Advice on replacement finings for kit wine

[jordibird]

Hi,
having been away from home brewing for years I have started up again using a 3 week 30 bottle Rose wine kit from Wilkinsons. I sterilized the new 25 litre fermentation barrel and everything and then tried to open the kit. After 20 minutes I resorted to a knife to prise the plastic lid off. That worked but I ended up piercing both the gel fining packets A and B. I know I should of waited but was thoroughly incensed by then so set the wine off. it's merrily fermenting away but I now face a dilemma of what to do when it's finished. I seem to recall using Camden tablets and crystal finings years ago but I'm not sure.
Any advice would be most appreciated as Wilkinsons have said they will contact the supplier to send replacements and the wine will not be up to much by then.
Thanks
Lezli

 

[Moley]

Hi Lezli, and welcome to the forum :

Regarding the finings, it's going to be a couple of weeks before you need them so for now you can wait and see if the supplier comes through. Otherwise, Wilkinson do sell a 2-part wine & beer finings for around £1.50 IIRC.

Did your kit include anything else, any packets of powders? There should usually be a stopper / stabiliser packet which you add before the finings - that's the equivalent of the Campden tablets.

 

[jordibird]

Hi Moley,
Thanks for the advice the kit has the stabiliser which I managed not to stab in my frenzy. You can tell it's been a while since I did all this as i didn't realise that was the same as camden tablets lol. I guess I'm not used to these new kits. I've just found my old wine book again and no doubt it all come flooding back after a quick read.

I'll wait for those replacements and let you know how it goes. Will keep the forum posted about my new endeavours into the wine world as well.

 

[Pearlfisher]

It's better to find out your mistakes with a cheap kit first . If you want a top quality wine though look at kits £50+ .

 

[Moley]

If you read Lezli's introduction post you'll see she says

I have decided to make a come back I miss the fun and like not having to pay extortionate prices for a bottle of vino

Fifty quid kits may ultimately be the way to go if she wants to make full bodied reds, but Lezli, if you just want social whites and rosés for between 50-60p a bottle then take a look at this recipe and get down to the supermarket. For fruity pinks try red grape + cranberry or blueberry to the same method.

 

[jordibird]

Thanks for the great advice and the link which is amazing : I have hopefully one more question and I'll leave you in peace. I got the replacement finings (brilliant customer service from Wiko) and looking at the instructions on the tin it says wait until fermenting has ceased then add the stabilizer and pack A followed in a hour by B then move to cooler place and rack when clear. All fine and dandy however the fermenting vessel I have is white plastic and I wouldn't be able to see if the wine was clear just by looking at it, is there any other way to do this? Could I put the stabilizer and finings in then rack it into seperate 5l water bottles with air locks and clear it that way or would I cock the whole thing up :wha:
Any advice much appreciated, and I'm sure I'll find my footing along the way.

Cheers
Lezli

 

[Kirstin]

I'm quite new to kit wines too.... made about 5 up so far.

I have had issues with clearing on a few of them, mostly because I think I was introducing air by being over zealous on the degassing. One of my FVs has a tap so I run off a bit from there to check it.

I have always found that it is best to rack a second or a third time however and give it one or two more days than it says on the packet to clear. You can see how clear it is as it is going through the syphon tube.

Altenrnatively you could use a wine thief (or turkey baster - same thing ) to drop some into a sterile glass to take a look at how clear your vino is

 

[jordibird]

Thanks Kirstin,
I'm sure my Mam has one of those I could borrow I never thought of that to be honest.
Cheers
Lezli

 

[narmour]

however the fermenting vessel I have is white plastic and I wouldn't be able to see if the wine was clear just by looking at it, is there any other way to do this?
Cheers
Lezli

I find the best way to check if wine is clear is to take a small sample using a device similar to a turkey baster (sanitised of course) and looking at it in the glass. Of course, this wine can't go back into the FV, so.... :

 

[jordibird]

Thanks Narmour,
I Just checked the brew before and it seems as if it's fermented out. So I'll follow the instructions and bang in the stabilizer and finings and borrow my Mam's turkey baster ...
ching ching haha.

just wondering once it's clear do I have to rack into another fermentation barrel or could I just syphon into the bottles?

cheers again for all your help.
lezli

 

[Kirstin]

Lol - the wine from a sanitised turkey baster put into a sanitized glass can of course go back into the FV!!

I find it difficult siphoning from a bucket into a wine bottle, though I am getting better .... Depends what type of siphon you have really, and how good you are at using it :)

If you're confident, go ahead straight from the bucket, but there will be less waste and less sediment in the bottle if you siphon into another FV firstso as to leave the original sediment behind.

You'll see as you give it a go... the slightest disturbance of sediment in the FV takes an age to clear, and you really don't want that in your wine.

 

[jordibird]

Hi Kirstin,
thanks for your help, Years ago I would've said no problem with syphoning straight to the bottles but not now I've been away too long. So into another vessel (sterilized off course).
I'll post back on how I get on and whether it's drinkable or if I'll be selling cheap paint stripper for a while haha.