Kieselsol and Chitosan

[Greg83]

Hello all,

My father and I are making our very first batch of wine. It is a winexpert kit of Sangiovese. I’m a long time beer brewer and have the basics down. The kit has been sitting in the fermentation chamber at 73 degrees for 16 days.

Tomorrow we will be transferring and degassing and adding the Kieselsol. Do we have to wait till the next day to add the chitosan? Since I’ll be over the house tomorrow I’d like to get it all done in one shot but if not I’ll have him add the chitosan the next day.

Also, I’m about to purchase some bottles, corks and a floor corker. Should we go with #8 or #9 corks? Do these kits get a lot better with age? I was told that if you want to age for more than a year #9 corks are the way to go. If aging more than 3 months the directions say to add extra metabisulphate.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I hope this batch comes out great and we can build on a new hobby together.

 

[jgmillr1]

Yes, you should wait a day before adding the chitosan. This gives the kieselsol time to work before getting dropped by the chitosan.

I'd go with the shop's recommended corks for the corker and bottles you buy.

Keeping the sulfites up is important going in to bottling. Once bottled, there is much less oxidation risk (if you used good corks) and hence you need only a minor amount of "excess" sulfites if aging more than 5 years in the bottle.