dizzymizzy

Recipes 

Hey, guys. I'm on my phone, so I can effectively search for this topic at the moment. I apologize if it has already been covered.

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I have a 5 gal. true brew beer kit. i was wondering if i could make wine in it, if i got a 15 Liter prepackaged wine-kit and scaled everything down to 5 gals. instead of 6?

i would be wasting a gallon, and im not sure if it would even make sense economically, but i am basically thinking out loud.

any comments?

bendavanza

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Rather than waste a gallon, get a gallon jug for the extra. You could find one filled with juice, wine, etc.

malkore

Recipes 

if its a plastic bucket fermenter, Do NOT do it. beer buckets smell like beer and wine buckets smell like wine. mixing them causes off-smells.

and most wine kits are meant to be made exactly to their volume. otherwise the acidity isn't balanced, you use too much sulfite, sorbate, etc...

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10

bendavanza

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True, I was assuming glass.

mmadmikes1

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Some wine kits taste better when converted to 5 gallons using all the juice. Its the ones Costco sells(forget the brand).I buy them now and then for the juice to fix other wines I messed up. Made a couple to see and they were boring made at 6 gallons

Wade E

Recipes 

Some of the smaller kits(7-10 liter) may taste better and produce a fuller bodied wine when not brought up to the 6 gallon mark but you could also run into the problema of not fermenting properly as stated above due to an improper Ph and TA balance and also depending on the varietal may also have too high an sg. I also dont recomend using a plastic primary that will be used for beer again to do wine in. I dont think youll taste much beer in your wine(unless youre making a white wine) but you will more likely taste wine in your beer.

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Brewing

dizzymizzy

Recipes 

yikes. OK, thanks for all the helpful insight.

malkore

Recipes 

just re-read and realized this... 15 liters is only 3.9 gallons. If the kit is for making 15 liters, you're not scaling down to a 5 gallon batch, you're scaling up, and the wine will be terribly thin bodied and low in alcohol content.

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10