First wine kit newbie question

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Sam connor

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Hi all,

I have recently took the plunge into brewing my first 6 bottle win kit and need a little advice.

The kit says on the 6th day check the s.g and if its in the blue band and under 0.994 its good to move on to the next steps.

I have just measured the s.g now and it is infact in the blue band and reading at 0.990 but i am still getting a bubble once in a while from the airlock.

Should i just leave this until there is no bubbling atall or would it be ok to move onto the stabilising, de-gassing & clearing stage.

Thanks, Sam
 
How much is once in a while? If it's a bubble or two a minute and based on your gravity reading then you are good to go with stabilising etc. Upshot is though you can leave it for several more days or more without issue. Sometimes the fermentation schedules suggested by the instructions are a little optimistic to say the least. The only 30 bottle "7 day" kit I've done took quite a bit longer that the suggested 5-6 days to finish.

What you'll realise when you come to de-gas is that some of the huge amount of CO2 produced during fermentation has been absorbed by the wine, the odd bubble or two is just this being slowly released. De-gassing will get rid of it a bit quicker.
 
How much is once in a while? If it's a bubble or two a minute and based on your gravity reading then you are good to go with stabilising etc. Upshot is though you can leave it for several more days or more without issue. Sometimes the fermentation schedules suggested by the instructions are a little optimistic to say the least. The only 30 bottle "7 day" kit I've done took quite a bit longer that the suggested 5-6 days to finish.

What you'll realise when you come to de-gas is that some of the huge amount of CO2 produced during fermentation has been absorbed by the wine, the odd bubble or two is just this being slowly released. De-gassing will get rid of it a bit quicker.

Thanks for the swift reply graz, the bubbling is probably less than this to be fair so like u say it is most probably just some CO2 being released.

I shall move on to the next steps then.

Thanks again
 
At .990 i doubt it will go any further so i would move on to the degassing and clearing stage.
 
i was being a bit impatient


I remember the buzz i got from making my first kit wine and remember wishing it would hurry up and finish fermenting then hurry up and clear etc, happy days.

Keep us posted.
 
I remember the buzz i got from making my first kit wine and remember wishing it would hurry up and finish fermenting then hurry up and clear etc, happy days.

Keep us posted.

I feel like it will be like this for my next few times haha.

I finished adding all of the finings sachets yesterday and its now sat clearing, supposedly takes 24 hours but seems like its going to take longer than that
 
I feel like it will be like this for my next few times haha.

It will continue until you have enough stock built up to forget about what is currently fermenting that can take a while but is a great milestone to pass.
 
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supposedly takes 24 hours but seems like its going to take longer than that

Ignore kit instructions they are always massively optimistic i have found 48 hours minimum for kit finings is usually the norm but it can take longer.

Have a look at this thread if you fancy saving some money and experimenting - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462
 
Ignore kit instructions they are always massively optimistic i have found 48 hours minimum for kit finings is usually the norm but it can take longer.

Have a look at this thread if you fancy saving some money and experimenting - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462

Cheers chippy, i shall leave it for as long as it takes even though it'll be hard haha.

And i have already been on the thread and eyed up my next batch using different juices.

Can i just ask what your opinions are on grape powders?

Thanks

Sam
 
Can i just ask what your opinions are on grape powders?

I have never used it as all the juices i regularly use are available in most of the stores round here, white grape juice is now very hard to find i gave up using it when it became scarce and used red grape juice instead and now prefer a rosé type wine.
 
I have never used it as all the juices i regularly use are available in most of the stores round here, white grape juice is now very hard to find i gave up using it when it became scarce and used red grape juice instead and now prefer a rosé type wine.

Fair enough pal, I'll try a few juice recipes first see how they go and then might try some of the powders.
 
One more quick one chippy,

How long can i leave the wine to clear? Is there a certain amount of time before it should at least be racked off of the lees?
 
Keep us posted.

Sorry to mither again chippy

Had a quick look at my wine again this morning to see how its doing.

It doesn't look to good to me :(

Im not sure how well the pictures will show but it looks like it has done the opposite of clearing? It seem like its marbled with cloudiness.

Any ideas why? And if theres anything i can do to solve it?

Thanks

Sam

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Sorry to mither again chippy

No need to apologise this is why the forum is here.
Its difficult to see how clear it is in the pics some sediment may stick to the side of the bucket but you should be able to see the bottom, if you shine a torch into the bucket from the outside near the bottom does it look cloudy when looking in from the top?
 
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