Cantina Pinot Grigio - OG and FG

[emdiesse]

Hi,

I have just started a Cantina Pinot Grigio.

I am yet to add the yeast, I've aimed for an OG of 1090, theoretically if I hit the 1000 FG then it'd be almost 12%.

I just want to check I'm not being a bit daft here and I am doing it right-ish so far.

I have never tried a wine before, but my last BEER came up short on the percentage because I just followed the instructions of add XX litres of water which gave me a low OG of 1036, doh.

So this time I figured I should aim for an OG rather than just add the 21 litres that the kit calls for.... leaving me with only 17 litres in the FV and an OG of 1090.

I hope I'm not doing it wrong

Out of interest, am I right in thinking that if a brew is too strong, I could just add more water at any point during fermentation (so long as the temp is ok) before bottling (but that would be a pain I guess!)?

Also, I'm not so sure on FG, but I figure 1000 would give us a dry wine because most/all the sugar would have been converted.

Thanks,
Matt

[MarkA]

Hi Matt,

It sounds like you're doing fine (though get that yeast pitched asap!)

I generally aim for 1.090 for wine. Most wine yeasts will finish around 0.998 - 0.990 so you'll probably end up with wine of 12.5 - 13% which is about right.

I'm not sure about diluting down as you'd need to know the FG to know whether it was too strong and by then it's probably too late to add water.

Let it finish, try it, and adjust the OG next time if need be.

Mark

[emdiesse]

Excellent.

It took a while to come down to a pitching temperature (had to leave it overnight), I had struggled a bit filling 'er up with a ~2L kettle and a 3L saucepan!

Somewhat tempted to buy a large stainless stockpot with tap to use for hot water - I have just found out this is called a 'Hot Liquor Tank' - Eventually I can use this to step up to extract brewing also .

[MarkA]

Somewhat tempted to buy a large stainless stockpot with tap to use for hot water......Eventually I can use this to step up to extract brewing also .

Go for it, you won't regret it! Once you've got the gear together, you're pretty much there (and you can also use it for AG in the future if you so wish)

[emdiesse]

I can't believe how violent the bubbling is for this brew! Also, I put the yeast in and it was bubbling within 1 hour!

I've just received a delivery from The Malt Miller with a 50L Stainless Kettle and 7.5KW burner (amongst other things) - I can't wait to use it.

[MarkA]

Nice one

[emdiesse]

Hi,

So it seems this kit wine has almost finished fermenting - the hydrometer is almost at 1000.

I have a question around storage - I have not managed to save up enough bottles... I have only scavenged 5 so far (reluctant to buy empties )! I do also have 2*10L LDPE Mini-Pin Bags with Lever Tap (Which I saved from the few mini-pins I have bought from a brewery) - If I fill one of these up, would I have a problem? I could store with the tap open and at the top and attach some sort of air-lock (if necessary) using it a sort of make shift demijohn until I have saved up the remaining bottles - so long as no one squishes it... Unless if I can just store it with tap closed and then again decant into wine bottles when I have enough

If I do use the bag, when I come to filling the remaining bottles would it be best to rack off into a bucket again and degas and then fill the bottles?

The steps after fermentation are:
7. Rack off
8. Add stabiliser (E202, E224) and degas
9. Add Finings A (Kiselsol) Mix and Leave 3+ hours
10. Add finings B Mix for <=15 secs and leave a day
11. Rack off again and degass
12. Fill the bottles and cork

So if I were to fill my 5 bottles at 12 and also fill my bag at 12?

Or would is be best to fill my bag at 11 before degassing - and then fitting an airlock and treating it as a demijohn, as if bulk aging?

Thanks,
Matt

[MarkA]

If the wine has finished fermenting, there's no reason why it can't be stored with the tap closed and either decanted into bottle further down the line, or straight to the glass.

I personally miss out steps 8, 9, 10 and 11. I don't like adding anything to wine that I don't need to and rarely have cloudy wine (except, as previously mentioned in another thread, a plum wine that just wouldn't clear but it tasted pretty naff anyway so it went down the sink!) As long as the fermentation has stopped, I haven't had a problem with bottle caps popping out, except for a rhubarb wine a few years back that had a malolactic fermentation and turned into a lovely sparkling wine

As for degassing; I have tried this once using an attachment on an electric drill and will never do it again. It was an apple wine and, when I tasted it before degassing, it was lovely. Once degassed, I bottled it and drank one the next night and, by then, it was ruined by oxidation. The colour was darker and it had that burnt caramel taste. I'm not sure if I did something wrong during degassing but my bottling procedure was the same as always (which I've never had a problem with) so can only put it down to allowing oxygen into the wine during the whizzing. Most wines will degass naturally anyway, if they are left for long enough and racked off the lees regularly to stop further yeast activity. It seems to be a procedure that some wine makers do as a matter of course, but I personally don't think it's necessary. Oddly enough, none of the old books about (fruit/country) wine making mention degassing so, unless anyone can enlighten me?