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Everything that follows WILL VOID YOUR GUARANTEE from ALL manufacturers.  Try them at your own risk!

All manufacturers are against all that follows, as most will set their wine off-balance, or off their specification(s).  Brew-masters and wine-masters are all upset.

Well, it'll be your wine  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

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For those of u who prefer higher alcohol level:
+17gram of table sugar per liter, increase 1% alcohol level; roughly 2 cups of table sugar for 23 liters of wine.

Normally it is not recommended for all wine kits, as each manufacturer has their winemaster to have wine 'balanced'.  When alcohol is too high, we call that off balance.

Personally, I do not recommend this, EXCEPT for the Costco Paklab Duo Kits for about ~$50.  If u prefer them well aged (meaning at least 1 year old), the wine does taste too thin.  That extra 2 cups of sugar does add body.  Yes, add body   !

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"Critter Wine" refers to inexpensive, mass produced wines, usually from Australia, that often display some sort of cute animal on the label. e.g. Jindalee and Yellow Tail.

"Silk . . . Ear" is adapted from an old saying "u cannot make silk purse from sow's ear", meaning the quality of your finished product is limited by the raw materials that u used.


From a Frugal Oenophile article in which Larry "The Little Fat Wino"  Patterson conducted a demonstration:
"Silk Purse from Vine's Ear

The last comparison was the most disturbing. Larry took a modest "Cellared in Canada" Merlot and subjected it to what he felt was a typical Aussie treatment. The Merlot itself was quite respectable, but Larry's manipulation shocked the entire audience. He took a magnum of the Merlot and divided in half, bottling one half and then playing with the other. And what did he do? He added enough sugar to increase the sweetness to 1%. He then added enough alcohol to increase it by 1%. Then he added Tannin Plus at one-half the maximum dose.

This is where it gets weird. The resulting wine was a dead ringer for mass market Aussie Shiraz (e.g. Yellow Tail etc.). It had weight, it had a soupcon of sweetness, and it had that lush oak/vanilla nose of popular Shiraz, courtesy of the Tannin Plus.

So the question is, are "confected" wines the way of the future? As long as wine drinkers are uncritical, as long as buyers pay no attention to wine, then they will be fooled by these manipulations .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  "

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Cheaper kits, sweet and fruity and low alcohol refreshment drinks, nice for hot summer days.   Some call them Coolers, Patio-wines, Kool-Aid, and/or Silly-wines.    Most people make a batch or 2 per year.

Red/Pink/White :- Blackberry Merlot, Blackberry Cabernet, Cranberry Chianti, Black Cherry Pinot Noir, etc.; Pink Grapefruit Blush, etc.; Green Apples Riesling, Mango Citrus Symphony and the Apricot Peach Chardonnay, etc.  
(DONOT make Costco PAKLAB ~Peach Chardonnay, some like it but MORE describe it as "cough syrup".)

These wines seem to cross the color line:
- people seem to enjoy them for their flavors, color is less important.
- in general, reds taste thinner than the whites. (yes, it's strange)
- not much aging required, due to sweetness.

Most people consider them too sweet, some not.  Depends on the brand, the flavor, and your taste.  Changes:
1.  Put 50% of the F-pack(=flavor+sugar pack in kit) into primary; the other 1/2 per instruction(=before bottling);
(Most of us do this: alcohol is increased a little, but retain all flavor.)

2.  Boil and dissolve 3-4lb. of Table Sugar in water.  Cool liquid, add to Primary.   Can use Corn Sugar instead, to be added dry (=just stir into primary).  Wine will be off balance and alcohol could be too high for most people.
(EC-1118 max. ~18% alcohol, feed the yeast over time.)

3.  Carbonate wine after it's done (special equipment is needed, some Ontario BOP provide this service);

4.  Depending on flavor and your taste, some people add Rum or other liquor.

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Port wine is typically richer, sweeter, heavier, and possesses a higher alcohol content than most other wines. This is caused by the addition of distilled grape spirits (aguardente similar to brandy) to fortify the wine and halt fermentation before all the sugar is converted to alcohol and results in a wine that is usually 19.5%-20% alcohol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_wine and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aguardente (29-45% alcohol)

I've heard many times that some people turn an expired wine kit into a decent port.  Search web for details.

For those of u who love real vintage, e.g. Tawnys, a flavored port is different enough to avoid direct comparisons:

Raspberry Chocolate Port
Strawberry Chocolate Port
White Chocolate White Port (this one sounds really sexy to me, ha! )
Cherry Chocolate Port
Cherry Port
++ Orange, Apricot, Blueberry, Black Currant, Boysenberry, Dark Chocolate, etc.

Similar method is applied to Sherry and Madeira.

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WHAT TO ADD:
- good old plain brandy (most of us use this)
- flavored brandy (If brandy tastes nasty coming out of the bottle, it is going to taste nasty in the Port.)
- vodka (u can filter it through a Brita filter 3 times before adding)
- alcool
- Everclear(sold in US only, similar to Alcool by SAQ - nearly pure alcohol, and no flavor)
- Creme de Cacao, etc.
(Everclear is preferable. Some say it's best to avoid using 80 proof (40% alcohol), e.g.brandy and vodka - the water content (60%) will dilute the port significantly)

(if u add chocolate syrup, wine turns cloudy, but after few days cloudiness precipitates and the wine falls bright)
- Hershey's Chocolate syrup
- Starbucks Chocolate Liquer.
- extracts formulated for clear beverages, e.g. http://www.naturesflavors.com/default.php
- juices/extracts from the grocery stores, etc.

- definitely add more oak


HOW MUCH
- Don't have the equation off hand, believe ~750ml liquor for 1 batch of 11.5L to +3%. (or 750ml for 23L  :confused:   :p )

HOW= Bench Trials
= blend and taste, +reblend + retaste, + . . . . . till it's right for u.  :p
(Taste buds can be easily overwhelmed, so go slow and cleanse your palate after tasting each new addition.)

p.s. Many Liqueur Flavors available, e.g. http://www.annapolishomebrew.com/shopSSsupply.asp

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The proper term for what we sometimes call junk (at the bottom of bucket and carboy) is Lie (French) and LEES (English),  further details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sur_lie#Sur_lie.

General principle in wine making is to remove lees as soon as possible, as long term contact will give off taste to wine.  However, special techniques developed in Burgundy for white winemaking:
1) Sur-lie aging - leaving wine in contact with its lee, and
2) Bâtonnage(F, E=battonage) - stirring dead yeast cells back into suspension
(few reds use above techniques also)

To add aroma, complexity, richness and "mouthfeel" to:
- refreshing and light-bodied white wine, such as Muscadet and Sauvignon Blanc,
- Burgundian-style, or
- full-bodied California Chardonnay.

To shorten the time for sur-lie process, ready made products are available for purchase, such as BIOLEES by Scott Laboratories, http://www.scottlaboratories.com ... ation/nutrients.asp

Further details on sur-lie and bâtonnage @ http://www.brsquared.org/wine/Articles/surlie/surlie.htm

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Chardonnay on its own can be bland and boring, but responds well to the hands of winemakers. Tweaking can push it anywhere, from bone dry to fat and buttery, almost sweet.  The current trend is unoaked.

The buttery taste in Chardonnay are produced by oak and malo-lactic (ML) bacteria. So if you want more "buttery" flavors, you need to start with juice (not a kit) and put it through malolactic fermentation(MLF).  DON'T put any kit through MLF, u will regret it!   .   .   .  .  .  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malolactic_fermentation)

Many different styles of Chardonnay are available, SAQ or kits.  If u love oak like me, buy an Australian style chardonnay kit, most are buttery and oak bomb.  U can ferment a chardonnay kit in a barrel, then age it on BIOLEES from ScottLab, no multi-stirrings required.  

U can battonage any soft white wine kit(better on chardonnay) to increase richness and creamy mouthfeel:
A)  start kit normal, siphon(=rack) to secondary carboy on day 5-7 per instruction,
B)  after 10 or 14 days, instead of fining and stabilizing:

1.   add 1/4 tsp. of meta-bisulphite to wine,
2.   gently stir the lees into suspension with a sanitized spoon, till nice and cloudy, (*don't splash*)
3.   top up with any white wine, leaving sufficient space for further stirrings,
4.   repeat stirring at 3 or 4 day intervals, for a total of 1 month,
5.   leave wine to settle for 2 weeks(top up with wine to ~2" below bung), rack into a sanitized carboy.
(exception:  most WE kits require LEES for fining, check your instruction.  For these kits, add fining agents directly.)

C)  go back to your original manufacturer's instructions on fining + stabilizing ++ . (follow to the letter again)

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酿酒葡萄和葡萄汁 特价的帖子, 网管删除了, 网管真勤奋!  :p  $10/36lb 的酿酒葡萄 哪里买？ 问网管, 不要问我。  先写这两个  。  。  。

During season or when we find wine making grapes on sales:
A.  wash and dry,
B.  put into freezer bag, ~5-7lbs., then into freezer(if u don't use it right away)
C.  after your wine kit STARTS fermentation,
1.  squash the defrosted pack of grapes inside freezer bag,
2.  put mesh bag over your bucket, (similar to 笼布, but much smaller holes, I guess)
3.  pour the squashed grapes + juice into mesh bag, (1,2 or 3 packs, your choice)
4.  tie a knot on your mesh bag,
5.  punch down the bag two or three times a day (or tie a heavy mug to help keep the bag below the surface)
6.  remove bag when primary is done.
7.  gently squeeze bag, don't squeeze it too hard.  You may have problem clearing when there's too much pectin.
(few days inside the bucket is sufficient)

Pros:
- let the yeast have something to chew on ==> removes "Kit Taste" (ONLY for those who notice it)
- add a bit more color to kit

Pros/Cons (depends on u):
- grape skin adds tannin
- most likely the juice will dilute your kit (=lighter, as most wine grapes in Montreal are lower quality ones)
- final volume of wine will be over 23L, have additional container(s) ready for secondary fermentation ready.

Some people don't use mesh bag, but pour the whole thing through a good strainer, after primary.  
Don't try to siphon(=rack) with floating squashed grapes, guarantee u will regret it.

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有一次 难得地碰上JeanTalon 的白头伯伯 好心情, MP 认真地问, 白头伯伯认真地想了好几分钟, 答案:  不可以。 (永远的 正确答案)
MP的问题： When primary is done, seal bucket with lid+airlock for secondary? (~1" of air space below the lid)
(Never ask the question about using 23L to make 20L, way too much air space.  Everyone will treat u as an idiot.)

In reality  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。  。 some people do it!
I don't recommend the following methods, but for those of u who only do 1x20L once in a few years . . . .  .

A.  20L Bucket
-  After frozen must be defrosted,
-  use a sterile measuring cup to dish out some of the juice into a sanitized container (2-4L), put into fridge,
(above is to avoid overflow during fermentation)
- wait a few days (after the fermentation starts to slow down),
- pour the refrigerated juice(at room temperature) back into bucket,
- after 7/10 days, put lid on with airlock+bung.
(My friend's father drilled a hole in lid for me; if u have proper equipment, only takes 1 minute.)

B.  23L Carboy
-  After frozen must(=juice)  is defrosted,
-  pour the complete bucket inside carboy,
-  primary+secondary fermentation all in carboy,
-  if u don't care much about your wine, u can let it clear inside carboy. Just let carboy rest in cool area for 1 month after fermentation stopped.
(Don't use this method to make kit, u'll never get all the SO2 out, gassy, extremely gassy!!)

MP爱酒如命, 绝对不会这样做。

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#9 addition:  The logic behind making 20L in bigger container may work is that there's a blanket of CO2 that's created during fermentation.  CO2 should really sit right above the must.

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Wine kits come in different sizes, but all are designed to make into 23L of wine.

Not often, but here and there, I've heard about BOP(=Brew on Premise) or wine stores in North America suggesting people to take a 7.5L or smaller concentrate and make it into 20L, instead of 23L per manufacturer's instruction.  Suggesting a fuller body wine, just by adding LESS water to kit.  Manufacturers are all against it as the final product will not be the way they design it; it will be off balance.

I know it's being done, tried it on Costco wine, didn't like it.  PERSONALLY, I prefer the lighter but cleaner taste when it's 23L.  Wine is a personal thing, u have to try it for yourself!