Total newbie question, please help!

[Baleanna]

Hi all :)

I was given a wine buddy merlot kit for Christmas with some equipment and have been letting it brew for 6 days. So today I have to do some stuff to it

It says to transfer it from one container to the other to degas it, does it mean syphon it or literally just pour from one container to the other??

Also, instead of 6 empty wine bottles I was given a wine box. Is it right that I can't actually use this and it has to be done by machine?? In which case I better get hunting for some empty wine bottles....

Thanks for any help given to this poor newbie :

 

[Kirstin]

You need to siphon it from one container to another, can be a bit tricky though. I've never filled a wine box, but you dont need a machine to do it.

 

[Baleanna]

Thank you

I will have fun trying to siphon it 6 times later. It better be worth it :

 

[ScottM]

Have you only had it fermenting 6 days? Needs a lot longer imo.

 

[Baleanna]

Oh really? The instructions say to test it after 6 days, then add some more stuff and leave it for another day, so I'll do that this time and see what happens.
I think I should follow instructions on my first go and if it tastes rancid then I'll be coming back here to find out how to get it better :)
I fully anticipate that this is what'll be happening!

 

Oh really? The instructions say to test it after 6 days, then add some more stuff and leave it for another day, so I'll do that this time and see what happens.
I think I should follow instructions on my first go and if it tastes rancid then I'll be coming back here to find out how to get it better :)
I fully anticipate that this is what'll be happening!

i have to say im new as well ...
and scott has and is giving me lots of help ...
which im very glad of ...
he has done alot of brewing ...

and gets great results ...

so i go by him not the tin ...

as he says you can follow the tin ...
but his way works much better ...

regards mick... :hat: .

 

[Kirstin]

I made a Winebuddy chardonnay once - it's a 6 day ferment with 1 day to clear as far as I remember.

As long as the fermentation has finished you will be fine.

:thumb:

 

[Brewtrog]

If I remember from the 7day merlot kit I did a fair while back, I siphoned it off the lees and then just poured it between two vessels, most degassed wine I ever bothered with. It should be done by now, ever kit wine I've done has been fermented out within the week. Just take a hydrometer reading to be sure.

 

[ScottM]

It might be done but it'll be full of leftover crud etc. It's always best to leave a ferment going for at least 10 days. Wines tend to be fairly high starting gravity, so with that in mind I would even wait a fortnight.

There's no rush in any of this. The instructions are always written to draw people in to the idea that they can make a decent wine in 7 days, that's never the case. You CAN ferment out 6 bottles worth of wine, clear it, bottle it and drink it in 7 days... but it'll be nowhere near the product that you can make if you take your time and do things properly.

For a start the temperature recommended will probably be 24 degrees or maybe even more. If you ferment at that temp it will dry out in the 6 days as advertised, but the yeast will have gone mad during the process and produced off-flavour after off-flavour. You will also be producing fusel alcohols which are more prone to giving a hangover.. if it was stronger it could make you go temporarily blind etc (foreign cheap vodka is known to do this).

It's all up to you what you do with your brews, I'm just trying to help guide you away from the stereotypical homebrew into the makings of something decent. Regardless, I wish you the best of luck with it :)

 

[Baleanna]

Thank you, all tips are welcomed it's like learning a new language all this homebrew malarkey and looking at your signatures it seems there's a lot of awesome wines and beers to try, can't wait!

I've transferred it from container to container a couple of times and will do so a couple more (though siphoning is harder than I thought it would be and I've spat out a lot of rank tasting wine!) but I'm happy to leave it a bit longer after I've de-gassed it. I was hoping I could drink it tomorrow with my friend but not in a rush really, she won't appreciate it if we go temporarily blind or have revolting hangovers :sick:

Can I ask, if I am going to leave it to ferment a few more days, should I add the extra ingredients the day before I bottle it or should I add them now and give them time to mix?

 

[ScottM]

Thank you, all tips are welcomed it's like learning a new language all this homebrew malarkey and looking at your signatures it seems there's a lot of awesome wines and beers to try, can't wait!

I've transferred it from container to container a couple of times and will do so a couple more (though siphoning is harder than I thought it would be and I've spat out a lot of rank tasting wine!) but I'm happy to leave it a bit longer after I've de-gassed it. I was hoping I could drink it tomorrow with my friend but not in a rush really, she won't appreciate it if we go temporarily blind or have revolting hangovers :sick:

Can I ask, if I am going to leave it to ferment a few more days, should I add the extra ingredients the day before I bottle it or should I add them now and give them time to mix?

If you have had it out and did all the mixing etc then it's probably best just to follow the instructions now. There is a risk of infection now that the wine has been open to the environment.

Next time you do a wine kit I would plan to have it ready in 2 months from the date of purchase. Sterilise everything and mix it up as per the instructions, once it's time to add the yeast immediately bin the instructions and forget about them all together. Add the yeast, give it 5 minutes to rehydrate (it'll sink) then give it all a gentle stir with a sterilised spoon/paddle. Sit it at approx 20 degrees for 10 days then rack it into a secondary vessel (sterilised syphon & secondary vessel). Sit at approx 20 degrees for a week then take hydrometer readings over the next 3 days. Hopefully they will be around 0.995 and steady for the 3 days. If that's the case then I would rack into a sterile/clean vessel and store in a cool place for a month. By the end of the month the wine will be clear (no need for finings etc) but you need to be careful not to disturb the sediment in the bottom. Either rack directly into bottles, or if you are worried about disturbing the sediment rack into a clean/sterile vessel and then bottle from it.

If you want to backsweeten then I would add potassium sorbate at a rate of 3/4 of a tsp per gallon and 1 crushed campden tablet per gallon after the secondary stage. When it comes to bottling you can then add sugar to taste. Keep an eye on the bottles though, just to make sure the yeast is in fact dead. Another option is to use sweetener. If you chose this method you can ignore the potassium sorbate and campden tablets as long as the sweetener isn't fermentable.

The difference in quality between brewing this way is night and day.

 

[Baleanna]

Thanks

I tested it with the hydrometer after transferring it between containers (as per instructions) and it wasnt ready so it will be waiting a few more days I imagine.

I've a feeing that this may be the nastiest wine ever but hey ho, you live and you learn right? And I've learnt that a lot of cool wines exist today so there's hope for the future.