Marty's Red Wine - Italian Super Tuscan - En Primeur - March 20, 2025 ( Bottle Mid June )

This is a 14L kit. I assume it has red grape skins included. The description did say it is a dry wine.

Instructions are not included with any kits. Cheap bastards. This blog will include minimal

info but just enough to stay on schedule until done. Takes 8 weeks to make this wine.

Wow!! What a pain in the arse the wine skin sludge was getting it into the muslim bag. Better off sanitizing a spatula and cutting it down the middle and sanitize a container to hold it and then

scrap it into the muslim bag without the actual bag of sludge getting in the way.

Yeast pitched @ 2:30 pm March 20.

I didn't add any yeast energizer. ( I should of added some )

I didn't take a gravity reading because Marty doesn't care. More important is the FG.

Day 1 - Not much activity but some. 72F. I had to turn on the wall heater. 70F.

Day 2 - Going good. 73F if I believe the temp strip.

Day 3 - 75F. Finding it a challenge to keep the temp at 73F. Need 2 temp strips. 

Day 4 - Same

Day 5 - Same

Day 6 - A bit slower in the bubbler.

Day 7 - Taking a gravity reading and decide then what to do. Doing this on March 28.

             

                                          RACKED TO A CARBOY ON MARCH 28

The gravity was 1.018. I squeezed the bag to get the remaining grape juice back into the pail.

The oak chips did not plug up my syphon tube as the smaller oak chips have done in the past.

I will wait for 14 days to see if it gets down to .998 or lower. It has it's work cut out for it. The

hydro may go out with freezing rain. That will not be good as my generator is not working. 

Always add some yeast energizer to these wine kits as Marty likes a dry wine. 

                                                HYDRO OUT FOR 4-5 DAYS

This got down to 60F at one point since it was cold out and we had no heat. Hydro finally

came back on April 2nd. I cranked up both heaters in the bathroom and they were active.

This red was slow but it was racked a few days ago. My white is back doing something so it

just has to finish.

CHECK GRAVITY ON APRIL 13 BEFORE RACKING AND ADDING FINAL STUFF.

When the final stuff is added, toss on bench. I am 1.000. 2 points short of FG. This will not

do anything more. No activity in a few days now. Tasted good though.

12.2%. Wine Shoppe lady says the FG for kits like these should be around .997. Yea, I am

short a bit but it is what it is. Since I didn't take a OG reading, it could of been as high as

1.110. If it was, the wine % is: 15%. So there is a wide window of readings this could of

been. Always take a gravity reading when putting wine kits together. It does mean a lot.

If the gravity was high, that means the yeast did it's job and you are good to go.

                       FILTER AND BOTTLING DAY IS MAY? MORE LIKE MID JUNE

You have to do the pool the same time you will bottle this. Start the pool first and see how

that goes and maybe when it needs time to clear a bit, you can bottle this. It can wait though.

                                    FILTERED AND BOTTLED - JUNE 18 - FINALLY

The bottling wand malfunctioned and it wasn't pretty. I may of oxidized a few bottles just

to get it to finish. Buying a ss one.