Quick question about my wine kit

[jstampler]

I started a kit of Vintner's Reserve Pinot Noir last Friday and it says to take a reading after 5-7 days and rack it to the carboy when it reached 1.010. My problem is, I had something come up that forced me out of town until this Sunday which will be day #9 of it being in my primary bucket. Will this ruin the wine or have a negative effect on the taste?

 

[jamesngalveston]

what is the sg now.

 

[jstampler]

what is the sg now.

I dont know. I had to leave home on Tuesday which was only day 4. I planned on taking a reading the next day and if it was ready I would transfer but unfortunately I had to leave.

 

[jamesngalveston]

it may be done with fermentation, which means it may be dry. If too dry, you may have to back sweeten it a little.
I have only made 1 kit wine (white zin)..

 

[DoctorCAD]

One of the best things about wine making is the absolute lack of time restraints (within reason, of course).

Don't worry, a few days one way or the other wont hurt anything.

 

[texcan2000]

Agree with Doc above. I left my very same kit for 10 days in primary before moving to an oak barrel. Pinot is the one red kit I don't tweak (other than barrel, an extra 1/4 teaspoon of K meta and longer bulk aging times) and they turn out great!

 

[jstampler]

Agree with Doc above. I left my very same kit for 10 days in primary before moving to an oak barrel. Pinot is the one red kit I don't tweak (other than barrel, an extra 1/4 teaspoon of K meta and longer bulk aging times) and they turn out great!

Now that my mind is at ease, would you suggest leaving it in the carboy for longer than the suggested 10 days before adding the last couple packets (I assume its k-meta and sorbate?) and bottling?

 

[texcan2000]

I follow the the kit directions loosely on the timing of additions of included k meta a k sorbate. Just make sure it has fermented out with hydrometer reading or taste. I bulk age for convenience as I have a lot of carboys. The extra 1/4 teaspoon of k meta just helps further prevention of oxidation and hasn't had any impact on the tastings of young wines to my taste buds anyway. Also it helps if you want to age some of the wine longer. Further bulk aging allows me not to use the clarifiers or need to vigorous shake to degas. Time does these steps for you.
Other tweaks that help make cheap kits into very good wines for me are 5 gallon American white oak barrels from arts and crafts Mexico on eBay. Great craftsmanship and a really good guy. Can pick them up 2 for 240 dollars shipped or 1 for 150 I think. Also, adding 2 cups soaked red raisins to cheap red kits, golden to white kits. You could also experiment with oak tannins and cubes.
If you don't want to bulk age you can just follow the directions of the kit and still make quite decent wine but they will still need age in the bottle.

 

[texcan2000]

Oh, some people don't add the sorbate when making dry wines. I haven't tried that yet and all the wines I've made are dry. I have started a white which I want to make into a sparkling wine so will definitely skip the sorbate on that one.

 

[jstampler]

Does anyone know what kind of yeast is used in this kit? I'm thinking about bottling this weekend and making some apfelwein on the lees but I want to make sure it will come out ok.

 

[Yooper]

Does anyone know what kind of yeast is used in this kit? I'm thinking about bottling this weekend and making some apfelwein on the lees but I want to make sure it will come out ok.

I'm not a fan of re-using wine lees, as the wine is probably 12.5% or more. That's pretty toxic to yeast, and would create some issues. Since wine yeast is .49 cents a package up to a dollar, it'd be better to get some new yeast in my opinion.

 

[jstampler]

I'm not a fan of re-using wine lees, as the wine is probably 12.5% or more. That's pretty toxic to yeast, and would create some issues. Since wine yeast is .49 cents a package up to a dollar, it'd be better to get some new yeast in my opinion.

Would it be okay to pitch some Montrachet on top of the lees just to save myself from having to clean out the carboy?

 

[Yooper]

Would it be okay to pitch some Montrachet on top of the lees just to save myself from having to clean out the carboy?

I wouldn't. The lees don't taste very good, and the yeast has been damaged by the high alcohol environment, and cleaning and sanitizing is important as well as pretty quick and easy.

 

[jstampler]

I ended up just cleaning it out. I'm trying to decide what I want to make next and I'm having a really hard time.

By the way, this kit turned out really well. I can't wait to see what its like after it's been in the bottle a few months.