Brew King Estate Series Merlot

Certainly nothing out of the ordinary. Let us know the SG tomorrow. I bet it is about finished.

Ray

While it is a little slow (but not out of line) it sounds like it is doing well and still going. If it is down to about 1.000 it should have slowed down. Let us know what BK says.

Ray

BK said it is because I prepared it as a 5 gal batch, not 6 gal batch. and the yeast is sensitive to the higher alcohol content so it may have died off a little prematurely. I was actually told by the store I originally bought the wine equipment from that I should do 5 gal batches unlike what the instructions say. I have since learned that is not ok, but was still using the 5 gal during the first and second stages of fermenting and then topping it up at the end (I have two 5 gal carboy and one 6 gal) and it never had a problem before. Anyway, I am going to stick with the 6 gal in all stages. Know anyone that needs two 5gal carboys?... :-)

For now BK said not to add any more yeast to have it eat up the remaining sugar and that it should be ok, maybe not as dry, but it should be close.

Yes I do know someone who needs 5 gal carboys. You do! You need a mix of sizes. The 6 gal carboy is what you need to start the batch. The 5 gal sizes are great for bulk aging because you can siphon the 6 gal batch over and not have to top up. If you have some overage, get some 1/2 and 1 gal sizes to accommodate it.

Ray

Scott,

If the yeast was the typical Red Star Premier Cuvee or Lalvin EC-1118, then the higher SG of the 5 US gallon volume should not have been a problem. That yeast should have no problem taking that must to dryness, all other factors being favorable. I've only known of one BK kit (Monterey Pinot Noir) that used any other yeast.

Have you calibrated your hydrometer at the same temperature that your wine is at, to make sure that the 1.000 reading you're getting is accurate? Also, what temperature is it at now and was it at when the fermentation first slowed down?

BTW, be sure to save some of this batch at least 2 years -- the BK premium kit reds that we have in the cellar are continuing to improve markedly (and are all 2-3 years old now).

Cheers, Richard

Thanks for your comments Richard. I have not taken the temperture reading when it slowed down so I can't answer you on that. I have not callibrated my hydrometer according to the temperature, I am not sure how to do that.

I will definately save some of the batch for the 2 year mark. How much extra metabisulphite do you add to add it that long? 1/4 teaspoon?

Good point Ray, I will keep them. As for the left over stuff, I'll just bottle it up!!

If all you want to check is the 1.000 mark, just float it in some distilled water. It's calibrating at the upper Brix end that becomes a bit of a procedure to prepare an accurate solution. Personally, I'm too lazy to do it.

The temperature range you will be looking at will have little effect. Most hydrometers are calibrated at 60F, some at 68F. If your must was very cold, it might read .999 but that isn't likely because then it wouldn't be fermenting. Similarly, if it was very hot, say 80F, you might see 1.002, and no good can come from having a finishing fermentation sitting around that temp. IOW, don't worry too much about slight temp inaccuracies. These only become significant on the brewing side, when you could be measuring gravities while the liquid is up in the 150-170F range.

Brian

Scott,

To calibrate your hydrometer, simply fill a vessel with water that is at the same temperature as the wine/must that you are reading, and use the hydrometer to measure the SG of the water. It should read 1.000. If it reads high or low, then you know that the readings of your wine/must are equally high/low.

I usually calibrate my hydrometer every time I use it -- this may sound odd since they shouldn't change over time and generally my starting, fermentation and storage temps are about the same every time. But I have this nasty habit of breaking my hydrometer every 2-3 batches I make, and I've found that they can vary a fair bit. So it's just easier to always check it and be more sure about the readings that I'm getting :-)

Sulphites... It depends how much you have added already. I prescribe to the belief that the less sulphite the better -- i.e. just enough to protect the wine decently, given its specific pH. I purchased a pH meter to measure that, and calculated the target ppm of sulphite that I should have to protect the wine (there's lots of info for that in the NG archives and various books and magazine articles). I then used Chemetrics Titrettes to measure the sulphite levels in my wine, allowing for the possibility that they may give 10-20ppm too high a reading in red wines (according to some folks on this NG). What I found with my many Brew King kits was that the amount of K-metabisulphite provided was generally well over twice as much as is needed. This was true even though I let time in bulk aging do the clearing, which means that I probably rack 2 to 3 more times than the kit instructions call for. I don't add any more to bottles that I intend to keep longer because with a decent cork and a reasonably stable (temperature-wise) storage environment, the normal dosage should be just fine for the 2-5 years that I expect to age my wines. I don't believe I've lost a bottle yet to either excessive oxidation or spoilage. For my friends who are making kits and are wary of over-sulphiting their wines but don't want to bother with the cost and hassle of testing, I normally recommend that they use 1/2 of what is provided in the kit (BTW, the kit manufacturers have typically already added a fair amount to the concentrates to help protect them from spoilage and oxidation).

But you have to decide for yourself just how sensitive to sulphites you might be and how much risk you might be taking on... I find that my nose seems to be fairly sensitive to detecting excessive sulphites in wines, and that it's a rare occurence when I find a commercial wine that has more detectable sulphite aroma than my 1-2 year old home made (kit and grape) wines. I also find that the sulphite nose seems more detectable at a lower level in my kit reds than my home made reds from whole grapes -- probably because the kit reds just don't have anywhere near the same amount of varietal aromas that you get from fresh grapes.

Cheers! Richard

"Scott" wrote in message news:...

Great information, Thanks Richard!

Topping up was always a question for me - should I use water or marbles or a similar store bought wine. What I've moved to now is fermenting in a 23l carboy and after a month or so I rack into a 19l and a couple of extra bottles with their own airlocks. When I need to top up I use the extras. I keep everything from 1.5l bottles to splits around just for that purpose. The smaller ones work better as you usually don't need much at any one time.

Don