1 reply to this topic

[glennh2os]

Wife is really getting into wine (from a wine geeks perspective etc..). Buying books, going to tastings etc.. So for her birthday which is coming up I bought her a wine kit. I figured this would let her see if she wanted to make her own, and I figured I could sacrifice a bucket for a few weeks .A couple of questions for any of you who have used kits like this.1. Are the yeast they package in those kits trustworthy? Meaning the kit has been on the shelf for who knows how long, are wine yeasties more forgiving then beer yeasts. Will they still be viable?2. If I need to be prepared with a fresh yeast packet (or 2? or 3?) any suggestions for choices? The wine will be a Syrah if type of wine matters for this choice.

[strangebrewer]

All kits have a manufacture date code on them. Last I checked the big manufacturers guarantee their kits 1 year from the date of manufacture. If it's older than a year I'd take it back just from a quality control stand point. That said I got a 2 year old kit for free once because it was 2 years old. I used the yeast in the box and it fermented out fine. The yeasts that come with those kits are just repackaged yeast from the major suppliers but you have to get exactly which strain out of the manufacturer since it is not always clearly printed on the packet.As for reading the date code it depends on which brand you bought. I make mostly WineExpert and RJ Spagnols so those are the ones I know. On the WineExpert kits look for a 10-11 digit number that'll look something like this: 0102510 0150.Break it down into the first 2 numbers, the next 3, the next 2, and then the final 4 so: 03-025-10-0150. 03= the 3rd kit run of the day025= the day of the year so it's anything from 1-365 in this case It's January 25th10= the year0150= The number in line the kit was produced that day so number 150 out of however many they produce in a dayRJ Spagnols are easier since they use yyyymmdd format. so 20100125 is 2010/01/25 or January 25th 2010. I've seen some RJ Spagnols kits with a letter at the end of the date code, I don't know what it means.I've made quite a few wine kits and they have always produced good wines. The expensive kits make better wine without a doubt but the less expensive ones make good wine all the same.