Island Mist question?

Just did an Island Mist Exotic Fruit White Zinfandel. Followed their directions exactly and it came out tasting fantastic. I'd recommend sticking to the directions.

Also, read in Winemaker magazine an article about kits. They report that you should stick to the manufacturer's directions.

That may be my next Island Mist. Let us know how it turns out.

Greg

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The peach apricot chardonnay is a real delight. Can finish as a light summer wine or carbonate to make coolers. My groupies prefered the latter.

That was good article BTW in Wine Maker Mag (Jan 2003 I think)

Is it a fairly sweet finish? The Exotic fruit White Zin is very sweet. Almost too sweet. I'm thinking of the Peach Chardonay because I love peach. But am also thinking of the Green Apple Reisling.

To carbonate it do you force carbonate? What do I need to start doing forced carbonation?

Greg

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No, it was not too sweet. Goes down [almost too] easy. Is sweetness not a function of how you finish the wine? What was your SG at the end of fermentation? If it was lower than .995 for example it wouldn't be too sweet regardless of the base.

Carbonation: to be honest I'm not sure. My supplier carbonates and bottles for me for $10 a carboy. I know you can rent the equipment to do it yourself.

While this is true normally, the Island Mist kits have you add in Sorbate to stop renewed fermentation. You then add in another bag of concentrate. Leaves a pretty sweet product. And at about 7%, not really a wine, more of a cooler.

Greg

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Hi Dennis,

The lentgh of active primary fermentation depends on room temp. The cap dropping is typical of that strain of yeast, and the old-timer who taught me (very well) used this as an indicator of when to rack into the carboy during hot weather, when you don't let things go out of control. At 21-24 C, four days is about right.

Stirring--releases CO2. Necessary for the industrial 200L batch to completely finish fermentation, but irrelevant for an Island Mist kit with low alcohol.

If you were fermenting in a cool basement and your SG was not going down I would stir the heck out of it, and it would probably do its thing a day or so later.

Measuring the SG every day--ummm, I won't give any advice here but for the first batch or two it's a really good idea.

--Irene

Have not tried the Island Mist kits but have made the Niagara Mist kits (comparable) and have found that adding about 4-5 cups of sugar at beginning of fermentation to bring SG up to about 1.075 or 1.080 worksk out well. Produces a sweet fruit wine of about 11.5 - 12% alc. which is more like a real wine and it will age nicely for a year or more. The higher alcolhol content seems to play u the fruit flavours nicely. . .

Give it a try!!!!!

I just bottled my second batch of that particular kit. I do not measure SD daily. In MHO the less you handle your wine the better. The kit comes out great. I particularly like to get out a bottle when someone tells me they don't like wine. It always proves them a liar.

Ray

I don't particularly like dealing in volume measurments. After all, a cup of confectioner's sugar would be heavier than a cup of cane sugar, right? With the smaller grain size. So, does anyone know of a formula to determine the approximate weight of the sugar that needed added?

Of course, I could always measure out 4 cups and weigh it. Might just have to do that. Thanks.

Greg

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Best thing is to get a postal scale (accurate to 0.1 oz.) or gram scale , and do all your measurements by weight.

One 8-oz. cup of granulated sugar is nominally 200 grams (7.1 ounces), but the actual amount can vary by over 30 % depending how compacted the sugar is and how full you fill the cup and a few other factors. Weighing it is far more accurate, even with a poor-quality scales.

My comments re sweetness were not quite right (it was a little while ago that I made this). I think carbonating to make a true wine cooler reduces the perception of sweetness, hence my comment that it's not too sweet. Uncarbonated, the finished product is a low alcohol wine with about a 03 sweetness regardless of which kit you make. The "F" Pack is the source for both fruit flavour and sugar. Seems you can't cut back the sweetness without losing flavour.

Any recommendations on decent gram scales? I've been looking to get one for a bit, but would like to get some opinions. I'm most interested in a scale that I can measure my Sodium Metabisulphite or Potassium. I hate using Campden tablets, but this stuff is too hard to measure out 1/5th or a quarter teaspoon.

Greg

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In case you don't already know this, don't use confectioner's sugar for wine-making. It contains some form of starch in addition to the sugar, which can create hazes and other problems.

I don't use it in my wine making, just as an example. Well, I used it

1 time in an orange wine when I had everything set up only to discover I had about 1/4 pound of sugar in the house. But I had about 10 pounds of confectioner's sugar. Worked pretty well in that. Didn't leave any haze or other problems.

Thanks for the info on the sugar and scales, though.

Greg

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