The Range MYO Kits

[Chippy_Tea]

I was surprised to see it still it was still there after all this time, i guess they will get notifications when someone completes it.

 

[soupdragon]

I signed up for being a guinea pig taster while I was doing it Doubt I'll get an invite after all the time that's passed though.
Bevie is only about half an hour's drive from me. They were recruiting a few years ago but I was still gainfully employed elsewhere at the time. Would have been interesting.

Cheers Tom

 

[soupdragon]

I've just had a thought.
Does the MYO juice pouch contain any sugars? I know that the £30-40 kits I usually do contain added sugar in the compound but "no additional sugar is required".
I'm wondering if the MYO kits are just the grape component without sugar added. I get that you need to add 3.5-4kg of sugar to these kits but if you could take the inclusive sugars out of a cellar 7 for example, would what's left weigh about the same as is supplied with the MYO kits?
Hope that makes sense

Cheers Tom

Daughter has just picked one up for me. £25.99 on the shelf but £20.99 at checkout Will have a read of the pack and see if I can decipher the ingredients list

Cheers Tom

 

[soupdragon]

I've just had a thought.
Does the MYO juice pouch contain any sugars? I know that the £30-40 kits I usually do contain added sugar in the compound but "no additional sugar is required".
I'm wondering if the MYO kits are just the grape component without sugar added. I get that you need to add 3.5-4kg of sugar to these kits but if you could take the inclusive sugars out of a cellar 7 for example, would what's left weigh about the same as is supplied with the MYO kits?
Hope that makes sense

Cheers Tom

So 65% x 2.2kg = 1.43kg of pure juice stuff. An unknown amount of elderberry and blueberry concentrate on top of that too. Thing that surprised me is the inclusion of a packet of oak chips. Don't know how the 1.43kg compares to the amount in the cellar 7's of this world but the proof will be in the tasting.
Unfortunately I won't get around to doing this for a few months but will post comment when first tasted.
Oh, there's some grape skin extract on there too

Cheers Tom

 

[soupdragon]

Finally got to make this up today.

I was a bit hesitant to get one of these as the last cheap kit I made (Carafe 21) went down the grid, it was like coloured water with little or no flavour to speak of. I didn't have high hopes for it as I could almost see the bottom of the fermenter when I made it up.

Fast forward to this and I'm optimistically hopeful. No sign of the base of the fermenter for a start. The colour and opacity at least looks on par with my usual £30-35 kits. The fact a sachet of oak chips was included is a bonus.
Made it to 20 litres, adding 2.5kg of sugar plus 1kg of dextrose. O.G. is 1.092 so hopefully will come out around 12.5% ish..

Will update after a few weeks

Cheers Tom

 

[soupdragon]

Fast forward to this and I'm optimistically hopeful.

Optimistically hopeful?

Is that even a thing?

Cheers Tom

 

[ColinF]

Thought I'd have a wee look at this. Note the website is currently 19.99 for white and rose & 24.99 for red. £4.95 delivery (maybe that's cos it saw my postcode )

Hadn't realised the massive store that replaced Homebase in Inverness was in fact "The Range" and I was within a mile of it 4 times in the last fortnight

Ah well, next time

 

[soupdragon]

Optimistically hopeful?

Is that even a thing?

Cheers Tom

Should be degassing/fining this early next week so will have a cheeky snifter while I'm at it

Cheers Tom

Ooops, quoted the wrong post. You get the idea though

 

[soupdragon]

Should be degassing/fining this early next week so will have a cheeky snifter while I'm at it

Cheers Tom

Just finished doing wine stuff for the day.
Transferred this, all the relevant gubbins chucked in at the appropriate time and mixed in. F.G @ 0.996 so appx 12.6%. Not had a proper taste yet but the tiny sip I had was pleasant enough. Quite sharp but not in an acidic way, fruit sharp if you will.
I remain "optimistically hopeful" that this will turn out better than I was expecting.
Update next week when it gets bagged.

Cheers Tom

 

[soupdragon]

Right.........

El momento de la verdad

Cracked into the first bag tonight. Will it win any awards? Nah.
Is it the easy drinking light bodied red wine as suggested in the advertising? Yes
There's no specific detail I can pick out in the flavour, rather one dimensional but non the less it's definitely drinkable. The sharpness has faded to a much more mellow level and it doesn't taste acidic. The flavour that is there is fine, not artificial like another cheap brand I tried some years ago.

I'd previously been drinking a California Connoisseur Shiraz so it's no surprise that it's not as good but........I must admit I'd rank it above all the other sub £30 kits that I've tried.
For the record that's Wilkinson Cabernet Sauvignon, Carafe 21 (was disgusting) and a Solomon Grundy Gold Merlot. There was another but I can't recall it's name at the moment. So not every single brand in the sub £30 bracket but it'll give you an idea.
I probably won't buy another one as the flavour definitely isn't on par with the kits around the £35 mark that I usually make but I'll happily drink all of this. No regrets on my purchase at all.

Cheers Tom