when good wines gone bad

[joeswine]

PHASE#3

 

[joeswine]

Took Best Of Show in desert wine Category

 

[my wine]

Now a short update on my weak wine to good wine conversion. I pitched the starter last Saturday, gradually added the weak wine and it's still bubbling today. The 1118 yeast is going more slowly than I would think normal but not unexpected in the sorbated wine. I expect fermentation will go longer than 2 weeks but we'll see as I measure SG periodically. If all goes well I'll post the details of what I did. Thanks for the help!

 

[joeswine]

Yes do so, thinking outside the box is cool.

 

[my wine]

The guarantee on the Winexpert box does work. I received a replacement wine kit today. I'll use some of Joe's techniques to make it better. And the weak, sorbated wine is still fermenting ... 2 weeks today. SG is going down slowly but going down. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[my wine]

For the new kit coming through if a cup raisins and 16 oz of blackberries sauteed down with two cups of the base wine. yeast to rc212 and the package ec-1118 add all this into the primary try it you'll make a superb wine
That's what I would do. Now it's up to you.

I plan on starting the new kit today and intend to follow this approach. This will be the first time I will do different than the kit way and I had a question. You said to pitch both the rc212 and the ec1118 which comes with the kit. I have rc212. Why pitch both? Should I pitch the rc212 initially and the ec1118 when the SG gets down some, maybe SG 1.3 or 1.2? I'm curious what I should expect with the 2 yeasts together.

 

[joeswine]

The theory is that the 212 will enhance the flavornoids and the ac1118 will drive the alcohol, it's just a theory but I've used it so many times I've won so many medals using this kind of think outside the box it will make you a creative wine maker, take the step forward .
Just my thoughts

 

[sour_grapes]

On the other hand, you may consider the following:

Some strains of yeast do, in fact, kill other strains. There are three broad classes. Some strains have a "killer factor" (where they excrete a toxic protein). Some strains are immune to this protein, and some are sensitive to it. As it happens, EC-1118 is a killer yeast, and RC-212 is sensitive to it.

 

[my wine]

Thanks sour grapes. I'll go and read the whole thread again tomorrow. Glanced over it tonight and it looks like there are a number of folks that pitch them together and a number that pitch 212 then 1118 later. Someone mentioned the BM4x4 which I believe is a mix of BM45 along with a hardier strain.

Time got away from me today so I'll read more then get this kit started tomorrow. Sooner to start; sooner to drink!

 

[joeswine]

Wines that take on a whole different profile when blended with yeast I know this is not for everyone ,however for the winemakers with A think outside the box attitude there is always another way.
So far we've blended fruit ,zest ,oak ,tannins as well as other juices to our wines as well as combination's of all of them in this long journey here are some of my favorites .. there are many more ,how many of these have you tried and enjoyed

 

[my wine]

I wanted to give an update on my weak wine project. As I said in an earlier post, I pitched yeast in August using 2 cans of grape juice concentrate to make a starter. Prior to pitching, I added a pound of blackberries simmered for a few minutes and enough sugar to the must to get the SG to 1.047. That would get me a PABV of 13% plus. The fermentation was slow then got slower although it was steady over the 7 weeks. I plotted it on graph paper because I was curious and got a nice, straight line. I added hydrated EC1118 weekly then twice a week. Eventually it stopped fermenting at SG 1.030. I estimate I added 2.75% more alcohol to the 6.75% that was in the weak wine to start.

Having done more reading I learned that less sorbate is needed to stop yeast the more alcohol is in the wine. So the sorbate that was in the weak wine wasn't enough to stop the restart. But as the fermentation progressed the must environment became too difficult for the fermentation. Not being a sorbate expert there was still plenty of sugar in there so that's my best guess at why the fermentation stopped.

So what I have now is sweet, light wine and it has more flavor than before. This is good as I will use it to blend with stronger, dry wine. I did that yesterday by adding some to the Trinity Red from the replacement kit. I made the replacement kit with raisins and blackberries. That mix is now settling and will be ready for aging in a couple weeks.

I learned a lot from this adventure in fixing this wine batch. I appreciate all the advice I got from the many winemakers who contributed. I tried a lot of different things and I know all my wines will be better because of this weak wine adventure. So many thanks to you for my future better wine!

 

[joeswine]

Thanks for taking a walk down '" when good wines gone bad " lane.
No matter how it turns out you didn't give up .Making wine is an adventure on its own, that's why I developed tweaking cheap wine kits and when good wines gone bad, to give to those who needed help the processes and experience of myself and others.

 

[joeswine]

Something from Italy, maybe?
PHASE #1

 

[joeswine]

PHASE#2...….this kit turned out very nice and didn't cost an arm or an leg to coin a phrase.

 

[joeswine]

PHASE#3 finally overall thinking outside the box pays off.

 

[joeswine]

Eclipse Merlot. Something special in this one ..

 

[joeswine]

Phase #2.................

 

[jgmann67]

Phase #2.................

i just picked up the reformulated SLD Merlot. I was surprised that it came with the EC1118. It’s been a little while since I started one of these, but could swear it came with RC212.

I haven’t yet started this kit. Thoughts on a yeast swap? And maybe the addition of some tannin in the primary?

 

[Boatboy24]

i just picked up the reformulated SLD Merlot. I was surprised that it came with the EC1118. It’s been a little while since I started one of these, but could swear it came with RC212.

I haven’t yet started this kit. Thoughts on a yeast swap? And maybe the addition of some tannin in the primary?

Been a while since I did mine, but I used RC212 (which I noted did not come with the kit) and added tannin in secondary.

 

[joeswine]

You can change out any yeast you want or you can mix the yeast but the ec1118 is going to be a hard driver this is a high alcohol eclipse kit so you need something that's going to be able to complete the job.