First kit wine

[RevA]

After 10 plus years of brewing and winemaking.

I started my first kit wine today. I did skip the EC1118 and go for 71B. So we shall see what happens.

 

[Yooper]

I make a lot of wine kits to fill out my other wines. They are easy, pretty decent (especially the really expensive ones- they are quite good), and we love having kegged table wine on hand.

 

[Tartan1]

I make a lot of wine kits to fill out my other wines. They are easy, pretty decent (especially the really expensive ones- they are quite good), and we love having kegged table wine on hand.

I was considering kegging my wine but wasn't sure how to dispense it from the keg. Do you use CO2 to pressurise and use a tap at the other end? I don't necessarily want a carbonated wine, thats why I have not attempted this method yet.

 

[Yooper]

I don’t pressurize it, and use co2 only to push it out. It works for me.

 

[Raptor99]

I don’t pressurize it, and use co2 only to push it out. It works for me.

Once you finish serving, do you release the CO2 pressure, and store it that way?

Interesting, I may have to try this. It wouldn't take much pressure to serve the wine.

 

[bwible]

I was considering kegging my wine but wasn't sure how to dispense it from the keg. Do you use CO2 to pressurise and use a tap at the other end? I don't necessarily want a carbonated wine, thats why I have not attempted this method yet.

You would use nitrogen to keg wine. I have done it. If you don’t want to fill and cork 30 bottles.

I used to have a store and I sold those kits years ago. Never had a bad experience with any of them. Wine making is all chemistry. The chemistry is all done for you. And they give you everything you need in little numbered packets. Follow the instructions and it will be great.

 

[Yooper]

Once you finish serving, do you release the CO2 pressure, and store it that way?

Interesting, I may have to try this. It wouldn't take much pressure to serve the wine.

No, I don't do anything to the kegs. I don't have any leaks in them but I don't top off with c02 as I don't want to carbonate the wine. I have reds in the main house, whites in my cool basement. I give it just enough c02 to push, then turn it off. I've used those 'chargers' too, but they seem to only work for a short while. I could buy an inert gas system, but I've been doing it this way for about 17 years so it's fine.

 

[General Sterling Price]

Gonna ferment my first wine kits (one red and one white) soon as well. My experience with beer tells me water is NOT just water....any advise on treating my water beforehand? I'll use a smidge of campden to de-chlorinate, but what about water profile and pH? Thanks.

 

[RevA]

Gonna ferment my first wine kits (one red and one white) soon as well. My experience with beer tells me water is NOT just water....any advise on treating my water beforehand? I'll use a smidge of campden to de-chlorinate, but what about water profile and pH? Thanks.

I tend to use RO water and only adjust the pH if it needs to be adjusted

 

[Raptor99]

I use my well water. I adjust the pH of the must if necessary after all the ingredients are added. I think that good tasting water will make good tasting wine. I don't think that the precise water profile matters as much for wine as it does for beer.

 

[bernardsmith]

I would suggest that you use spring water rather than tap water but absent problems with chlorine or chloramine, your wine is going to have a pH of a little above 3, a TA of around 6 - 8 g/L (depending on whether red or white) and an ABV of around 10- 13%. Very different from beer where you need a pH of about 5.4 to mash the grains effectively with an ABV of around 4 - 6%.

 

[General Sterling Price]

Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[DanIAm]

If you want to keg...

There are kegs that have an inner bag. Gas (can be anything, including humble compressed air) squeezes the bag - as opposed to what happens in an ordinary keg, fill the headspace and squeeze the liquid directly. Gas isn't in contact with liquid, so there is no interaction (e.g. carbonation or oxidisation)

They are cheap (here in Melbourne - $20). It's a plastic, commercial keg - it's disposable, so that beer shipped at great distances doesn't have the high return cost of empty kegs. In saying they are disposable, you can still rinse/sanitise and reuse.

Example is a Talos keg. https://kegland.com.au/products/20l-talos-one-way-keg-a-type?_pos=1&_psq=talos&_ss=e&_v=1.0