nutrients in a wine kit

[delboy]

Im going to be doing a wee 1G beaverdale merlot kit tonight (its a no sugar kit), i was wondering do i need to add yeast nutrients to the kit (no mention of them in the instructions).
Thanks in advance.

[Horden Hillbilly]

Im going to be doing a wee 1G beaverdale merlot kit tonight (its a no sugar kit), i was wondering do i need to add yeast nutrients to the kit (no mention of them in the instructions).
Thanks in advance.

I have made loads of these over the years without adding yeast nutrient, the yeast supplied with these kits are vigorous, no need to worry delboy, it will do it's job no problem.

Good choice of kit there delboy, I have made a few of these myself.

[Vossy1]

Ditto HH's experiences

[delboy]

Thanks for the replies

[delboy]

Sorry just one more question, the wine kit says to ferment at as close to 20C as possible i have two scenarios 22C or 18C, with beer i would always go for the lower temperature but with wine what do you think is best, a few degrees below or a few degrees above???
Thanks in advance, delboy.

[DRB]

I have done a few of those kits and funnily enough ,I have just bottled a merlot all ve been good.
As temp I just leave mine on the kitchen top temp range from 18 to 24 and it turns out great.

[Vossy1]

I'd go with 22 deg c DB.

I recently did a wine and a cider kit. Both were in my fermenting cupboard at 19 deg c and after 2 weeks the cider had stuck and the wine wasn't low enough.
I took them out, roused the yeast and left them on my kitchen table for 2 days at room temp, result, FG where they should have been

EDIT

Interestingly (for me anyway ) my new fruit wines are in the fermenting cupboard at 20 deg c as we speak. The strawberry is going great guns, a bubble a second at least, the blackberry maybe a bubble every 15 seconds and the Elderberry is even slower.
All have the same yeast..so maybe it depends also on the type of wine

[delboy]

I'll be bottling this kit up today, had a sneaky taste of it last night and its very drinkable but i have to say it seems to be lacking in depth and body compared to commercial wine.
I was wondering do the more expensive kits (the ones made up almost entirely with juice) have more depth to them.
To be honest im contemplating doing some country/tinned fruit wines rather than these kits since that would seem to have a bit more involvement and be more fun.
The idea of foraging for berries etc and then making them into a delicious alcoholic beverage is very appealing, and also a lot cheaper.

[Curious Brew]

I'm no expert

Rubbish!

[delboy]

I could be wrong but i doubt any more body or interesting flavours are going to appear.

I've just smaked a wyeast packet of rudsheimer yeast and im going to head down to tescos to clear the shelves of tinned strawberries for a strawberry wine

[delboy]

I could be wrong but i doubt any more body or interesting flavours are going to appear.

I've just smaked a wyeast packet of rudsheimer yeast and im going to head down to tescos to clear the shelves of tinned strawberries for a strawberry wine

Why not, they do with a good barley wine?

Maybe so DaaB, i don't know enough about wine to know how it will develop, i was basing this on the assumption that it was a low strength wine, AFAIK its big bodied alcoholic wines that really mature well.

Anyway sod the expensive wine kits im home from tescos with 16 cans of strawberries in grape juice and 4 kilos of sugar, not taking the yeast cost into account (i plan to save some for using again) i calculate that for 4 gallons of strawberry wine its costing me £6.50, say £7.50 by the time i throw in some pectolase etc, thats about 29 pence a bottle

I just hope its nice

[lockwood1956]

Kit wines come with all the nutrients required in the juice.

All kit wines need 3 months minimum to develop, you will be surprised at how the flavour profile will change as the wine ages, at 1 year old the wines really come into their own.
The more expensive kits take longer to come into their own, I have a crushendo (grape skin pack) wine that is only just now reaching its full potential (after 2 years) and it bears no resemblance to the wine that went into the bottles two years ago.

the beaverdale kits are great kits from a value/quality standpoint.

try a bottle each month...take notes and you will be surprised at the changes. upon bottling, they don't taste of much at all (bottle shock) but 3 months later its a different story

regards
bob

[delboy]

Kit wines come with all the nutrients required in the juice.

All kit wines need 3 months minimum to develop, you will be surprised at how the flavour profile will change as the wine ages, at 1 year old the wines really come into their own.
The more expensive kits take longer to come into their own, I have a crushendo (grape skin pack) wine that is only just now reaching its full potential (after 2 years) and it bears no resemblance to the wine that went into the bottles two years ago.

the beaverdale kits are great kits from a value/quality standpoint.

try a bottle each month...take notes and you will be surprised at the changes. upon bottling, they don't taste of much at all (bottle shock) but 3 months later its a different story

regards
bob

Cheers, seems DaaB was right, me of little faith