Who's vinting?

[Kc_Kracker]

on vinting forums they babble nonstop about degassing every batch pre-bottling

[lokidog]

I found this on one forum:  Don't forget that you only degas if necessary. For kit wines, generally yes. For other wines, not necessary and in fact can damage the wine due to the aeration. So, follow the directions in you kit concerning degassing.

I wouldn't worry about it, I'd be more worried about getting O2 into the wine than CO2 out.

[Kc_Kracker]

i want to bottle it today but i dont have any potassium metabisulfate or sorbate yet the dumb brewery supply is closed 

[lokidog]

i want to bottle it today but i dont have any potassium metabisulfate or sorbate yet the dumb brewery supply is closed 

I never use these before bottling, the sulfites make me congested, that's why I wait extra time before bottling.  I have never had a bottle blow up or pop a cork.

[Kc_Kracker]

everything i read said that is to make sure to re-fermentation starts and it should always be used    anyhow, how much to you fill each bottle? does it matter? i assume it would

[lokidog]

"Always" and "never" are often used by people that think they know best.   

Do you have one of the bottle filling tubes that has the little push-pin valve on the bottom?  You should.  This allows you to fill the bottle without aerating the wine like it would if you just used your tubing and did not make sure it was on the bottom of the bottle. 

As far as how full, I use the valve tube and fill the bottle until the liquid hits the rim and then pull the tube out.  The volume that the tube took up will be just right for the fill level of the bottle.

[Kc_Kracker]

nope no idea what that is

[lokidog]

KC, something like this - https://www.midwestsupplies.com/plastic-spring-tip-bottle-filler.html?utm_medium=feeds&utm_source=google&gdftrk=gdfV24959_a_7c1306_a_7c6184_a_7c6800&gclid=CNyymICD17sCFeU5Qgod3SQAbA

The only tough thing with it is filling the bottles that have the big hump on the bottom.

[NOCK NOCK]

Bottled a batch of Yakima Valley Cab/Syrah today.  Still fermenting, Fresh Banana, Hucklebery, White grape/ raspberry, & a Cinnamon wine. Some interesting new tries.

[Kc_Kracker]

very cool and i like the labels  we so far did our mango which was UH_MAY_ZING! this week will be bottling garlic wine, jalapeno wine, and onion wine for cooking and marinating 

and fermenting is
more mango
cranberry
rasberry
blackberry
white grape
yakima cab

  needless to say we have to buy some bottles but CL is the place, a local guy is hooking us up with 5 dozen cleaned and de-labeled clear bottles for $20 (happy dance) 

now i just need a corker 

[NOCK NOCK]

Hey KC, I am a good de-corker 
 We save all our bottles from store bought wine, and also have friends save them for us. Most clean up easily, if they don't, use some goo gone orange cleaner on the old labels, followed by soapy water and sanitizer
The Mango sounds awesome, will try that when I free up a jug

[swinters]

so, you have water in the air lock, we have the juice were using in the air lock. does it matter?
also, one of the flavors we tries was pomegranate, and we made sure it was NO preservatives,  but 16 hours after adding yeast all are making foam and bubbling, BUT that one. ideas? 

I've been brewing beer for years and have had problems a couple of times with water in the airlock so started using vodka.  I buy the cheapest junk vodka in the store and use it for all kinds of stuff, like sanitizing stuff that will come in contact with the batch, like racking canes and so on.  Just to be sure the vodka hasn't gone bad I sip on a bit of it from time to time too.  Can't be too careful.

[Kc_Kracker]

yes thats whats in all of ours now 

[Kc_Kracker]

so i can say after a thorough testing of this hobby its alot of fun! We had to buy a 200 bottle wine rack and were up to around 70 bottles done. I just cracked opwn my first bottle of Pomegranate which is sitting right at 12%, very full aromatic and  tad sweet, with a heck of a kick  Its goes great wit smoked oysters and smoked cheese on crackers i will say   

I just started 5 gallons of strawberry wine with 50 lbs of fresh everbearings nice and ripe, I went with 50 lbs to keep the strawberry flavor from getting covered up by alcohol flavor because am  going to back kick it with some everclear and shoot for 18-20%, ya some serious strawberry flavored nitro we shall see how it turns out 

[lokidog]

so i can say after a thorough testing of this hobby its alot of fun! We had to buy a 200 bottle wine rack and were up to around 70 bottles done. I just cracked opwn my first bottle of Pomegranate which is sitting right at 12%, very full aromatic and  tad sweet, with a heck of a kick  Its goes great wit smoked oysters and smoked cheese on crackers i will say   

I just started 5 gallons of strawberry wine with 50 lbs of fresh everbearings nice and ripe, I went with 50 lbs to keep the strawberry flavor from getting covered up by alcohol flavor because am  going to back kick it with some everclear and shoot for 18-20%, ya some serious strawberry flavored nitro we shall see how it turns out 

One bottle of Pomegranate sounds about right for my consulting fees... I love sweet wines.   

  The strawberry sounds like it will be great.  I like doing pure juice wines instead of the 4-5 pounds per gallon as most recipes seem to call for.  If you add a little citric acid it will help maintain the color and keep it from oxidizing toward brown.  The "acid blend" that you get from the wine supply stores probably does something similar.

I had a cherry wine finish at 21% once with no fortification, yowza, that's my "happy wife" wine.