Modifying a kit wine

[cla]

I've made a few kit wines and followed the directions without modification. Yesterday I was making a Pinot noir kit and decided to take a walk on the wild side. The OSG was 1.084. This looked like I would have an ABV of about 11%. I am not a big Pinot drinker, but I had thought that most Pinots were about 12% ABV. Throwing caution to the wind, I added about a pound of sugar and got a SG of 1.092. Now I am wondering if I made a mistake by trying to do this. I'm also wondering if I could add a few oak chips to it to improve the flavor. The directions for the oak chips say that you should boil them in water first. Do you add that water along with the chips to the must? Any advice on using French or American and how much to use with a Pinot noir? And when are they added to a kit wine and when are they removed?

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

Don't know about the oak but I wouldn't worry about the sugar. I think the 1092 is better. You should be fine. Mike

 

[Heavywalker]

The only kits that I have messed with the sugar content on is the mist wine kits, I bumbed up the ABV and they turned out fine so you should be fine there. As far as adding oak to the kit, I do that to most of the red kits, I like a lot of oak flavor in my wines and usually add additional oak to the kits, just taste every few weeks as you go and when it gets to the point where you like the amount of oak flavor in the wine rack off the oak and continue aging. As far as when to add it depends on what type of oak you have, shavings should be added during fermentation, while chips, cubes, spirals, etc... should be added after primary fermentation. Typically when I add oak I will add the oak that came with the kit per the instructions, once the oak from the kit is fully extracted (about 6 weeks) I taste the wine and go from there.

 

[Turnerdude1]

On most of my wine kits I will sorbate and suffiate then back-sweeten to my taste.... 0.999 or so...

 

[Banzai]

I haven't oaked wine, but with my mead I simply wash the oak chips in vodka. Never had an issue, seems to work well.

Boiling before adding would place in the boil water what you're wanting the wine to extract naturally. I'm thinking that would be significantly less than ideal.

 

[Honda88]

you can also buy oak extract in a bottle for like 3 bucks that you add to the wine before bottling, I dont know how it would compare to wood but its worth a shot.

 

[RobertRGeorge]

Even the French have started adding sugar to their must to adjust the starting brix (a technique called chaptalization). And fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong. It is unusual to have to do so in a kit though because they are usually balanced correctly so that the brix comes out within the proper range when the specified amount of water is added. Did you perhaps add more water than was called for? Pinot noir varies from 11% to 14% naturally.

 

[cla]

Thanks for the help and suggestions. Soaking in vodka makes more sense to me than boiling for 15 minutes and pitching the water. I do have some liquid oak flavoring that I haven't tried yet. I will try that and report back.