'm picking up the kits, and supplies today. Can you please explain MFG process?

Thanks in advance!

 

[joeswine]

That's just to say follow the manufacturer process.

 

[Tnuscan]

Hey! I found a few bottles of the Fontana Merlot , tweeked per joes thread, these numbers are pH 3.4 with a TA @ 5.5 and it's pretty nice. I'm hiding these for another year to see what happens. I know some feel different about the numbers, but hey I like to play with the toys.

 

[EastcoastWino]

Hi Joeswine,

My girlfriend and I took full advantage of the sale and got the WE Trinity White, and Diablo Rojo as well as the kits I mentioned earlier. We have a lot of wine making ahead of us haha! Any chance you could recommend some tweaks for the WE Trinity White, and the Diablo Rojo. We will be getting started today

 

[joeswine]

Trinity white follow the same game plan using some grapefruit zest along the way the Diablo rojo. I haven't gotten good responses from compition resluts with this one,if you can,don't do it yet. I have someone that will give me a better direction to go to for my corrective action. Thanks

 

[Tom]

Joe. sorry I didn't get back to you. My Prostate cancer is hitting me hard. PSA is 725.

 

[johnxbrown]

This thread has been amazing. Thank you for all the time putting this info forward! Found the site in general by searching for tweaking wine kits and had to join on this alone. Tried to get this kind of conversation going on reddit's wine community and they gave me crap because "real wine is made is made with grapes, not from a kit". Who knew redditors were so elitist.

Anyways, I just did a Heritage Estates pinot noir (44$ CAD on sale). Put it on the lees of another higher end PN that used RC 212 yeast, but also kept in the bag of raisins/dried grape skins from an Primeur Select Amarone.

Since this will be the third time in a primary, I don't know how much body will be imparted from the dried grapes, so I added a pound of raisins and 2 cups of sauteed blueberries. I've already added extra tannin, oak and sugar as per prior post, anything I'm missing specific to a pinot noir? Lemon zest maybe?

Also, later tonight will be doing a Heritage Estates Pinot Gris. I was thinking of throwing that on the lees of a grapefruit wine I'm about to transfer since I've seen lots about adding grapefruit zest. Might not subtle, but I'm not opposed to a hybrid white fruit wine. I did do a rhubarb lavender Pinot Gris (cheeky monkey kit) that turned out great, I might do a post about that in the near future.

 

[joeswine]

Thanks for reading the thread my advice would be try not to put to much into a wines base as that could destort the intent of the wines type (pino grigio) grapefruit zest or lemon zest in the primary or secondary is OK,I myself have never seen the Lee's as simple wine waste (or batton) not for kits.But if you're like all of us we experiment .

Most ,all wine maker's want to experiment and play with their wine your at the right place.WELCOME

 

[johnxbrown]

Thank you Joe! We did put the pinot gris on the lees and pulp of the grapefruit wine last night, started fermenting like mad right away. But racked it off this morning as we didn't want to completely destroy the base flavours. That said, I don't mind over tweaking this kit since it was only 40$ CAD, so we'll see how it goes!

 

[joeswine]

Sangiovese/merlot cheap kits

lets review..........................where keeping it simple

 

[EastcoastWino]

Hi Joeswine,

Quick question for you. I have a WE Amarone kit that is done the chaptalization process. I should have time to rack it into secondary by weeks end.

I started the WE Trinity Red a few days ago using the tweaks you advised. (Added medium French oak, and increased the starting gravity using simple syrup) Would there be any advantage of adding the grape skins from the Amarone into the Trinity Red (I didn't bother using the bag that came with the kit, I just dumped the skins into the primary, so it might take a bit of work to collect the skins) I also have a WE Diablo Roso, and WE Cab with skins I plan on starting soon. Would you add the amarone skins to any of these kits or just stick with the tweaks you already recommended?

Thanks in advance!

 

[joeswine]

Sangiovese/merlot cheap kits

here's where we our at rest I'll add some merlot to top this one off that I made.

 

[joeswine]

Stay with the plan

 

[rebeyer]

I finally finished reading the entire thread. Great info! I took lots of notes and now just need to decide what kit I want to do.

 

[jlfpa]

I have a Zinfandel Blush kit I want to start this weekend. Any suggestions on tweeks for this?

 

[joeswine]

Can you make an Fpac if so look at making a pomagranet one very good with the Zin.

 

[jlfpa]

That sounds good. I'll give that a try