White Wine Kits. An age old question.

[OirishOyes]

We've been brewing wine for a little over a year using kits from Kenridge, Beaverdale, DOC and others. We've bottled the reds and allowed them to mature in this time and they are really coming good now.

Our white wines are inferior. But we drink them young.

There seems to be conflicting opinion on whether to allow white wine age or not, and we are very confused.

So my question is, how long would you advise we give the wine to mature before drinking?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I never age mine long as we dont have much space for fermenting then storing, i found this at love brewing.

How long before I can drink it?

Wineworks superior wines: These usually take 10-15 days to ferment, and a further week to clear. Again the wine can be drunk immediately but we recommend ageing it 4 weeks but you can leave it up to 12 months. The time you will leave it will depend very much on your stocks. So get plenty built up. The reds benefit more than the whites with ageing. Certain kits like the Selection takes 4 weeks to ferment and is then left for a further 2 weeks. This product does really benefit from ageing. All the kits we list in this section require little ageing.

 

[tonyhibbett]

My best whites have spent some time in an oak barrel. The length of time depends on the size of the barrel. Wine kits are designed to produce the stuff in a short time but most wine improves if left to clear naturally, after initial racking, inside a barrel. The contact with the yeast sediment, oak and a small amount of oxygen as the wood breathes can transform something quite ordinary into something special. Further improvements occur after bottle ageing too.
A quick and simple way to improve most young white wine is to open it and leave it to breathe overnight in the fridge.

 

[OirishOyes]

Thank you that is very helpful tonyhibbett. And it seems we weren't mad in believing that 'yesterday's wine' was nicer - or wine opened yesterday tasted nicer than a bottle that was just opened today. How long as a rule of thumb would you recommend bottle ageing the wine? Barrels are not an option for us.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Kit wines don't seem to improve beyond a month, but wines made from fresh ingredients are considerably improved after 6 months or more and often need racking to remove traces of sediment.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Wine kits a designed to be drunk sooner rather than later. Drinkable on bottling, better after a couple of months but no longer than 12 months

 

[wineguy]

I try to age my wines for as long as i can. I have some reds and whites that are over 18 months old now from Ken Ridge. I can taste more of a benefit in the reds but i think that the whites a great after about 3 months. I have been brewing the Mosti Mondiale wine kits recently and they have started to mature really well after about 2 months in the bottle

 

[OirishOyes]

I'm beginning to think that part of our problem might be that we are spending too much time degassing the wine. Nobody seems to explain how to do this in a way that I understand And if they do, somebody else appears to be saying the complete opposite. We use a whip and a cordless drill. But I've read some people saying to stir it for a couple of minutes, while others say far longer. Up to an hour. Trying to do the best job possible, we've done it for up to an hour with the current batch.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I use a wine whip and drill, i degas by doing it forwards for a few seconds then reverse for a few seconds and keep switching, i only do it for a minute and all my wines are crystal clear after 48 hours using KwiK Clear.

 

[cheapbrew]

An hour with a drill is OTT you will probably end up introducing air into it doing it for that long, a minute is plenty, stirring was the old method and that was for an hour.

 

[OirishOyes]

This is a NorthernBrewerTV YouTube tutorial [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9G9zpYfMxA[/ame]. About 2 minutes in, the guy says to degas for 15-20 minutes in a bucket, or for an hour in a carboy. I hope you understand my confusion.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

20 minutes :shock: all i can say is i have been using a wand for over a year (probably more) and i never need to use it for more than a minute using the forward - reverse method, my wines always clear in 24 - 48 hours.

 

[OirishOyes]

As a result of the advice offered here, I will in future spend considerably less time degassing our wine. And I will allow considerably more time for the wine to age in the bottle.

Thanking you!

 

[cheapbrew]

In the video he is doing a 5 gal batch so it will take longer than a minute, maybe five to ten and again 1 hour for the 5 gal dj seems a lot in my opinion, degassing is not really necessary if you have patience, just leave it in a dj under airlock for a few months and it will degas itself, but we don't always have the time or space so degassing speeds things up.

 

[OirishOyes]

That probably casts a different light on my question cheapbrew. We only brew 5 gallon / 30bottle lots. But I will cut the degassing time right back as you suggest.Thanks.

 

[cheapbrew]

You can kinda tell when its done as it starts with bigger bubbles and the froth is thick n foamy and clings together and tries to leave the dj, after a while the bubbles get small and the froth is not thick n foamy and disperses easily.