I've read Jack Keller's? Extended Instruction for Making Wines from Kits and
have a few questions after comparing Jack's instructions with the
instructions from the wine kit. I'm fairly certain Jack's instructions will
produce a better wine, but I'm new a this and would like some clarification.

A few differences I noticed:

Following the wine kit instructions, The first item is to add the Bentonite
with a half gallon on water and Jack's instruction say to add Bentonite
around day 29. Any idea why this would be so different?

Another difference is according to the wine kit, I should rack the wine
after day 7 or when the SG reached 1.010 or less - Jack's instructions don't
mention racking the wine until about day 30. Should I rack it around day 7
or day 30? Do I run the risk of giving the wine a "yeasty" taste if I wait
to rack it?

Brandon

Brandon:

Some kits add bentonite before fermentation, some after; your kit
obviously before. You can add it later but you might need to adjust
the amount - I think the theory is you'd need more after fermentation
than before.

The racking - per Jack's instructions, the wine is made in the carboy
from the beginning, so there is no need to rack at sg 1.010. Kit
instructions want you to use a plastic bucket/fermentor for the first
stage of fermentation - if you do that, you need to transfer to a
carboy to avoid oxidation, i.e., while the wine is still producing
enough CO2 to protect it.

If you're really new to this, you might want to do 1 or 2 kits exactly
per instructions to see what you get and then start fiddling. Or do 2
batches of the same kit side by side and compare. If you don't follow
the instructions and things go wrong, your kit warranty will be void.

Pp

"Brandon" > wrote in message >...
> I've read Jack Keller's? Extended Instruction for Making Wines from Kits and
> have a few questions after comparing Jack's instructions with the
> instructions from the wine kit. I'm fairly certain Jack's instructions will
> produce a better wine, but I'm new a this and would like some clarification.
>
> A few differences I noticed:
>
> Following the wine kit instructions, The first item is to add the Bentonite
> with a half gallon on water and Jack's instruction say to add Bentonite
> around day 29. Any idea why this would be so different?
>
> Another difference is according to the wine kit, I should rack the wine
> after day 7 or when the SG reached 1.010 or less - Jack's instructions don't
> mention racking the wine until about day 30. Should I rack it around day 7
> or day 30? Do I run the risk of giving the wine a "yeasty" taste if I wait
> to rack it?
>
> Brandon

Thank you for the advice.

I'm using a V-Vessel System, so racking the wine only consists of closing a
valve at the bottom of the fermenter and removing, cleaning, sanitizing, and
reattaching the collection bulb. There is some remaining head-space within
the system, which is currently fermenting 23 liters of wine, but could hold
about 25 liters, I think.

I'll make the wine per the instructions since this is my first kit wine and
see how the wine finishes.

Brandon