Sangria wine kit started

 I started a sangria wine kit we picked up at Baders. Simple kit, mix water with fruit juice and yeast and wait. We'll see how it turns out in 2 months. I used a Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast.

The wine kit.

From their site:

Vintner's Best® Fruit Wine Bases are all-natural and made with real fruit juice. They are blended from the same formulations used by commercial wineries and allow you to avoid straining out the fruit pieces. Vintner's Best® Fruit Wine bases make 5 gallons of high-quality fruit wine at around 10% ABV. Easy, convenient re-sealable packaging with no pH or acid adjustments allows you to scale depending on your batch size. All you have to do is add yeast and water.

A blend of juice concentrates, corn syrup, citric acid and natural flavor designed to make a fermentable base for a sangria style wine blend at 18.6 Brix. The product is blended, pasteurized and can be stored at ambient temperature.

Recommended Yeast: Lalvin K1V-1116 or Red Star Premier Classique

 

 

Initial SG: 1.072

Next Steps:

1. 7/15/21: Started
2. Wait 2 weeks
3. 7/30/21: Rack to secondary carboy after 2 weeks
4. Wait 4 weeks
5. 8/27/21: Test SG, if above 1.0, let ferment, if below, continue
6. Rack it
7. Add 1 crushed campden per gallon to wine
8. Add 1/2 tsp of potassium sorbate per gallon
9. Stir in
10. Wait 1 week to clear
11. 9/3/21: Sweeten to taste using wine conditioner?
    
12. Bottle
13. Drink now or wait up to 6 months
    

Wine conditioner info: https://blog.homebrewing.org/wine-conditioner-sweeten-wine/

New wine kit started: Stags Leap Merlot

L and & I picked up a wine kit, a Stags Leap Merlot, includes grape skins. We started it 5/13/2020, should be ready by Yule..

The kit.

The Calif merlot has been bottled

The wine has been bottled using #8 corks, we had to get a new corker to handle them.
29 bottles of wine, tastes really young now, shall have to see how it tastes in a month.

Next batch of wine: Californian Merlot

Starteda batch of Wine Experts Californian merlot yesterday. I have it on a heating pad to give it heat during this winter. We'll see how it goes.
Wine Experts Californian Merlot

Spanish tempranillo bottled!

The wine has been bottled. 27 full bottles and a half bottle for cooking with. Looking forward to seeing how it ages.

Wine update

Checked the wine in the primary fermenter, the SG is 1.000. It needs to be below 1.010, so we need to wait a few more days. The weather is cooler so the house is cooler so that makes the primary fermentation go slower.

New wine started

L and I started a new batch of wine last Thurs night. It's a Spanish Tempranillo, a spicy/peppery red wine. Followed the normal kit, looking forward to how it turns out in 6 weeks.

We want to start doing wine from grapes and not from a kit, so we are doing the kits so we can learn and know how to run the entire process.

The wine we decided to do.

Spanish Tempranillo


Notes for myself:

• starting gravity was 0.090

Future wine?

The next wine kit I want to try:

Island Mist Sangria Zinfandel

1st batch of wine is done!

The first batch of wine is done! Tastes a little young, but it should age well. Ended up with 27 bottles of wine.

Cost breakdown:

• Brewing kit: $100
• Wine kit: $65 (was half cost w/brewing kit, normally $130)
• Additional 1 time cost brewing items*: $62
• Total cost: $227
• Cost per bottle: $8.40

*2nd carboy, Mixing/degassing wand, labels, foil tops

The wine has been bottled!

The wine has been bottled! 6 gallons equals 27 full bottles, 1 half bottle, and a half bottle of lees/wine that will be filtered and used for cooking.

Woohoo!! Time to drink!

The wine has been racked!!!

The wine has been racked... SG was still .992 so the stabalizing step worked. Clarity is good, the wine in a glass was clear and dark red. Nice fruity bouquet to the nose and a good flavor on the tongue. Nice fruity flavors and a taste of oak. I'm really happy with the way this is turning out.
Next step is to let it clarify for another 2 weeks at least then on to bottling.
Then to drinking!

Wine update

Step 3 - stabilizing and clearing has been done. Had to buy yet another tool (hopefully the last) to mix/degas the wine. Worked well, I only spilled a little wine. Now it's time to sit and wait while it settles.
SG was .992

Wine has been rack'd to the carboy

The wine has been transferred to the carboy. Still quite murky, in another 7 days we'll stop fermentation and start clarifying.

Specific gravity was 1.000

Wine update

The first step of the wine is done, the juice is in the primary fermenter and bubbling away:

The wood chips are oak for flavoring the wine.
Hopefully this next weekend I'll be racking it to the carboy.

Initial gravity was 1.100

Time to try... Wine!

L and I bought this as an early Yule present for yourselves:
Pinot Noir Wine Kit. It makes 30 bottles, it was half cost when we bought the basic wine kit supplies. This will be interesting to try and see how it turns out.

The brochure for the wine:
New Zealand Pinot Noir

And the instructions from the wine kit manufacturer
WineExpert Instructions

Instructions from the brew shop:
Bader Brewing Instructions

Strawberry wine taste test

I opened a bottle of strawberry wine on 12/21/2009. It had a slight smell of strawberries, but the taste was really acidic. It was drinkable, but not enjoyable. I hope that with more aging it will mellow.

Strawberry wine bottled

I bottled the strawberry wine last weekend. 6 bottles for 1 gallon. The wine has a nice berry taste, but needs to age to take the edge off of it. I did not really notice a hard alcohol zing to it. I am looking forward to drinking this in 6 months.

Strawberry wine racked off

Racked off the strawberry wine last night to a new carboy (1 gallon). Smell reminds me a little of a bad parenting experience (I won't sicken you with the story), took a small sip, strong flavor but I expect it will mellow. Needs lots of settling. Lots of pink particles. Does not look appetizing. Shall see how it goes.

Strawberry wine

The kids and I went strawberry/olallieberry picking Saturday. Part of the strawberries went into my first batch of strawberry wine. Went well, until this AM. I woke up, wandered into the kitchen to discover strawberry must all over the counter, some on the floor, and some on the ceiling.. The strawberry must had foamed and plugged the airlock so it eventually built up pressure to blow the cap off of the airlock. Not to bad of a mess, but a good lesson to learn, usually I put new brews in the living room (on carpet) to ferment.