Hi, this is my first post here, I'm new to home winemaking and I need some help to understand what may have gone wrong with my first attempt.
To get me started I bought two 6 bottle Beaverdale kits, the Barolla and the Cabernet Sauvignon. The barolla I've done exactly per the instructions, the cabernet I decided to play around with and made it up shorter than 4.5 litres and added a little dextrose to get the SG up to 1085. I made them both up with bottled spring water.
I fermented them in demijohns in a temperature controlled water bath, the temperature has never gone outside of 19C to 21C. I didn't check the FG during fermentation, I just left them until I was getting one bubble out of the airlock every four minutes or so. This was 22 days for the barrola and 24 days for the cabernet, I did check the FG at this point and both were reading 990.
Then I racked them into 5 litre PET bottles, added the stabilser, degassed by shaking the bottles a couple of times a day for 3 days and releasing the CO2. Then I added the two part fining agents as instructed and left them for 7 days to clear.
I've just bottled them and had my first taste and I'm quite dissapointed, both have an aroma that is overly fruity and artificially sweet. The taste is like a young commercial wine but overlaid with a strong unpleasant flavour and a tang at the back of the throat. The cabernet is no worse than the barolla despite my messing around with it, though clearly it has more alcohol.
I've read about 'kit taste' and 'bubblegum flavour' but I don't know if this is what I've got? I've seen reviews of Beaverdale red kits and they've been favourable.
Any advice would be very welcome.
Thanks
To get me started I bought two 6 bottle Beaverdale kits, the Barolla and the Cabernet Sauvignon. The barolla I've done exactly per the instructions, the cabernet I decided to play around with and made it up shorter than 4.5 litres and added a little dextrose to get the SG up to 1085. I made them both up with bottled spring water.
I fermented them in demijohns in a temperature controlled water bath, the temperature has never gone outside of 19C to 21C. I didn't check the FG during fermentation, I just left them until I was getting one bubble out of the airlock every four minutes or so. This was 22 days for the barrola and 24 days for the cabernet, I did check the FG at this point and both were reading 990.
Then I racked them into 5 litre PET bottles, added the stabilser, degassed by shaking the bottles a couple of times a day for 3 days and releasing the CO2. Then I added the two part fining agents as instructed and left them for 7 days to clear.
I've just bottled them and had my first taste and I'm quite dissapointed, both have an aroma that is overly fruity and artificially sweet. The taste is like a young commercial wine but overlaid with a strong unpleasant flavour and a tang at the back of the throat. The cabernet is no worse than the barolla despite my messing around with it, though clearly it has more alcohol.
I've read about 'kit taste' and 'bubblegum flavour' but I don't know if this is what I've got? I've seen reviews of Beaverdale red kits and they've been favourable.
Any advice would be very welcome.
Thanks
