Re: Fermented too fast???

Yes.. Leave it in the same carboy... You will end up stiring all of those lees up and you will add finings to clear your wine... The dead yeast cells (Lees) will help your wine clear... Be sure to check your Specific Gravity if the manufacturer suggests it...

I would not bottle in eight days... I would rack to a clean carboy and let the wins sit around for a month or eight... Then bottle. If this is your first kit and you don't have wine laying around, I would rack half into a 3 gallon carboy and let it age and bottle the rest according to the manufacturer's instructions....

What k>> >>

AJ - It's a BrewKing Vintner's reserve Merlot.

Matt - you think that it *might* be ok to *cook* with!??!?! That doesn't sound good. I was hoping it *would* be ok to *drink*!! ; )

I will let it sit for a while and see what happens....

AJ - can I rack it into the primary, and then back into the carboy after I clean it out? I don't have a second carboy, and wasn't sure if I had to go out an buy another one to do this. Will this expose the merlot to too much air? How about topping up at this point? I have already had to add about 3 Litres of filtered water to the carboy at the last racking to get the level up to the neck of the carboy.

Should I go buy some marbles? Inert gas? Smaller carboy? The instructions say to bottle the wine now, but your advice to bulk age for at least a month seems sound.

Thanks again, Simon.

I would buy another carboy and rack to it.. But that is me.. Many kits direct you to rack to the primary, rinse out the secondary, then rack the wine back to the secondary. So the method you describe is common.

Brew King kits seem to result in a pretty decent wine.... I would just top it up with water...

A.J. Rawls Anchorage, Alaska, USA