First Wine kit. Added too much top up water. Thoughts?

[bkboiler]

Hi, long time brewer, first time winemaker.

I wasn’t detailed enough in making my first kit this morning and stupidly overlooked that i was supposed to top up my WineExpert Pinot Noir kit TO 132 oz, not WITH 132 oz.

That being said, I realized my mistake halfway through and ended up with 164 oz of total reconstituted juice. I checked and the o.g. was 1.072, which wasnt supposed to be lower than 1.085.

Based on the kits instructions, I may have trouble clearing. Any other major problems? I’m wondering if I should dump or just chalk it up to a learning experience.

Any help is appreciated in advance. Thanks!

 

[WTD]

im no expert, im still on my first non kit wine but if you want it over 1.085 and your at 1.072 then i would suggest adding some sugar to bump the OG up to 1.085.

I cant help for anything else like tart or acidity or anything, Still a newbie myself but the graivity is easily fixed

 

[S-Met]

Use your home brew experience and RDWHAHB while you let it ride. You're stll looking at close to 10%abv. Flavor may be a little flatter than the original but not ruined by any means.

 

[bkboiler]

Awesome! Thanks y’all for the replies, I think I’m gonna let it ride...will report back in a little while with results (kit instructions say 4 to 6 weeks) but it may take at least another month for it to age properly.

 

[AkTom]

Or add some frozen juice concentrate.

 

[bkboiler]

oh interesting i hadnt thought of that. So if i started at 1.072 and needed to be at 1.085 for 1.25 gallons, how much would i add? i’m not sure i can measure the sg of juice concentrate with my hydrometer.

 

[PRM]

You're right that you probably won't be able to measure the concentrate with the hydrometer. You can add some to the must, mix and then take the hydrometer reading (assuming you didn't add the yeast yet). Just remember you can't take any out so add just a little bit and see what effect it has.

 

[bkboiler]

ahh, gotcha. i did add the yeast already. In theory, since i know the og and target, could i mix a trial volume (lets sat 20mL) of frozen concentrate with 80mL of water and take the sg of that mixture. From that i can calculate the og of the frozen concentrate and how much i should use to raise my wine’s sugar content.

The part that messes me up (for my lack of knowlege) is that i started with a known amount of bentonite and will for the transfer use a known amount of potassium metabisulfite. my clearing agent volume may also be off (since it’s a kit).
I’d imagine the acidity may get funny...
I bet the yeast pitch rate should stay the same.

Would I be walking into a minefield? I’m tempted to take an “if it aint broke approach”, but I dont know how bad “weak” wine will taste ;P

Thanks again for your help!

 

[PRM]

ahh, gotcha. i did add the yeast already. In theory, since i know the og and target, could i mix a trial volume (lets sat 20mL) of frozen concentrate with 80mL of water and take the sg of that mixture. From that i can calculate the og of the frozen concentrate and how much i should use to raise my wine’s sugar content.

You definitely put more thought into this than I did and that's totally what you could to do correct the must. I only mentioned not pitching the yeast since you might not get an accurate representation of how much to add depending on how much it's fermented already.

I also don't think the other things would be much problem since you have the same volume of liquid even though you have less fermentables in the liquid.

Worst case, you have 6 gallons of cooking wine or a candidate for mulled wine in the winter.

 

[bkboiler]

fg was at .994 and kit said anything less than .996 was good, so i fined and degassed and racked into a 1 gal jug with a cap on it... smell was good, didnt taste tho!
bottling in 2 weeks when i return from vacation, then will have first bottle maybe 2 months after that...