Improving Wine from a Cheap Wine Kit
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
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In this video, I took a Wine Lovers Merlot kit and managed to make a full bodied wine with lots of character. This is relatively easy to do but requires you to deviate from the instructions and add a few ingredients that are not supplied from the kit. Most of what I added are things that you will want to have laying around if you plan to make more wine in the future. Additionally, I concentrated the kit from 6 gallons to 5 gallons and made some acid adjustments to compensate for the change.
I've been watching your videos for a few years now. I actually had my own personal vineyard in Creston Valley, just over the border to Idaho in Canada about ten years back. Now I'm back living in England and have just 200 vines for my hobby (my wife wanted flowers I'm afraid). This year I was wiped out after the late May frosts, and I decided to carry on and see what I have in October. I've decided I shall buy a couple of kits and add the juice from my reds (not many bunches at all) to two kits I bought a month ago, thus delaying my winemaking for a month or so. I've noticed some really useful tips in this video, and particularly like the idea of the peppers added to the must. Your HWC is the best source of info for us amateurs on the web, thanks so much for imparting all your knowledge.
Back to watch again. Thanks HWC.
I've been working on a similar project for about 6 months with a cheap Syrah/Shiraz base from Amazon. One of the biggest things that made a difference for me was dropping the EC1118 yeast for D254 or SYR. I split one kit into 3 batches and did some blind taste tests and it definitely matters. The D254 and SYR have a lot more body and fruit flavors, the D254 in particular. Thanks for the tips on the acidity and grape stems!
Your information is tops Thank you ! There’s never top much detail for us new winemaking explorers 👍
Hey, Really enjoying your videos. I also have fun doctoring up cheap kits. I also often make Wine Expert Vintners Reserve to 5.5 gallons rather than 6. Also making tannin and acid adjustments. Never heard of the pepper trick before. Recently I have played around with adding crushed Raspberry and Blackberry to a Merlot kit. Results pending, aroma at racking was fantastic. I'm sure it will be harsh for a while. Keep up the good work. Have you ever heard of adding peppercorns to a cheap kit? a guy at the local home brew store swears that a peppercorn or two really improves his cheap zinfandel...
+David Stelting thanks! I like to play around with the kits in the off season. I have never heard of adding peppercorns but it seems like it would be pretty good!
moringa pods too have mildly capsicum-like flavor ... moringa itself is a food in india and elsewhere wherever it naturally grows and in ayurved it finds mention as a pharmaceutical substance
I sometimes get musty aftertaste. Bulk age for 6 mos. 3 racks. Usually wine expert.
What can you do with cheap white wine kit? There's a kit on Amazon called Miracle Wine that they say makes 6 gallons from 2 L of extract.
Really great videos!! I have a question about improving wine kits. What would change in your instructions for improving wine kits if I were to substitute on a 5 liter kit, 4.4 lbs of grape skins and water for the 4 liters of good wine? I was thinking of following instructions on punching down the skins for duration of the primary fermentation as you described in a previous video. Or would you recommend against it?
Enjoyed the video, am trawling for info to give this a try. However one comment; you keep mixing your units between metric and imperial. You mention grams of this, gallons of that and degrees F. Perhaps have a table so we can cross reference.
@Jim zimmer, you must have a very miserable existence if you interpret helpful suggestions for improving what is good to make something even better as a picky criticism.
Like your channel, good and professional information. I am an all grain beer brewer and I live in Iceland so I can´t make wine from grapes but just from wine kits. Icelandic weather is not ideal for growing good wine grapes, you know. I bought the Necessaire a Vin, Village Vintners cabernet sauvignon kit. The package included oak, preservatives and clarifying/fining agents, I have used all them by now. I am currently in secondary phase 0.996 in a glass carboy (topped of neck) and I was planning to age for at least 5 months.
Do you recommend stems, grocery grapes, more oak, salts or other things to improve this kit and is it possible for me to work with better ingredients that I can import that you recommend? - Thank you for your help
No malolactic fermentation?
That one really depends. I have tested kits for malic acid and it is normally present, though they will tell you generally not to put them through MLF. Some wine kits use a small amount of potassium sorbate to keep the juice shelf stable before fermentation. If yours does, you definitely don't want to put them through MLF or you will get a geranium aroma. If you do put it through MLF (which I have done on the finer wine kits), you will want to compensate with tartaric acid. The Titratable acidity is usually very very low in kits which is why they can be drinkable at such a young age. This is done by removing tartaric acid generally. If you wipe out the malic acid, it will throw off the balance. Normally, with grapes it is the other way where you really need MLF or the wine will taste "tart".
I ordered Lodi Ranch 11 cabernet sauvignon California from Winexpert for $179, from their label information it added 10 wt% sugar in this juice after you received it, but California state prohibits chaptalization. I will not buy any from this company.
Northern brewery has those kits for 19 look them up also LD carlson
I followed this technique, but now I have a wine with high alcohol %. How can I adjust in the future to prevent this? I started with a original gravity of 1.130.
Could you use sodium bicarbonate? To reduce acid.
If you was do to a cheap Cabernet Sauvignon wine kit, what would you do to enhance in the same context as your doing this kit?
Hi!
Why not to use sodium bicabonnat to reduce acidity?
I have 6gal each of Carmenere and California Red Zin kits separately in secondary fermentation now per the instructions. EC 1188 for both...and both have oak already. Past efforts have been thin so I added 1.5 liter extra concentrate (Williams Brewing Zin) to each at primary and SG reduced from 1.118 to 1.000 and continuing slowly. I expect 14% abv but have not had good nose nor as much body as I want in past efforts. Any advice welcomed...thx..
Nice job on the Carmenere kit, Carmenere is still a relatively rare grape its not planted in significant numbers, only about 14,000 Hectares. Which is tiny.
Is it possible to get a clear white Wine using orange juice or pineapple juice ? Or will it retain the color of the juice?
30degrees F??? That's below freezing, are you sure it was not slightly warmer??
It's below freezing for water. Alcohol freezes at -173F. Wine, depending on the alcohol content will start to get slushy around the low to mid 20s.
If there is no bubbling 4 hours in, following your videos I'm wondering if the mix was too cold, I wrapped it in a blanket, the concentrate was mostly frozen. Is there another way for me to know if it is fermenting within these 5 days in the bucket before I transfer to carboy? This is my first try 💆🏽
Would you add the cal carb and pot bicarb mix when first racking?
Looks like a fontana kit.... There are actually cheaper kits. I some all powder wine kits, i got bc it was unusual. basically it is sugar with some sort of grape kool aid flavoring. Makes some nasty wine.
Thank you for showing how to "pimp" a cheap wine kit.
After all, a cheap wine kit is only grape juice so why pay for an expensive kit where someone else has added the oak chips, pepper, grape stalks, etc.
I was comtemplating buying some cheap raisins and liquidizing them in a blender. Has anyone done that?
Please don't do this. The result will not be pleasant. :)
Will it harm the wine if I split the wine after the primary fermentation into two carboys for secondary fermentation ?
No it won't be a problem. That is pretty common since it is rare to make exactly five or six gallons when you are working with fresh grapes. I often will split even into growlers and one gallon jugs to make the volume work out without leaving any airspace in a carboy
I bought a vintners peach wine base kit and after fermentation and aging it have a medicine after taste , is there anything I can do to fix this or should i buy another kit also what peach wine kit do you recommend?
Hmmm, have you tried back sweetening it? My experience with peach is that it tastes like ethanol with a hint of peach when it finishes since the peach is so subtle. You could back sweeten with a concentrated peach juice from a kit to pump the flavor back up and dial the alcohol down a bit. You could also sweeten with an apple concentrate. Apple is usually a good carrier other fruit flavors. These options will also substantially improve the mouth feel.
I would test either of the options in a small sample before committing though. I always recommend bench trials before any dramatic additions.
How long does homebrewed wine last in corked wine bottle?
Hello Rick
Why do wine kits use bentonite?
I'm going to make my first wine with a kit...
Why would you put clay in your wine?
And do I need to degas if I bottle it after 4 to 6 months.
Thanks
Hi Dave. The purpose of the bentonite is to help clarify the wine. It is heavy and has a strong negative charge, so it grabs a lot of protein and haze particles as it falls to the bottom. I personally almost never use it except in rare occasions when the wine won't clear up. It can take some color and intensity in it with a red wine, and red wines generally have enough tannin which also acts as a fining agent. If your wine clears up on it's own I wouldn't use it. If not, mix it REALLY good in hot water, let it settle overnight in the fridge and use it. It will all settle to the bottom so you can rack the wine off, but it expands a lot so you will lose about the bottom inch of wine. As for degassing, same thing. If you pour a sample and give it a little swirl and see some micro bubbles, then consider degassing. I prefer to degas worth a vacuum brake bleeder so I don't add any unnecessary oxygen. But again... If you are waiting six months you will very rarely need to degas. Especially if you have racked a couple times. Good luck on your kit! What kind are you making?
Thank you again Rick it's nice to see someone cares and supports there videos as you do...Nice Job..
As for the kit it is a Vinifera Noble- Cab. Sauvignon it's been 12 days now on primary and today I'm going
To rack it to a carboy on oak chips. My plan is to leave it on the carboy for a few weeks and also
Lower the temp to 60 deg. It already is at .996 then rerack it for the long haul.
Any suggestions you'll be awesome and thanks again.
Thanks! Sounds like you are on the right track. If you are not happy with the level of oak, you can always add some more later on. I like the cubes from morewine. They seem to put off a lot more oak than the chips for some reason. When fine tuning the oak, choose your toast level wisely... If you are looking for more tannin and "oak" taste, go for a lighter toast. If you are looking for more caramel, toasted marshmallow and smoke go for the medium plus or heavy toast. You can also add some tannin powder if your kit is a little light on mouth feel and tannin. A lot of the kits are meant to be drank young, so they can use a little pumping up with tannin and oak if you want them to age well and not become thin and wimpy later on.