Winexpert Wine Kit with Grape Skins: 2018 Washington Merlot

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4 жыл бұрын

My review of a 2018 Washing Merlot wine kit by Winexpert. Started in September 2018, it is ready for my official opinion at the end of 2019 after allowing it to age for at least a year.
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Пікірлер: 43

@ctcollinthib 4 жыл бұрын

Glad to see yours turned out. I made a 2018 Merlot from grapes from The Dalles, Oregon (just across the river from Washington). So good, I'm not sure I'll have any bottles left by the time they age properly!

@charlesmartin1347 4 жыл бұрын

In reference to getting labels off of bottles, I fill up my sink with hot water, add some easy clean and let them sit a few hrs. Most of the labels come off real easy with little or no scraping. Been doing this for years. By the way, I've been making wine for about 15 years and just getting into brewing beer. I use a Grainfather which I dearly love and I absolutely love your videos, very informative and fun to watch. Thanks for all the hard work you have to do to keep the videos coming. By the way, I agree that all that extra racking for wine or beer is not needed. When I brew beer I let it sit in fermenter for a month then bottle and sit another month and never had a bad batch. For wine I don't bottle for a year and sometimes it never gets to bottles as I keep snatching some with my wine thief. Sorry about this being so long and thanks again.

@artvandalay6161 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the reply Larry. My preferred wines are typically in the $15-$25 range unless I really splurge. I lean towards Amador County Old Vine Zinfandels, Barossa Valley Shiraz, and Napa Cabs but like many others. I’m a big fan of Paul Sobon wines. All that to say, if I can make a wine similar in quality for $6 per bottle I’m all in. BTW - received the Spike Flex Plus last week primarily due to your video, so I’ll probably use that for some wine when we’re not pressure fermenting lagers. Though my wife has already claimed our SS Brewtech Chronical BM for wines - lol. Thanks again, Cheers!

@SirGolfalot- 4 жыл бұрын

I've bought several 23 Liter red vinifera grape juice buckets., The Juice was from crushed grapes transported from California in a refrigerated truck. I also bought some vinifera whole grapes added to the fermentation to give the wine fuller body. It didn't come with the chemicals or oak. I already had had wine yeast, Kmeta, and toasted white oak. I also added a couple of my own tweaks when putting it all together. It turned out great. Better than my usual store-bought commercial wine. Much less cost. I've homebrewed beer many years before making homemade wine. So not much of a stretch.

@jpsanch33 4 жыл бұрын

Merry Christmas Larry!

@hoofixrman 4 жыл бұрын

I need to try a wine kit someday

@3rwparks3 4 жыл бұрын

Hi Larry, I made a Super Tuscan for the Holidays this year. It came out excellent . I started it in August, and bottled around the first of November. Toward the end of the bulk aging my wine thief lived up to its name.. I found myself going to the cellar with an empty wine glass and returning with a full one. The kit was a bit pricey, but it was well worth the money. I did manage to put a couple away for aging. They will kick off the holiday season next year a year older. I recommend the Super Tuscan. It also came with two bags of skins. .

@3rwparks3 4 жыл бұрын

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY Your right it isn't cheap, $200. But worth it once a year. I got it at Northern Brewer. It is a kit an RJS Premeur.

@3rwparks3 4 жыл бұрын

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY I agree. It is much cheaper. I have all the equipment (I brew too) and I have saved many Louis Jadot bottles over the years. I made this for less than $7 a bottle. The only real difficult part is corking. I need to invest into a better corker. Getting the Jadot labels off the bottles was a pain also. But cheaper than buying new.

@derektalbot9397 4 жыл бұрын

Subbed; good, interesting channel. Great video. Is it okay to have that much air in the carboy while bulk aging it? I thought it would spoil it, regardless of it being airtight? I thought that the less space for air, the better?

@perrygraham8838 4 жыл бұрын

Love your videos, Larry. Thanks! Bought all kinds of brewing equipment to set up like you have for your beer but am traveling most of the time right now and don't want to sacrifice family time for brewing yet. I've seen some companies online that sell 5 gallon buckets of frozen crushed grapes that seem like a better option for someone of your skill level than a kit. Have you tried any of those? If so, do you think it's worth the cost (usually much more expensive than just buying juice). The websites offer crushed grapes from all over the world and seem like fairly good quality. Anyway, you're by far the best internet instructor I've seen and I appreciate your work. Happy New Year, Brother! Thanks for your service, B-T dubs

@nigelhorsfall6823 3 жыл бұрын

Hi Larry, I did a batch of wineexpert LE19 with the skins and followed the instructions, since bottling it i have started another batch, but this time I didn't add the bentonite as I plan on adding that prior to bottling this time, the second batch without the bentonite does seem to have a much better ferment

@nigelhorsfall6823 3 жыл бұрын

Would you degas and add the other clarifiers as soon as its in secondary or leave it a week or two? It seems to be rushed if you follow the instructions

@jasonlahti7211 4 жыл бұрын

Hi Larry! When you did this from a kit, I noticed there wasn't a whole lot of racking like you did for the whole grape method. Did you just mix in the additives into the carboy at the appropriate time or did I miss something?

@oNorw 11 ай бұрын

This vid is a few years old so no idea if you have any bottles left but would you say the bottles got better after even more aging? Probably hard to say but what price point would you say a bottle like this ended up being “worth” after aging it “long enough”. If these kits might hit a peak after aging 2-3 years could they still be decent after 5 years, 7 years and so on? I plan to make a kit maybe every 3-5 months but it would be a bit fun to keep a few bottles for years if they still would work (and preferably still taste ok)

@beeroquoisnation 4 жыл бұрын

Cheers Buddy. Do you add the clay to a red? I have no experience with wine. Hell, I wouldn't have ever brewed beer if it weren't for your inspiration. Thanks again Larry.

@artvandalay6161 4 жыл бұрын

Hi Larry, Happy New Year! Another well done video - thank you! I have an opinion question for you or others who may want to comment: for a $160-$180 wine kit, what would you say the resultant wine quality would be in terms of price point? My wife and I have done 5-6 WineExpert kits in the $90-$100 range, and IMHO we were basically making white table wines comparable to those retailing for about $8-$10 (East Coast/ mid-Atlantic dollars...). We did the LE16 red mosaic that cost around $170 but results weren’t great due to unplanned conditions in our home during maturation. Before dropping $180 on red kits that interest me I’d appreciate your opinion if you don’t mind. Either way, thanks again and cheers! From a fellow General Engineer 👌

@manuellim619 Жыл бұрын

This guy sounds like a flake

@Kberrysal 4 жыл бұрын

I am going to order the Winexpert LE 2019 Limited Edition Cape Blend w/skins (Worcester, South Africa) Wine Kit

@Kberrysal 4 жыл бұрын

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY The best price i have seen on the wine kit is from labelpeelers.com/cart.php?suggest=e1be5089-223f-4fe2-ad8d-e6796269e57d And i sm going to use the yeast Wyeast 4267 Summation Red Wine Yeast The yeast that comes in the kit seems kinda of Ordinary for this kind of wine

@nigelhorsfall6823 3 жыл бұрын

I would recommend this kit, on my second batch of it, just don't be in a hurry to drink it...it really dose get better with age

@Fitchett2012 4 жыл бұрын

Hi Larry. Thanks for sharing the wine kit video. Do You have an opinion on aging wine in kegs instead of bottles?

@Fitchett2012 4 жыл бұрын

BEER-N-BBQ by Larry thanks for the feedback...I intend to serve from a keg using nitrogen...so after “bottling day”, how do the wines not carbonate in the bottle? Or - am I using the wrong term (aging) for the time the wine sits in the bottle?

@jamierussellmowatt Жыл бұрын

Great video, when you removed the bag of grape skins, did you squeeze the bag to release any of the juices or just let gravity do its thing?

@BEERNBBQBYLARRY Жыл бұрын

Of course. Just like using a fruit press to extract the liquid, I wring and squeeze the bags.

@winnguyen443 4 жыл бұрын

Hey Larry, excellent video as usual. I’m about to make my first wine after years of brewing beer. I’ve got a top end kit with the skins. Just wondering what parts of the kit instructions you don’t agree with. Thanks again Larry !

@winnguyen443 4 жыл бұрын

BEER-N-BBQ by Larry thanks Larry, I imagine there is a lot more to learn if I start doing a lot of wine. I definitely think brewing beers for years helps to understand what’s poking on. Any idea why they don’t use Star San in winemaking? They seem to overwhelmingly prefer sulphites for sanitation that have to be rinsed.

@winnguyen443 4 жыл бұрын

BEER-N-BBQ by Larry the batch Of beer I’m fermenting will be the first beer I use metabisulphite in at packaging. Brülosophy had an exbeeriment that favored this treatment. I use metabisulphite in my tap water for chloramines on a regular basis.

@winnguyen443 4 жыл бұрын

BEER-N-BBQ by Larry yes for sure Larry. I use .3 grams for brewing water, I plan on another .3 grams at packaging. Thanks again Larry, you do a great job on your channel. It’s a go to for me.

@mattknezevich9952 2 жыл бұрын

Just found your channel and love it. In addition to to grape skins can you add grape stems to enhance a little or no? New to this adventure. Thanks

@BEERNBBQBYLARRY 2 жыл бұрын

Remove stems. They add astringency and other bad flavors.

@mattknezevich9952 2 жыл бұрын

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY thanks Larry

@pilsplease7561 2 жыл бұрын

If you can find grapes, buy them and make wine from grapes, its actually cheaper than making kit wine grapes run anywhere from 1.00 a pound to 4.50 a pound for some wine grapes. Or about 1200-2000$ for a ton. I am a commercial winemaker but I make wine at home as projects to tinker with ideas before trying them with lots of volume involved, and I buy grapes from anyone who has them really and ive made some good connections and made epic wines. Fyi for 5-6 gallons of wine you need like 100-120 pounds of grapes. So for basically same cost as a kit or less than high end kits with skins you can make a real wine from real grapes and it will be better in every way.

@eddytaylor7574 4 жыл бұрын

Hey Larry , are you a engineer by trade ? I am aeronautical engineer and just starting to get into home brewing . I noticed some of your spreadsheets and calculations. Just curios as to does the training help with getting into the field ? Thank you for your time

@eddytaylor7574 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you Larry, I really appreciate your time

@rafiro86 4 жыл бұрын

every time a kit like that is opened a winemaker in Italy dies. joke apart, it's funny! keep up the good work!

@rafiro86 4 жыл бұрын

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY i know Larry, in many USA States there are perfect conditions to grow good grape. Have you ever tried to brew an IGA?

@pilsplease7561 4 жыл бұрын

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY I brought bordeaux grapes to my region of california where im really the first person to plant them which is pretty crazy.

@rafiro86 4 жыл бұрын

so you will plant merlot?

@pilsplease7561 4 жыл бұрын

@@rafiro86 I already have, 3 years ago.

@SirGolfalot- 4 жыл бұрын

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY Check into Cold climate grapes. Marquette and Petite Pearl grapes. They make excellent red wine. They are also getting popular in the North West USA