Racking and Aging clarification please.

I'm sure he means to age for 12 more months after bottling, but hey, this is only a guideline - an age that he thought the wine reached its prime (or was at least close to prime). I would recommend you try a bottle for yourself every couple of months or so after 3 or 4 months to see if you can taste the difference the aging is making. In my experience most wines really do show tremendous differences as they age. You will know when it has reached its prime.

Dave,

Those are guidelines, fruit wine has a mind of it's own and each will behave differently. For the most part, once wine is fully fermented which is usually in a few weeks, and the gross lees, (sediment) have fallen, (usually 2 weeks to a month after the wine is fully fermented) wine will wait for you. Racking a wine that has dropped no sediment doesn't serve a purpose unless you are trying to expose it to a little air to open it up or get rid of a funky odor. If the wine is removed from the gross lees, topped fully and sulfited appropriately there is very little chance anything will go wrong. That said, Jack makes a lot of fruit wines and won't steer you wrong.

I have been so busy at the brewing, that I didn't realize how

...

Use the times as guidelines, but don't stress over them.

As to waiting, I can't help you there. You will see that these wines taste better with time, they improve at their pace, not ours. Drinking it too young really doesn't hurt anything except... You may find that it kept improving but the rate of consumption outstripped the supply. There are worse problems to have.

I hear patience is a virtue, I wish I had some...

:)

Joe

DAve,

Nearly every wine benefits from aging. If you are willing to be patient, but don't want to, force yourself. You'll be happier in the end. :)

Not to speak for Jack Keller, who is quite obviously a prolific wine and mead maker and a wonderful resource, but I'd use any set of instructions (even Jack's) only as a general guideline. Depending on a number of factors, including (but not limited to) temperature, nutrient, aeration, Ph, and original gravity, your ferment could well last beyond the first racking point of 10 days. So, do read the directions, but also be prepared to modify them for your specific wine/mead.

With kit wine instructions, be aware that the kit manufacturers are specifically tailoring their kits for the impatient general public. You will most probably enjoy your kit wine much more if you add a significant amount of time to their instructions.

Cheers, Ken Taborek

Dave, I may be quite wrong, but I've always considered that the day the primary fermentation is complete as a starting date for a particular wine; meaning I put that date on my bottles, and I use that date as a basis for bottling and aging. Since most of my primary ferments last about a week (meaning the SG is 1.000 or below), I start counting that wine as complete, even though it still needs to be racked, bulk aged, bottled, and bottle-aged. I've followed a number of Jack's recipe's with this idea in mind. I believe if he says bottle and age a year, then I would age a year. But this doesn't mean I wouldn't try a bottle before hand just to see how it tastes. Everyone's taste buds are different - its your wine... I realize this is a long time to wait, but if you alter the types of wine you make right now, then you can have enough to drink while you're waiting for the others to age properly. I alternate between making wines which need a long time to age (like pumpkin, carrot, blackberry, plum) and wines that will mature quickly, like strawberry and some of the frozen concentrates which are ready to drink at 6-9 months. I believe it took me about 2-3 years of making wine to get my cellar going, so that I can pick and choose from what's available. Darlene

"DAve Allison" wrote in message news:QIR%f.1856$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews5.bellsouth.net...

DAve, I've the same problem, which I've solved by making some batches of wine from fruit juice, blackcurrant and apple,apple and pear etc.

These are usually fit to drink after 6 weeks or so.

Charlie

Maybe you could get clarification from Jack but I would interpret the wording as from start of fermentation rack after 10 days, the at 30 days after startup, then at 6 months after start up. The sweeten and bottle after 10 days and wait 1 year from that data. Total time would be 1 yr 6 months and forget the 10 days.

As stated above, fruit wines are funny. I would try it after 3 months in bottle and then every couple of months until I like it. The saddest thing is NOT to drink your wine too young and then have none left after it matures, but to wait too long and then realize that it is starting to decline and you have not started drinking it.

Follow Jack's recipes (or anyone else's) but realize that you are crafting to your own taste and modify accordingly.

Ray