- Joined
- Dec 28, 2009
- Messages
- 5,257
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Well I found this forum today and decided to make this my first post. After having friends that made wine in the past (mostly fruit) I decided to give it a try this year. I made the decision to try making wine to late in the season to get juice from Consumers Produce so I bought a complete kit, equipment and all from our local brewing supply place.
My wife and I chose the Valpolicella for our first kit. I started the wine Saturday October 25, 2009. Our initial sg was ~1.074. I followed all the directions as they stated and we bottled the wine on November 29 with an ending sg of ~.994. I kept one bottle for initial tasting and then placed the remaning bottles in the basement for storage.
Initial taste at bottleing time was good, seemed to have a tart taste to it which I almost expected after 4 - 4 1/2 weeks. We opened another bottle December 21, 2009 almost a month after bottleing so we could taste it prior to giving away for gifts. The taste was much smoother with minimal tart tasting. I could tell a difference already in the flavor. We advised everyone who recieved abottle to wait a minimum of a month prior to drinking. We opened another bottle December 27 and it tasted even better than the Dec 21 bottle.
We have 12 bottles left in storage, and we are going to try (key word, try) to save it for several months so that it can age to at least 4-6 months before we open another.
My son got me a GC for the brew place, so I'll be there tomorrow evening getting another kit. Just not sure what to get now. May end up with 2 as I have a 2 5 gallon carboys and a 6 gallon one also.
I also have a batch of spiced apple in a carboy that was started November 4 has undergone it's second racking. It has a strong clove tastes initially when it was transferred into the initial carboy from the primary but that has mellowed already.
I think I'm hooked....
My wife and I chose the Valpolicella for our first kit. I started the wine Saturday October 25, 2009. Our initial sg was ~1.074. I followed all the directions as they stated and we bottled the wine on November 29 with an ending sg of ~.994. I kept one bottle for initial tasting and then placed the remaning bottles in the basement for storage.
Initial taste at bottleing time was good, seemed to have a tart taste to it which I almost expected after 4 - 4 1/2 weeks. We opened another bottle December 21, 2009 almost a month after bottleing so we could taste it prior to giving away for gifts. The taste was much smoother with minimal tart tasting. I could tell a difference already in the flavor. We advised everyone who recieved abottle to wait a minimum of a month prior to drinking. We opened another bottle December 27 and it tasted even better than the Dec 21 bottle.
We have 12 bottles left in storage, and we are going to try (key word, try) to save it for several months so that it can age to at least 4-6 months before we open another.
My son got me a GC for the brew place, so I'll be there tomorrow evening getting another kit. Just not sure what to get now. May end up with 2 as I have a 2 5 gallon carboys and a 6 gallon one also.
I also have a batch of spiced apple in a carboy that was started November 4 has undergone it's second racking. It has a strong clove tastes initially when it was transferred into the initial carboy from the primary but that has mellowed already.
I think I'm hooked....
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