chitosan in kits

Contact the manufacturer or the seller. They will send you a new one. The kit was designed to use it so why not?

Ray

The purpose of the chitosan is to drive off CO2 in your wine. Isinglass is used in some kits instead. If you don't use it, you might find yourself with some popped corks.

I've believe chitosan and isinglass are both used for fining, I don't think they have any effect on the levels of disolved CO2

You are quite correct! Chitosan has nothing to do with removal of CO2. BTW you can dispense with chitosan ( for fining) and a lot of degassing by bulk aging under a fermentation lock for a year

It is a fining agent, used to clear the wine. In my experience, if you're willing to bulk age the wine for 3 or 4 months it will clear on its own and not require the chitosan.

Kit manufacturers include it because so many of their customers want to bottle in 4-8 weeks rather than months, and include far more fining agents per litre of wine than any "normal" winemakers would ever use. There seems to be general consensus that fining the hell out of your wine rather than letting it clear with time will no doubt strip at least some flavour/aroma/color compounds out of the wine, but it is debatable just how much. The one time that I did side-by-side trials (making the same kit the "patient" way vs the "fast" way) I couldn't really tell any difference.

The one thing that *does* make a huge difference in these kits, especially the premium-priced ones, is to age the wine for at least

12-18 months before consuming -- especially if using Red Star Premier Cuvee yeasts, as is often included in these kits. Any early than that and you're not experiencing anything close to the maximum quality. And if you're willing to do that, you might as well let it spend the first 3-6 months bulk aging in the carboy and not bother with the chitosan.

Cheers!

Richard

I think stirring anything into bulk wine releases CO2. Or just stirring accomplishes the same thing.

bb

Thanks I will bulk age.