WineXpert WE California muscato kit

[ShelleyDickison]

Wait, are you saying your moscato is dry? I know the WE description says 'light bodied, deliciously sweet, and 8.5% alcohol'. And after clarifying, stabilizing & then adding f-pac the FG should come in around 1.015-1.020, makes me think the f-pac fermented especially since you did not tweak with addl sugar and your ACV is 10.5%. Hmm...

Ok so maybe I am figuring this wrong. According to the app I have I am to put my starting SG in which was 1.066 and then put then put the FG before back sweetening which was .990. It did not say anything about taking the reading after back sweetening. So maybe I have been doing it wrong all along. If I have please let me know.

 

[JoyofWine]

Shelly which app do you use to figure out final alcohol content? That would come in handy!!!

I also did this Muscato kit, I ended up letting it sit in the carboy an extra month past the date WE said it could be bottled. It did take a while for it to fully clear. I bottled it on 6/11 and it tasted pretty good!

 

[Loner]

The iPhone app I use is Brew Majig. Go to App Store and search for alcohol calculators. Page across until you hit Brew Majig .. It's a free app.

 

[JoyofWine]

Thank you Loner!

 

[ShelleyDickison]

The iPhone app I use is Brew Majig. Go to App Store and search for alcohol calculators. Page across until you hit Brew Majig .. It's a free app.

That's the same one I am using.

 

[SouthernChemist]

Keep in mind that adding the F-pack will lower the alcohol level a little bit as you're diluting the original concentration. The instructions call for removing 1.5 liters or so of wine before adding the F-pack, which is a larger value than you typically see for a wine with an F-pack.

If, for example, you had a wine that was 9.5% alcohol by volume (23 liters), and you removed 1.5 liters of wine like in the instructions, the alcohol level would be reduced to below 9% by volume upon dilution back to 23 liters. Winexpert expects this kit to come out to around 8.5%, so ideally they would expect an alcohol level a little over 9% before the addition of the F-pack. Course, this is the expectation/ideal.

 

[rickswine]

I added some corn cugar to this kit in the primary and started with a SG of 1.076 and it fermented down to .994.

I did used most of the f-pack, don't think I used 100% because it was so large. I remember taking out over a liter of wine and didn't get half of it back in when I topped it off.

Bottom line is it came our great. A bit too sweet for me, but it has a good taste and my fear of a disaster with that hugh f-pack didn't materialize. It is a good wine at one month and I expect it will only get better. If I make it again I will add some of the f-pack into the primary so I don't lose so much wine.

 

[wood1954]

I bottled mine yesterday and it turned out really good for a sweet wine, lots of flavor and good acid balance. i followed the kit except i didn't stir up the lees after the primary fermentation because it had pretty much cleared by the time i got back from vacation. It is crystal clear, i racked off the gross lees then off the fine lees created by the chitosan, then one more time before bottling. the starting SG on mine was 1082 with no added sugar. Oh and i also did not take out the 1.5 liters, i just added the Fpack to the carboy as there was room. the carboy in the middle is the muscato, on the left is blackberry and the other cloudy one is my botched pinot grigio.

 

[JoyofWine]

Wood 1954, just wondering, what are the sizes of your three carboys? I'm still fairly new to winemaking & I so far have only used the 6 gallon one when making kits.

 

[wood1954]

3,5, and 6 gallon. I like the 5 gallon for bulk aging 6 gallon kits. 6 gallon carboys are actually around 6.5 gallons, so i fill up the five gallon jug and then use a 1 gallon or 3 or 4 wine bottles so i don't have to worry about topping off. I also have several 4 gallon plastic jugs that i buy my spring water in and i use them once or twice before i toss them as they are hard to clean. I also have 2 Better bottle plastic carboys that i wish i hadn't spent the money on, as they cannot be used for vacuum racking or transferring. Good luck it's a great hobby

 

[7oakacres]

I have a bunch of odd sized carboys to help with topping off my wines. .5, 1, 2.5, 3, 5 and 6 gallon carboys.

 

[7oakacres]

I have a question, After my 14 days of clearing with this kit, can I rack it into another carboy and let it stay in it for a few months without bottling??

 

[SouthernChemist]

Certainly...in fact it will probably make bottling easier if there is less sediment in the carboy. Just be mindful of your bisulfite levels. Generally speaking, for every 3 months of bulk aging you will want to add 1/4 tsp of potassium metabisulfite unless you can measure free SO2 levels directly.

 

[Phugas]

Muscato

Great forum guys. My Muscato also is not clearing. I'll have to go get another bag of chitosan or another agent. I think I will rack off the heaveist sedimet as well.

 

[JoyofWine]

I ended up having to use pectic enzyme in mine, and racked a couple of extra times. But it finally cleared, I bottled on June 11, and there's no sediment in the bottles. I think I bottled it about a month and a half past the date the the instructions would have said to bottle on.

 

[rickswine]

As I memtioned earlier in this post, mine never get crystal clear but I did the super clear on it and it came out okay. I only have a bottle or two left, my wife and her girlfriends loved it. After about two months in the bottle it really came into its own.

 

[7oakacres]

I bottled 2 cases out of this kit. The rest I saved and blended with my peach wine... Peach Moscato!! I can't wait to give that a try!!!