Forgotten project, checking before I chuck it

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Flon18

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The beginning of last March I started my first wine kit, soon after I broke my arm and never touched it again. I got as far as racking into the carboy and air locking. The directions say the next step was stabilizing and clearing. Sounds kinda important.


So If any one can give me a hint whats in there now it would be appreciated? And what my next steps should be. thanks
 
Don't take this as gospel, as I only brew beer but:

Stabilizing is used to inhibit bacteria and mold growth. I personally would not count our wine out however. There is a chance that nothing is wrong so I would progress as normal (maybe sneak a taster to verify) and carry on. What's the wost that can happen?
 
if i read right your saying that it fermented and was racked off trub/lees into a second carboy for clearing? if this is correct it should be fine as long as you kept the airlock filled with fluid, i would rack it again let it sit for a month then bottle.
 
By now it is most likely extremely clear. Check that it hasn't oxidized by trying a sample of it. Here is Wine Speculator's definition of oxidized:
Describes wine that has been exposed too long to air and taken on a brownish color, losing its freshness and perhaps beginning to smell and taste like Sherry or old apples. Oxidized wines are also called maderized or sherrified.
If it hasn't oxidized or you find the taste fine, then you can continue the process and stabilize.

What you should do is rack into another carboy, don't grab any of the trub and then stabilize and degas (with spoon or something like a mixer that you can attach to a drill). Don't add the clarifying agent, it is only useful when trying to make kits in short periods of time. Let it sit another 2 weeks, take a sample of it and check for clarity. You want to degas again before bottling unless you are filtering. Then just bottle in wine bottles, cork them and you should have some pretty good wine.

To give you hope, I can tell you that one wine that I did (Winexpert Limited Edition Brunello) spent a total of 13 weeks in carboy before I stabilized it. I have a customer where I work that usually leaves his wines in carboys 6 months. One of them he had left 1.5 years and it was fine. If this is a red wine, your only problem might be oxidization, if the carboy wasn't filled to the top. And even then, if you let it undisturbed, the CO2 blanket on top of it may very well have protected it.

Stuff happens, most of the times wine forgives. Wine has the advantage of being quite acid (pH around 3-3.5 IIRC) and high in alcohol 11-13%, compared to beer.
 
I agree with mrfocus- except it may not even need to be degassed. Take out a sample, put it in a little glass, cover and shake. If it's not bubbly, you don't even need to degas it. It may have sat long enough for the gas to mostly disapate.

I'd taste it, as the others said, and if it's not terrible, I'd rack into some campden (one tablet per gallon, crushed and dissolved) and bottle it.
 
To my surprise, the air lock must not have gone that dry cuss it taists like wine.

OK next step Im going to rack it to remove the sediment at the bottom.

The directions gave me metabisulphite and sorbate. Do I ad them or I also have campden from another project that I never started. It seems to have been degassed.

If I ad the camden how long before I bottle or can this be one step.



Hey thanks awesome quick responses and the lack of forum ass holes who yell at stupid questions this is very incuraging.
 
The directions gave me metabisulphite and sorbate. Do I ad them or I also have campden from another project that I never started. It seems to have been degassed.

If I ad the camden how long before I bottle or can this be one step.



Hey thanks awesome quick responses and the lack of forum ass holes who yell at stupid questions this is very incuraging.

What you should do now is dissolve the sulfite and the sorbate in a little water, add it to the carboy (or bottling bucket, if you're bottling it), and rack the wine into it. Put the tip of the tubing at the very bottom, into the solution, so that it enters the carboy/bucket at the bottom, and swirls around some to mix. You can go ahead and bottle it from there if you'd like. It doesn't need to sit at all.
 
the kit also has isingglass icchtyocolle but i cant find it in the directions

should I add that as well


thanks alot im real exited now!
 
Ok last thing it says if I want it to age more than 6 months I should add more metabisulphite witch i dont have can I use some of the campen will that help?

thanks
 
the kit also has isingglass icchtyocolle but i cant find it in the directions

should I add that as well


thanks alot im real exited now!
 
No, not if you're bottling now. The isinglass is a clarifier- and usually only used in kits because you rush to bottle. Is it pretty clear? I would think it would be!
 
So its owe two weeks later. I bottled right out of the carboy with the lees on the bottom. Its ok ish. Im going to bury it in the cellar and forget about it for a wile. My question is is that because I didnt rack it there is some very small particles in it. a few of the bottles when disturbed show a little smokyness. Will this effect the tast? Should I un bottle and let it all settle out more in a carboy for a wile and then go threw the hole bottling process again.

thanks for your help so far
 
Seems as if you made the correct decision. Don't bother transferring it anymore. The lees will settle in the bottles, and the wine will clear with time. The ones with lees may exhibit some slight off-notes, but you run a greater risk of infection/oxidation with re-bottling.

Not to be harsh, but a quick click of the spell check button would likely make your posts a lot more legible.
 
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