Ferment the F-Pack?

I was given a Wine Expert Selections Reisling Ice wine kit for x-mas. However, I hate sweet wine. Should I leave the F-pack out entirely or should I mix it into the must at the start and allow it to ferment?

Also, which of the following yeast would you recommend to make this into a dry wine?:
-EC-111e
-K1V-1116
-71B-1122
-Cote de blanc

Nothing will make a Riesling into a dry red, it is a white. Add flaver pack at secondary if you don't want sweet. I would use the 1122, it can be dry and still have its fruit taste, my opinion that MAKES A GOOD RIESLING. I

mmadmikes1 said:

Nothing will make a Riesling into a dry red, it is a white. Add flaver pack at secondary if you don't want sweet. I would use the 1122, it can be dry and still have its fruit taste, my opinion that MAKES A GOOD RIESLING. I

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Sorry. i meant dry wine. Not thinking well this morning.

Thanks for the help.

I dont know, these have a pretty high starting sg sometimes and if so leave it out entirely or it may not finish fermenting and end up very sweet anyways.

Wade E said:

I dont know, these have a pretty high starting sg sometimes and if so leave it out entirely or it may not finish fermenting and end up very sweet anyways.

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Good point. The kit instructions say OG should be 1.155-1.165. This looks to be w/o the f-pack. According to my hydrometer, potential alcohol would be over 20%. It looks like the yeast will not be able to ferment this dry.

I'm guessing that this is a long-shot, but.... Is there any chance of getting decent results from diluting the kit with either extra water or maybe welches white grape juice to get a 5-gallon batch of dry wine?

Why not follow the directions with the kit, and use the yeast included?

Total waste of money to buy an Ice Wine kit and not make Ice Wine with it.

Make it as designed and give it out as gifts next year. Fpack would contain sorbate, and sg is extremely high most yeast will have issues getting started let alone finishing in the style range.

Also could just see where it finishes on gravity and skip the adding the fpack all together

DoctorCAD said:

Total waste of money to buy an Ice Wine kit and not make Ice Wine with it.

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As stated in my original post, it was a gift. I did not buy it.

Make it as designed and give it out as gifts next year. Fpack would contain sorbate, and sg is extremely high most yeast will have issues getting started let alone finishing in the style range.

Also could just see where it finishes on gravity and skip the adding the fpack all together

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I think this is what I'm going to do. Just make the kit without the f-pack and give it away if it turns out too sweet for me.

PAC762 said:

I think this is what I'm going to do. Just make the kit without the f-pack and give it away if it turns out too sweet for me.

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I was told on another forum recently that if I left the f-pack out of my Blackberry Merlot that I would be depriving the wine of a good bit of flavor that was designed to be included in the wine.
I was also told that I could put half of the f-pack in with the juice and ferment in the primary... adding the other half at the end of fermentation just prior to adding sulfide and sorbate... or was it after adding the chemicals.
Anyway, if this would work why couldn't you add the entire f-pack up front? Surely it doesn't contain that much sorbate?
Or... add the f-pack after primary fermentation has begun. Sorbate will not stop a good strong fermentation... it will only impede a stalled fermentation from restarting.
Hey... what do you have to lose? I bet this will make a nice, flavorful, dry wine.
Good luck...
Bill

It may be a Little Alcoholic but ha why do we drink

This will not ferment to dry even with the yeast supplied with that starting gravity and will end up a little sweet or still very sweet so dont add the f pack in the beginning or it may not even ferment at all due to extreme sugars.

Hate it when your right, Wade. Here here make it to directions with out the f pack and give it away, hell it was free, share the wealth

I made the Wine Expert Okanagan Peach Ice Wine kit and the grape juice alone was pretty sweet, and very tasty. I made it according to the instructions including using the F-pack. It was fantastic. Since then my girlfriend has me chasing down all the Peach Ice kits I can find so her supply will not run out anytime soon.

I recently started another batch and added six pounds of honey and a couple gallons of water to make a Peach Ice Melomel. Its perking away right now and smells wonderfull. I can hardly wait to wrap my lips around a glass of this stuff.

Since the F-pack is the last thing you do (add) I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it doesn't make a pretty good wine on its own.

Another thought is those F-pack may have non-fermentable sweetners in them.

mmadmikes1 said:

Hate it when your right, Wade. Here here make it to directions with out the f pack and give it away, hell it was free, share the wealth

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That's a good idea Mike... The Blackberry Merlot I just racked to secondary tasted pretty darned good before I added the f-pack. Sounds like a plan to me.



Bill

I did the German Apple Reisling kit and added the F-pack to the primary because I read this kit was pretty sweet if done by the directions. Well it fermented the F-pack just fine and was a pretty darn good wine. Everybody raved how good it was and it sure didnt last long.

I fermented the F-pack on accident for the first kit wine I ever made. [a strawberry merlot.] Still turned out fine, although I didn't have the original to compare it to.