two bins / gassing?

[hamy]

Hi as you may now know I am new to this and am determined to get a drinkable red in 4 weeks time.

My question is ... I bought a starter pack that included the fermenting bins and (as an upgrade) a nicer juice.

I have a 5 gallon primary bin and a secondary 5 gallon bin which has a tapered top and screw on lid. When reading the suppliers instruction for stage 3 (stage 2 is to sit in tapered 5 gallon bin for 12 days) it says degassing- siphon wine into carboy leaving sediment behind and stir for 6 to 8 times over 2 days. Can I just syphon back into the primary bin...clean out secondary bin then syphon back for me to degas as I do not have a carboy? Will this introduce too much air? I do not want to buy more equipment just yet in case it's rubbish!

Thanks

 

[robie]

If I understand you correctly, you don't have an extra carboy. Yes, you can rack the wine back to the original fermentor, degas it there by stirring, clean out your second container, then rack back to it.

"Drinkable" is a very subjective term. If a wine is still green (young), in my opinion, the wine is not yet drinkable. Others definitely have a different opinion. I am sure you fall somewhere in there, also.

If you are making a non-sweet, red, don't be surprised if the wine is not very drinkable in only 4 weeks. Typically, the lesser the quality of the kit, the sooner it will be drinkable, but there is no hard, fast rule to say this in every case.

Usually, the higher quality, premium, and ultra premium kits take much longer to become "drinkable". They have more total dissolved solids (TDS), which makes them require more aging to become drinkable.

An inexpensive, low-TDS kit wine will become drinkable sooner, but will quickly tail-off to become flat (spoiled). A much higher TDS wine will take longer to become drinkable, but when it does, it will continue to get better and possible last 10 to 20 years before spoiling.

Quick-drinkers are most white wines, low-priced red kits, and summer wines. Summer wines are usually ready to drink only a few weeks after bottling.

Even white wines (not summer whites) benefit from a year's aging.

 

[rhoffart]

and am determined to get a drinkable red in 4 weeks time.

Hamy, Why? Wine takes time. Red wine takes longer. Good wine takes months to years. Great wine takes even longer.

Not picking on your post but if you spend all this time and rush things and it tastes like crap your going to be disappointed.

 

[robie]

Hamy, Why? Wine takes time. Red wine takes longer. Good wine takes months to years. Great wine takes even longer.

Not picking on your post but if you spend all this time and rush things and it tastes like crap your going to be disappointed.

My question, exactly! Wine making is simply not a hobby for those who cannot exercise patience.

If you just can't wait, bottle 5 to 10 375 ml bottles, which you can open each month to sample, yet let the rest set until it is ready.

Or, make a few summer wines to drink while the good stuff is aging. Don't waste a good wine by drinking it before its time.

 

[hamy]

Thanks for the honest replies..but as I said I just want to get a good drinkable wine at my first attempt to shut up all my sceptic friends!

The premium (ahem?) kit says drink after day 28 and IF I want to leave longer than 6 months add 1/4 tsp of pottassium metabisulfite, whatever that is.

I'm already tempted to get another started before this ones ready so i have a constant supply but am dubious as to weather I will like the finished result?

 

[AlFulchino]

"I just want to get a good drinkable wine at my first attempt to shut up all my sceptic friends!"

its is a big mistake to try to prove things to people...but a bigger one to rush a wine.....it is a disservice to the wine actually...it is kind of like asking a six yr old to go play on the big diamond

ps what kind of friend would demand a rushed wine?

 

[Wade E]

IMO and its jusy my opinion (along with just about every other wine maker) that almsot every red wine out there wil need much longer. Can you drink it that early, sure you can, will it taste good, probably not and you may find your friends will find out they were right if you serve it to them very young. The wine will almost surely drop a lot of sediment in the bottles when you bottle as early as the directions state on these kits. How do I opr we knpw this as weve been there and were very unhappy when we all had bottles with sludge in them. You can do what you want but we are just trying to tell you what we have been through in our years of doing this.

 

[cpfan]

The premium (ahem?) kit says drink after day 28 and IF I want to leave longer than 6 months add 1/4 tsp of pottassium metabisulfite, whatever that is.

Perhaps you can tell us which kit this is, but I wouldn't call any 28 day kit a premium kit.

In the UK, you can get some 1 gallon kits. You could try rushing some of those, and see what the results are like.

Steve

 

[rhoffart]

Hamy, we are not trying to flame all over you, we are trying to help. Why don't you try a fruit wine or maybe lemon wine (skeeter pee) they are drinkable a lot earlier. I never made any but I read a lot here make it, and the love it.

 

[hamy]

cpfan here it is...

 

[cpfan]

Ah yes, good old advertising verbiage from the marketing department at Scott St in St Catharines Ontario Canada. I was in that building recently buying a beer kit.

The KenRidge Classic Merlot is a standard in our house. When I ran a store, KR Classic was a very good selling line. I'm not as familiar with the Shiraz as the Merlot, but it should be drinkable at bottling. Then I would expect it to get a bit worse due to bottling shock. After a month or so, it will bounce back, and keep improving for a few months. Try to keep some bottles for over a year, then you can decide.

My customers repeatedly said that the KRC Merlot was very drinkable very young, but that the other varieties needed more time. Regular customers who were low on wine would make a batch of KRC Merlot to drink soon after bottling and a batch of something else to drink after the Merlot.

The last wine that I bottled was the Vinterra Shiraz from the same company.

Steve

 

[hamy]

that's interesting you saying ... "Then I would expect it to get a bit worse due to bottling shock" good for me to know.

I'm now going to try one or three after bottling, wait 6 weeks try a few more and so on. In the meantime I will start another. You can get a half decent supermarket 13.5% red wine around here for £3.99. I would like to try get close to these wines (taste wise) doing it myself for half that price? I hope I can.

Cheers

BTW, found these by accident www.grapeencountersradio.com (you probaly know them already) and by listening to their pod casts I am slowly learning a little more about my favourite drink! We do not have anything like it here in the UK.