Wine kit season has started

One of the low key activities in my life is making wine kits. I've been doing this for 20 years now. When I started at Skystone back then I found a community of wine and beer makers. They gently introduced me and told me where to go to get kits (Valentines in Red Deer, then and now, it's worth the drive). There were always people going past or through Red Deer, so it was normal to find wine kits sitting in someone's office. During the season when the limited edition kits arrived there was almost a communal pickup service. Anyone going would let it be known, and would pick up kits for other people. Advice and suggestions for kits to purchase were eagerly shared.

The kits say they produce 30 bottles, but generally I get 29 plus maybe a half bottle for drinking on the spot. For quality control purposes, of course. After a while I started putting the extra labels up on the wall, and if I got 30 bottles I'd peel the label off the bottle. Well, sometimes, since some labels are extremely difficult. This isn't all of them, since some labels don't come off easily, but gives you an idea of what I've done. Yes, they were all yummy. 

I was up to Red Deer on the weekend to pick up the 4 kits that had arrived. The deal is that the order form comes out in the fall, and one orders then. Deadline is November or so. The kits arrive December to April, or so. The kits I order each take 6 weeks or so to make, and I have enough carboys to have 3 kits on the go at a time. So a cycle sort of looks like this. 

Day 1, Start a kit in the primary.

Day 7, rack from primary to carboy, start another kit.

Day 14, rack from primary to carboy, start start another kit.

Day 21, rack from primary to carboy, don't start start another kit.

Days 7 to 41, there are various activities depending on what exactly needs to be done with each kit, usually involving adding some stuff and using the drill to stir, and racking to another carboy. Which is why you typically can only work on one fewer kit than you have carboys.

Day 42, bottle the first batch, which frees up a carboy, so you can start the cycle again, if you have kits on hand.

We've ordered 7 kits. So if each takes 6 weeks, assuming I've always got the next kit on hand, starting day 1 means that day 126 is when I bottle the last kit. Which is just over 4 months. Some kits need more time in the primary, which delays things. Rarely, a kit doesn't clear in the carboy in the usual time and needs a bit more time. You can't bottle cloudy wine. Well, I suppose you could, but it won't clear in the bottle and is likely to go bad fast. 

So if I wait till the last kit arrives in April, I'm still doing wine into August. I'd rather make an extra trip and get some of the kits started ASAP. As I think of it now, I suppose I should always order a multiple of 3 kits. A few times I've met up with buddies from Edmonton that were picking up a kit, or I've taken the scenic route so a photo buddy feels good about coming along. The actual pickup process doesn't take long, since Valentines has things well organized.

So yes, there is an Italian Primitivo beginning to perk and the basement smells like wine yeast. 

I see some of you counting on your fingers. Yes, 7 kits times 29 is just over 200 bottles. Yes, there are empty spaces on the racks for that many bottles. In fact, just now there are slightly over 300 bottles on the racks. Life is good. No, we don't drink THAT much wine. We have a wonderful financial advisor that eagerly anticipates seeing what's in her case every year. I tell her which bottles to put in her desk, and which to share with her colleagues. For some people several bottles or a case of wine makes a dandy wedding or birthday present. 

All at a fraction of what it costs in the wine store. Which makes me wince when I go out for dinner, because typically, a whole bottle costs me quite a bit less than a glass of the house wine in a restaurant, and don't get me started on the expensive wines. 

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