Winexpert Pineapple/Pear wine kit

CrealCritter

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Last time I was at the home brew store. They had dented cans of pineapple puree that I thought was wine base but it's main use is to mix into finished beer :sick. I made the mistake of telling my wife and she was disappointed I didn't get it. She said you know I like pineapple wine.

So today I talked with my buddy about my wife's disappointment. He said wine made of pineapple puree would not turn out good. So he sold me a pineapple/pear wine expert kit for his cost. He said he doesn't want my wife disappointed :lol:

This is my first ever boxed wine kit, I checked the reviews on amazon. Seems like people like the finished wine with a rating of 4.8 out of 5. Plus I got the kit for like 1/2 price of what it sells for on amazon. I'm suspicious of the claims in the destructions of wine ready to bottle in 30 days, but we shall see.
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I started pineapple/pear late last night. The kit contains everything you need to make wine, except bottles and corks. I followed the directions with the exception that my buddy told me that a 5 gallon comes out better than 6 gallons.

I pulled a gravity reading of 1.060 after assembling the bononite (clarifier) warm spring water, the very heavy larger bladder bag and topping off to 5 gallons with cool spring water.

The kit says the wine should finish to a gravity of .996 or below. After checking the ABV of the original gravity, 1.060 and final gravity of .996, the wine would only be 9.9% ABV. Everything I've read says a bare minimum of 10% ABV is required for long term storage. But 12% AVB or above is recommended. So I stirred in 3 lbs of white table sugar. That put the gravity at 1.086 and hopefully at 12.0% ABV when it finishes @ .996.

I find it really strange the kit would come in with such a low amount of fermentables and also even stranger that they want you to add benonite at the very beginning. But hey I'm no winexpert, I'm here to learn.

The yeast that came with the kit is Lalvin EC-1118. I read up on it and it's a all purpose champagne yeast, theres nothing special about it. This is my first time using Lalvin wine yeast. So far my observation is It's a very slow starter compared to Redstar premier blac (champagne) yeast.

Pic of the instructions with my notes. I'll post again in two weeks, the next step per the instructions.
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In order to get fermentation rolling, I had to stirr in 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient (not included in the kit).

I think I'm producing alcohol now or a whole lot of gas.
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So far I'm not all that impressed with Winexpert. I just hope the finished wine is good to drink. But if not, I'll tweak it some. However aging in the bottle cures lots of wounds.
 
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CrealCritter

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Well I'll be a monkey's uncle. I popped the lid and dropped in my sterilized hydrometer. Sure enough, a tad less than .996. So a starting gravity 1.086, ending gravity .996 = 12.2% ABV, now i'm happy.
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Here is what it looks like after completing all if step 2. There was no more gas in the wine than any other I've made.
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Tomorrow (day 15) I start step 3. I'll need to syphon off a little so the "flavor pack" will fit, I'll save what's left over for topping off and I'll store leftover in a sterile mason jar in the refrigerator.
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So far so good, no major hickups. With the fermenting completed. its just giving it time to clear now before bottling. I guess I need to design a label now.
 
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CrealCritter

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Bottled :) 26 days since pitching the yeast, not bad at all and it even tastes good. It will get better with age like all wines do. Yielded 25 750ml bottles or a little over 5 gallons.

24 750ml bottles, I gave one to my favorite daughter in law already.
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Stats
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CrealCritter

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It wouldn't be right to not say a couple of words about this pineapple pear winexpert kit.

The only "problem" I ran into was getting the yeast to fire up. But I already know how to fix that problem, so it really wasn't much of a problem for me.

Other than the directions being vague, I actually enjoyed this kit. Although it did feel like I was cheating, having leaned to make fruit wines from scratch. I have no idea what was in the two bags of juice that comes with this kit are. But I still would highly recommend it to someone who is first starting out making wine.

Would I make this kit again? Heck yeah I would. But I wouldn't, if i had to pay retail price between $70.00 to $80.00. I got my kit for wholesale price which is about 1/2 of retail.

If your going to make this kit, purchase yeast nutrient to go along with it, because I believe you'll need it. Also if your going to make the full 6 gallons add 4 to 5 lbs of sugar to bring the alcohol content to around 12%. I made 5 gallons so I added 3 lbs of sugar.

All in all I would rate this kit 3 out of 5 stars. Its easy, tastes good but the lack of yeast nutrient and vague directions, low alcohol content and mystery juice bags prohibits me from a higher rating.

I have to admit, I really enjoyed bottling this batch of wine. There's just something about bottling and corking wine that is super satisfying to me. All the time it takes to get to the bottling stage and then when you finally get to the point where it's degassed, clear and stabilized, its almost like a major accomplishment and only the wine maker truly knows what went into each and every wine made. Then when you drive the cork in the bottle and place a label on it. Your storing it away to age and improve in quality and taste. They you can say, wine you did good, now mature so we can enjoy drinking you later.
 
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CrealCritter

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This wine kit has turned out to be a big hit with the ladies. That being said I really should rate this kit 4 out of 5 stars. Latest comments from one of my daughter in laws younger sister. The wine is a little to light and fruity for me but hey as long as the ladies like it I'm cool with that.

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She asked me if I would teach her how to make wine. Sure I would actually enjoy that! I got my first student after graduating wine making academy :) I think we'll start with a cherry wine.since I haven't made that one yet.
 
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