Tonight I started my first batch of home brewed wine. I am using a premium wine kit from
KenRidge and it is suppose to simulate a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. This kit produces 23L or 30 bottles of wine and takes 6 weeks to brew. The kit cost $90 which works out to $3 bucks a bottle.
Above is the contents of the kit. It includes everything you need asides from brewing equipment, water and bottles/corks. Items included are:
- Good instructions with note sections
- 16L of grape juice concentrate
- Bentonite, 15g (clay that is used to nourish the yeast and clarify the wine)
- LALVIN K1-V1116 yeast, 5g
- Potassium Sulphite, 4.5g (used to stop oxidization and stabilize the wine for storage)
- Potassium Sorbate, 6g (used to stop yeast growth, my wine will be dry so I will not use it)
- ISOKLEER (used as a fining agent to clear the wine)
- Printed wine labels
Starting with sterilized equipment I proceed to do the first steps of brewing the wine. The 16L of grape must was added to the bucket. Then the bag was rinsed out into the bucket and it was topped up to 23L with filtered water. With that done I stirred in the Bentonite and then gave everything a through mixing. The yeast was then sprinkled on top, the lid was put on and I inserted an airlock into the lid. Now it goes in a warm spot until the next step in 10 days. The first step took about 15 minutes.
Before sealing up the bucket I took a gravity sample, This tests the sugar level. This is done for a couple reasons, it is used to calculate the alcohol content when the wine is finished and it also tells you when fermentation is complete. The reading came out at 1.098 which is right on target. This wine will ferment out to approx. 13%.
Here is the wine all buttoned up, It will ferment in this food grade bucket for the first 10 days. Buckets are the best fermentors to use in primary fermentation because they are easy to mix in and they are simple to clean out afterwords. The next step will be to transfer the wine into a glass carboy for the secondary fermentation. Look for a post on the next step around Nov 6th.
Tonight I started my first batch of home brewed wine. I am using a premium wine kit from KenRidge and it is suppose to simulate a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. This kit produces 23L or 30 bottles of wine and takes 6 weeks to brew. The kit cost $90 which works out to $3 bucks a bottle.
Above is the contents of the kit. It includes everything you need asides from brewing equipment, water and bottles/corks. Items included are:
Starting with sterilized equipment I proceed to do the first steps of brewing the wine. The 16L of grape must was added to the bucket. Then the bag was rinsed out into the bucket and it was topped up to 23L with filtered water. With that done I stirred in the Bentonite and then gave everything a through mixing. The yeast was then sprinkled on top, the lid was put on and I inserted an airlock into the lid. Now it goes in a warm spot until the next step in 10 days. The first step took about 15 minutes.
Before sealing up the bucket I took a gravity sample, This tests the sugar level. This is done for a couple reasons, it is used to calculate the alcohol content when the wine is finished and it also tells you when fermentation is complete. The reading came out at 1.098 which is right on target. This wine will ferment out to approx. 13%.
Here is the wine all buttoned up, It will ferment in this food grade bucket for the first 10 days. Buckets are the best fermentors to use in primary fermentation because they are easy to mix in and they are simple to clean out afterwords. The next step will be to transfer the wine into a glass carboy for the secondary fermentation. Look for a post on the next step around Nov 6th.
