Island Mists White Zinfandel/Whites in genearl

As you note, white zin is actually a blush, and usually darker than white merlot. Because a 7.5 L kit is going to be almost all concentrate, the colour is also concentrated. I think you'll find that once diluted to volume, the must is an appropriately pink colour. The only other probable cause of darkening would be oxidation; unlikely, but possible. If there are brownish tones to the diluted must, or if it has a sherry-like smell, do contact the seller.

Leslie Gadallah

First, you are really wrong when you assume that Island Mist makes standard kits. They are not. They make low alcohol (6-7%) fruit flavored wines that I call picnic wines. They are very nice on warm days when you want to drink more volume. They are not traditional wines. Some wine purists do not like them. People who do not like wine, tend to love them. I have made several of the Island Mist kits and keep some on hand for certain guests and I am not above enjoying some myself. Hope you are not disappointed if you are expecting a standard white.

Also, for grapes and some other fruit, color comes mainly from the skin. Some red wine grapes can be used to make white wine. Other grapes and fruit will get some of their color from the juice with no skin contact and will produce blush wines from just the juice.

If you want to make a real white wine you might try a Riesling or Gewürztraminer kit. Some of them are quite good. Or if you want to go on the cheap, try making white wine from Welch's frozen Niagara Concentrate. It comes out better than you would think.

By standard kit I was merely referring to it being a 7.5L kit, packets of yeast, pot meta, etc. I know it's a light picnic type "wine", or wine based beverage, if you prefer. That's what I was looking for. I tend to prefer a nice light, slightly sweet, white at times(of course, my favorites are actually big tannic reds, but it varies by mood and by what I'm eating). Definitely understand your concern about me not getting something I expected, and glad I reread what you said. At first, I must admit I was a little insulted, felt like you were saying I didn't know what I was talking about, but now that I reread what you said, can see that it was out of concern that I might not get what I expected, so thank you for your concern. :) This is what I wanted this time though. Doing about one kti a month for now until I get a goodly supply of wine, and next will be another red, but after that looking to do a full white wine kit, probably one of the Selection kits from Brew King(went with the cheaper kits on the first two, Vintner's Reserve and this Island Mist now, but think I want to step up in potential quality of final product on the next two).

I was aware of the fact that most red wines gain the color from the skins, both from one book I've read and John Cleese's Wine for the Confused(which I highly suggest for those trying to learn about wines in general).

I will follow your suggestion on the Welch's, but primarily because I already have it in process, is in secondary right now under airlock. Thanks for the tip though. :) I've started 7 1 gallon batches of various wines from juices using Jack Keller's recipes(or 6 from juices and one from canned blueberries, which I just pitched the yeast in this morning).

I was mainly just curious as to whether this color was normal, as I haven't done enough kits yet, of either full wine kits, or the Island mist Wine based beverage kits, to know if this was normal color for a zinfandel juice. Thank you for your response though. :)

Have learned a lot already reading back messages in this group, sure I'll continue to learn more.

Joel

Thanks for reading between the lines and realizing I was not coming down on you. If you like the Island Mist kits, try the Peach Apricot Chardonnay. It is white and is very pleasant. I have made it several times.

Ray

I think the Winexpert White Zin kits tend to run darker. I've got a batch in the carboy right now, (the 15L selection kit), and it's really dark, but when bottled, it lightens up quite a bit. But, it's probably the darkest White Zin I've ever seen.

With regard to the Island Mist kit, to make it more like a traditional wine, you can chapitalize (add sugar) to bring the SG up to about 1.090. To do this, you would add 5 lbs of sugar to the must before or during fermenation. This will boost the alcohol level to about 12%. I've heard this doesn't alter the balance too much, but it still tastes the same as the wine cooler/picnic beverage that was intended, but with the higher alcohol content.

Regards, Van

Thanks for the input. :)

Mine's sitting in Carboy now too, will add last few packets tonight and let it sit two weeks to make sure it clearsly nicely. But I might consider the sugar next time around. Going to see what I think of this with the normal recipe first.

Joel

For anyone curious, I got around to bottling this batch(yes, I did the minimum 28 days on this bathc and the one before, and probably on next two too. Trying to get enough of a stock here of drinkable homemade wine that I can start lengthening the aging times and continually improve the product).

But anyway, pulled a bit to check that it had cleared first, and while it's not a white white, it's a definite pink color, as white zinfandels or white merlots often are. So I suspect the color I initiially saw was a combination of bubbles, the various matter that later settled, and just not being used to seeing a wine liek this in a 6 gallon carboy, rather than in a

Thanks again for all the input on this thread.

Joel