new to wine

[amartin]

Hey All,

I've just started making wine kits for my dad (I have the equipment already), but I have a question about the temperatures. He likes new world whites, and the kits always say you should be fermenting over 20ºC. Except for summer, my house is rarely that warm, usually around 15 or so, and when I make beer I just use yeast that works at that temperature. If I'm really worried, I'll either pitch more yeast or add more oxygen. Is this something people do with wine yeast? I've just been sprinkling the yeast on top. Is a heat belt my best option?

[Juniper Hill]

Which yeast comes with the kit you are making? If its EC 1118, you should be ok at 15 C, will just take a little longer to ferment dry. I've generally used a brew belt during cold winter months.

[mumblecrunch]

I can tell you the yeast will almost certainl work just fine at temperatures lower than 72 - 74 (recommended range). I believe my first batch fermented largely at about 66 - 68oF.

I can also tell you that if the slight CO2 "sparkle" endemic to homebrew wine bothers you that it's only going to be worse if you don't keep the temperature up. Whites don't seem to be as susceptible or maybe it's just not as noticeable or annoying. My wife is extremely sensitive to it in reds, however, and was unable to drink any of our first batch until we started degassing each bottle with a VacuVin wine-saver. Which is annoying and only works so well.

You can drive a lot of the CO2 out by beating it with a drill-mounted device or an appropriate vacuum setup, but you're also risking oxidiation.

Based on some anecdotal info gleaned from teh intarweebs ("You know why nobody ever complained about gassy wine in the old days? Because nobody expected drinkable wine in 6 weeks"), I'm currently experimenting with bulk aging. I have a Winexpert midrange Cab Sauv from October/November that I fined, bottled half of, and put the rest in an 11L carboy. That will be bottled next week.

I am also doing two of the higher-end Winexpert kits. One, an Eclipse Cab Sauv is underway and is bulk aging unfined in a 19L carboy. Every three months I will rack it off, topping up from one of the four bottles that were the difference to 23L. The intention is to age it a year. I basically followed these instructions right here.

[amartin]

Ok, thanks. I don't know what kind of yeast I had, but it's at .994, and is in the degassing few days right now. When I go to clarify it, is it like beer where dropping the temperature will help, or is that a bad idea?

[GAM]

When you filter (you will want to filter) use a vacuum filter system and you will rid all the co2.

Sandy

[amartin]

I didn't plan on using a filter (my dad didn't care last time). What's the deal there, I have to rent a machine from NG and buy filters? Is it expensive? For next time, if I do that does it mean that I won't have to stir the wine a bunch to degas it?

[GAM]

IME unless you bulk age or raise the temp to drive off co2, it may be "gassy". Someone picked up a vac pump for me from Nick. You can use it if you want.

Sandy

[Juniper Hill]

CO2 coems out of solution better when the wine is warm. There is no need to chill a kit wine.

[mumblecrunch]

IME unless you bulk age or raise the temp to drive off co2, it may be "gassy". Someone picked up a vac pump for me from Nick. You can use it if you want.

Sandy

That was me And the pump in question is an aquarium air pump. Suitable for driving wine through a filter with air pressure but it won't do any degassing. You need the jet pump for that and they run a couple hundred bucks unless you get lucky on Kijiji.




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[amartin]

Hey all, thanks for the help. I ended up borrowing my neighbours filter. It's the kind that's not a vacuum, but I degassed it with a spoon before anyway. I haven't tasted it, but dad seems happy with it. So, success!

[amartin]

Ok, another question. The kits always tell you to sanitize your stuff with sodium metabisulphate, and clean it with some other thing I can't remember the name of. Is there any reason I can't just use PBW and star san?

[Juniper Hill]

Ok, another question. The kits always tell you to sanitize your stuff with sodium metabisulphate, and clean it with some other thing I can't remember the name of. Is there any reason I can't just use PBW and star san?

They usually recommend the pink stuff to clean, but PBW work just as well. I typically use the generic version of oxyclean..cheaper than PBW. You could use startsan or iodophor to sanitize instead of the sodium meta if you wish.

[amartin]

Yeah, I have Walmart's Great Value oxygenated detergent instead. Ok, thanks.