Hard chunks in wine kit concentrate (big like rocks!!!)
 

I pulled out an OLD wine kit from the basement and decided to make it.
It is probably about 6 years old or more. Anyhow, went to dump the
contents of the concentrate bag into the primary fermenter and it was
full of huge hard chunks. Some were bigger than golf balls! What are
these? Has the sugar in the juice crystalized? What I am wondering is
if I should just cut the bag open and dump it all into the ferementer
and see what happens. As far as my limited scientific knowledge tells
me, I can't get sick from the stuff!??? Any ideas what to do here? Am
I wasting my time trying to make this kit? Could it still turn out?
Has this happened to anyone else???? Just wondering. Thanks,

Rob

My bet is that the lumps are crystallised sugar.. I would open the bag and
pour into a bucket through a muslin filter to extract the crystals. Then
break up the crystals . I would expect that you will have to add water to
the must -- so add the broken up crystallised sugar to the water and heat
gently until the sugar dissolves. (Crystallised sugar is hard to dissolve in
cold water!). Let the water cool and then add to your kit in the normal way.
I would buy a new packet of yeast because at 6 years old it may have
difficulty in resurrecting itself from near death!
The Juice may have deteriorated as well but, as you rightly assume, it may
not eventually turn into the best wine you have ever tasted but it won't
hurt you to drink it

"bertbarndoor" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I pulled out an OLD wine kit from the basement and decided to make it.

> It is probably about 6 years old or more. Anyhow, went to dump the
> contents of the concentrate bag into the primary fermenter and it was
> full of huge hard chunks. Some were bigger than golf balls! What are
> these? Has the sugar in the juice crystalized? What I am wondering is
> if I should just cut the bag open and dump it all into the ferementer
> and see what happens. As far as my limited scientific knowledge tells
> me, I can't get sick from the stuff!??? Any ideas what to do here? Am
> I wasting my time trying to make this kit? Could it still turn out?
> Has this happened to anyone else???? Just wondering. Thanks,
>
> Rob
>

I'm new at winemaking and was wondering what the "typical" shelf-life
of these kits are? It's much cheaper to mail order 2 or 3 kits
(postage kills you on one kit). However, I don't want to sacrifice the
quality of my wines for a few dollars.

I believe WinExpert figures 12 to 18 months (with reasonable storage
conditions). They might be good longer than that, but they should last
at leat that long.

Doug

Could the "chunks" be tannin? What type of kit was it?

It coould be some sort of weird combo of tannin, sugar and tartrate
crystals as well.