Last year I was short my regular carboy so I made up a California
Cabernet Sauvignon kit to 19.5 litres rather than the suggested 23.5
litres. The results were incredible. The stuff tastes like $20+ a
bottle wine and is only just over a year old.

I thought about this for bit to try and figure out what happened.
I figure the kit makers are trying to get the most out of their juice
so they make a kit to come in at 1.080, just above the level to make
wine that will keep (19 Brix, 10.1 %). By reducing the water I
increased the quality by 20%.

Try it.

Boatman

Whew,
I purchased an online kit that makes 5 gallons, most premium kits make 6
gallons. For secondary fermentation I bought a 5 gallon carboy. Seems to
me, I may be better off, just making a 5 gallon batch rather than a 6
gallon, and I will save on purchasing another carboy?
Just a thought.
Dave in NJ
wrote in message
...

Last year I was short my regular carboy so I made up a California
Cabernet Sauvignon kit to 19.5 litres rather than the suggested 23.5
litres. The results were incredible. The stuff tastes like $20+ a
bottle wine and is only just over a year old.

I thought about this for bit to try and figure out what happened.
I figure the kit makers are trying to get the most out of their juice
so they make a kit to come in at 1.080, just above the level to make
wine that will keep (19 Brix, 10.1 %). By reducing the water I
increased the quality by 20%.

Try it.

Boatman

Let the newsgroup scroll proclaim that scribed upon its
pages in :


Last year I was short my regular carboy so I made up a California
Cabernet Sauvignon kit to 19.5 litres rather than the suggested 23.5
litres. The results were incredible. The stuff tastes like $20+ a
bottle wine and is only just over a year old.

Our local oenology guru recommends making wine kits using just the
concentrate, with no water dilution at all. Much lower yield, much higher
quality.


--
Allen McBroom
www.NPSTKD.com
Remove WOOF when replying by email

Our local oenology guru recommends making wine kits using just the
concentrate, with no water dilution at all. Much lower yield, much higher
quality.


I'm about ready to start my second kit (the first is still in its infancy).
It comes with 16 litres of juice/concentrate. This thread implies that I
can make 16, 19.5, or 23.5 litres of wine. Sure wish I had samples of each
to try before deciding what to do.

Let's say that I decide to make 19.5 instead of 23.5 litres. Should I
reduce the rest of the ingredients proportionally (oak, metabisulate,
sorbat, bentonite, ...)?

By not diluting the concentrate as recommended by the Kit's
manufacturer, you may increase the quality of the wine, but you may
run into some problems. You may increase the level of alcohol above of
what was originally intended, making the wine more potent (if this is
what you want you could just spike your wine with vodka), but you will
also increase the wine's harshness and unbalance its flavor. If the
yeast provided by the kit is not alcohol tolerant, you may not ferment
all the fermentable sugars and the wine could end up sweeter than what
was originally intended. In my experience, when I make 6 gallon (23,5
L) wine kits in a 5 gallon (19.5 L) batch, I need to age the wine more
than 1 year before it looses the harsh flavor, while kits made as
recommended, they are drinkable 6-8 months after bottling.
Unfortunately, I have not made the same kit, side-by-side using both
methods. That would be the best way to compare both methods and sample
the wine at various time points to determine which is best. However, I
am afraid that this will change depending on the type of kit and class
of the grape.


Last year I was short my regular carboy so I made up a California
Cabernet Sauvignon kit to 19.5 litres rather than the suggested 23.5
litres. The results were incredible. The stuff tastes like $20+ a
bottle wine and is only just over a year old.

Our local oenology guru recommends making wine kits using just the
concentrate, with no water dilution at all. Much lower yield, much higher
quality.

I used the ingredients in the kit as supplied without reduction.
Everything stayed in balance to produce an excellent wine. My kit was
about 7.5 litres. If I fermented at that concentration I would be
getting into ice wine territory!

Check the specific gravity and compare against the chart at
http://www.honeyflowfarm.com/conversionchart.htm to find out what your
juice concentrate will produce. Most wine yeasts won't produce more
than 14%. Look at the Brix link on the http://honeycreek.us/ site to
get an idea of sugar content for grapes and other fruit, should you
want to experiment with other fruit wines. I had some strawberry wine
last week that knocked my socks off. I experiment with small
quantities in old gallon glass jugs. just for fun. Recently I am
looking into wine vinegars as a way to spend some of my wines that
have gone past. Anyway, I ramble on, back to your descision ...

How about splitting the batch?

Something I have done in the past is to split a batch. Let one half go
longer before stopping it, so it is drier, for drinking with meals.
The rest is for social occasions. If I want something in between, I
can mix them later. They are all the same batch. no problem. Apply the
same idea to the different concentrations


On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 04:17:12 GMT, "Dave"
wrote:


Our local oenology guru recommends making wine kits using just the
concentrate, with no water dilution at all. Much lower yield, much higher
quality.


I'm about ready to start my second kit (the first is still in its infancy).
It comes with 16 litres of juice/concentrate. This thread implies that I
can make 16, 19.5, or 23.5 litres of wine. Sure wish I had samples of each
to try before deciding what to do.

Let's say that I decide to make 19.5 instead of 23.5 litres. Should I
reduce the rest of the ingredients proportionally (oak, metabisulate,
sorbat, bentonite, ...)?

I agree that adding sugar to a weak juice is a waste ( unless you are
making grappa!) I don't make my kits to more than 24 brix (1.100 S.G.)
The alcohol will stay in balance with the flavor. Kit wine is
balanced.

If you live in a warm place perhaps you can filter your wine or rack
it more often to get rid of harshness. My Italian friend racks his
monthly like they did in the old counrty. Get the wine off the
sediment to improve the flavour he says.

I think filtering and my cold basement helps the most.

Mike

On 16 Oct 2003 04:30:44 -0700, (Esteban) wrote:

By not diluting the concentrate as recommended by the Kit's
manufacturer, you may increase the quality of the wine, but you may
run into some problems. You may increase the level of alcohol above of
what was originally intended, making the wine more potent (if this is
what you want you could just spike your wine with vodka), but you will
also increase the wine's harshness and unbalance its flavor. If the
yeast provided by the kit is not alcohol tolerant, you may not ferment
all the fermentable sugars and the wine could end up sweeter than what
was originally intended. In my experience, when I make 6 gallon (23,5
L) wine kits in a 5 gallon (19.5 L) batch, I need to age the wine more
than 1 year before it looses the harsh flavor, while kits made as
recommended, they are drinkable 6-8 months after bottling.
Unfortunately, I have not made the same kit, side-by-side using both
methods. That would be the best way to compare both methods and sample
the wine at various time points to determine which is best. However, I
am afraid that this will change depending on the type of kit and class
of the grape.


Last year I was short my regular carboy so I made up a California
Cabernet Sauvignon kit to 19.5 litres rather than the suggested 23.5
litres. The results were incredible. The stuff tastes like $20+ a
bottle wine and is only just over a year old.

Our local oenology guru recommends making wine kits using just the
concentrate, with no water dilution at all. Much lower yield, much higher
quality.