Help - Grande Maison Reserve Wine Kit

Mike:

I don't know this kit, nor its instructions. Personally I would transfer to carboy, wait patiently for the 10-14 days, then follow the rest of the instructions. Presumably this is stabililzing, clearing, waiting, bottling.

II also do not understand the yellow bottling band. I tend to bottle my wines at sg less than .995. The only way these wines would get back into the range mentioned was if I sweetened the wine.

Adding more sugar now would get the yeast going again and result in more alcohol.

Steve (more familiar with Canadian wine kits)

I hope you are reading the instructions wrong. SG is NOT an indicator of when to bottle. It is an indicator of when a wine MIGHT finish. If you want to increase the alcohol content then add sugar. This is likely to unbalance the wine so I would not recommend it. If you want to add sugar to sweeten it, do not do so until the wine is clear and stabilized. Once again, this is likely to unbalance the final product but it can be done.

If it is truly finished fermenting, my suggestion is you can move it to bulk aging and age it for a few weeks or a month. Then taste it to see if you need to adjust the sweetness.

Mine is the s1011, far left in the picture. You can clearly see the 1000 mark, and the "99" further up is "990". The thick black bar lower down is marked "10".

The instructions suggest "bottle or add sugar" at the 1000 marking. In fact, in the picture you can see just below the 1000 mark, a rather blurred "B" which is actually where is says "BOTTLE" on the hydrometer itself.

:-)

Mike.

Please see my earlier post in response to Steve Waller.

Ok, thanks for the tip.

I have another five gallon fermentation vessel, it is a cylindrical plastic barrel rather than "bucket" shaped. However, there will still be a pocket of air at the top measuring the full diameter of the vessel and a couple of inches in depth.

Will this cause a problem?

Cheers, Mike.

Mike:

Thanks for this post. I have never seen a hydrometer marked like that in Canada (and I run a wine-beer supply store). We do have the second style (#1207?) though.

Gonna save that pic!!!

Steve

Interesting. But I repeat what I will expand on what I said earlier. The hydrometer is the most useful tool a winemaker can have. It tells you a lot about how fermentation is progressing. But it will not tell you when to bottle. If the makers of this hydrometer are telling you it will, they are leading you astray.

Ray

Thanks, but that didn't answer my other concern above, re the air gap in the spare vessel ?

Mike.

Yes, that sounds like you'd have too much airspace in there for bulk aging. You'll need to get a 5 gal carboy - 1-2 inches of airspace there are okay because you'll be in the "neck" section where the volume is much smaller. And you'll use an airlock to stop outside air from getting in. Fermentation pails won't give you that.

Pp