Few questions on wine making - beginner.

My first batch is in the middle of aging. Celebration del Mondo - Chilean Cab/merlot.

Few questions:
1) How important is filtering? I've read it can take alter/remove some taste in the wine.

I went from primary fermination to secondary 6.5gal carboy then reracked to the 6.5 gal carboy and topped off... where it has been sitting for about a month. The instructions say to let it sit from 22-45 days then bottle.
2) Is there a difference from bulk aging it in the carboy vs aging in the bottle?

3) Does the temperature during aging make a difference? The instructions says to store it at 50-60 degrees and my wine fluctuates at 65 to 71 degrees.

4) Is it okay to open the airlock and taste the progress of the wine? If so, what do I do when the level drops leaving more wine exposed to air?

5) I've collected all my old wine bottles for bottling. Does anyone have a quick way of removing the labels?

I apologize for all the questions. I'm really excited about wine making and don't want to screw up my first batch

Thanks for your help,

Kris
http://barcoestateswinemakingadventure.blogspot.com/

5. Oxyclean soak will get most of the labels to come right off.

My first batch is bubbling away so I don't know the other answers.

Fairly new to wine, although experienced beer brewer.

1. For kits I don't think I would filter.
2. Again for kits I think it more of a space issue. If you have the room to store the bottles I would bottle them.
3. Temp control is important for wine & beer, I would look into controlling your temps, for a first time kit I would relax and chill out.
4. A small sample is a good idea, make sure to sanitize wine thief or turkey baster or whatever you stick in to the wine.
5. As above, Oxyclean or even hot water soak might do it. You can use a little bit of a citrus based label remover for stubborn glue. I started collecting bottles then decided that it's easier for me to spend a $1 a bottle for the first batch and bought 24 new ones. It also insures that you are dealing with the same size come bottling time and have no corking surprises. BTW - I am doing the lazy man approach and usings ZORKS !

You can also remove labels the old-fashioned way... score them and soak them in hot water. I find they come right off this way. And if you've got one of those new clear plastic labels, Skin-so-Soft will remove the residue.

So I googled ZORKS and checked them out. The have a link there for a free sample. You email them asking for a free sample, I said I was making a batch of wine and want to try them. Yeah, I received a box of about 100 ZORKS half black, the other half red.
Pretty interesting little plastic things but FREE 99. Thanks for this tip.

samc said:

Fairly new to wine, although experienced beer brewer.

5. As above, Oxyclean or even hot water soak might do it. You can use a little bit of a citrus based label remover for stubborn glue. I started collecting bottles then decided that it's easier for me to spend a $1 a bottle for the first batch and bought 24 new ones. It also insures that you are dealing with the same size come bottling time and have no corking surprises. BTW - I am doing the lazy man approach and usings ZORKS !

Click to expand...

I tried your advice. I used HOT water and some dish soap. 70% of the labels came off with minimal scrubbing, the other 30% was a Biatch... I gave up on those and recycled them. I now have about 40 bottles ready to rock and roll.

Thanks

meading_of_minds said:

You can also remove labels the old-fashioned way... score them and soak them in hot water. I find they come right off this way. And if you've got one of those new clear plastic labels, Skin-so-Soft will remove the residue.

Click to expand...

Storing 6 gallons of wine in a 6.5 gallon carboy is too much head space to keep it in there very long at all. With that said aging it in a carboy vrs. bottle will do a few things, in a bottle with varying temps will age the wine faster which will mean that long term storage is not a good idea. Aging it in a carboy is a better idea (with less head space) because its much harder to change the temperature of a 6 gallon volume compared to a 750ml bottle of wine meaning that it will be less issues like oxidation and the such. If aging in the carboy I recommend adding 1/4 tsp of sulfite every 3-4 months to keep up the S02 levels in the wine.
With the stubborn labels I just run a razor scraper down the bottle when they are cold and dry as that removes the glue and paper much easier then when they are warm and sticky, I used to soak them off like that years ago but now use this method on all bottles as its faster for me. I place the bottom of the bottle in the drain hole in the sink to hold it still and then just use the razor scraper in downward motions down the label, make sure the blade is sharp and the straight blades work much better like the ones used to scrape glass or a windshield as they are thinner and slip under the label easier. I would advise you to get a 6 gallon carboy for wine kit making.

barcoestates said:

So I googled ZORKS and checked them out. The have a link there for a free sample. You email them asking for a free sample, I said I was making a batch of wine and want to try them. Yeah, I received a box of about 100 ZORKS half black, the other half red.
Pretty interesting little plastic things but FREE 99. Thanks for this tip.

Click to expand...

Thanks for this! I've been considering purchasing some of these. I found the link and sent off an email. It will give me a chance to try this product. We'll see what I get. My LBH didn't seem to know what these were, LOL.