BELVINO WINE KITS - INSTRUCTIONS

Belvino Wine Kits are based on dried fruit, herbs and berries. Fermentation and clearing are both extremely fast - your wine will be ready to drink in only 7 days. All Belvino wine kits are very easy to make and you only need to add sugar and water.

EQUIPMENT

You must have a good cleaner/sterilizer, a 25-30 litre fermenter and a siphon. If possible, use a plastic fermenter (a bucket) with a large lid and a graduated scale. A plastic, clear (see through) bucket is the best thing. A hydrometer is very helpful for troubleshooting, determining alcohol or calculate sweetening.
Use real wine bottles and professional looking labels, bottle tops etc for the final touch.

1. START

A. First clean and sterilize all your equipment, especially the fermenter, with a proper homebrew cleaner/sterilizer and rinse thoroughly. Washing up liquid, campden tablets or similar will not do the job properly.

B. Empty the dried fruit pack into your fermenter, add 4 kgs (8.8lbs) of sugar (5 kgs / 11 lbs for dessert wine, fermentation will take longer). Then add 3 litres (100 fl oz) of boiling water (not for glass fermenters) and stir well to dissolve all the sugar. Add sachet 1e (enzyme) and stir well, then leave for one hour. Top up to 23 litres (6 US gallons, 5 Imperial gallons) with lukewarm water, ideal water temperature is 25-30 C (77-86 F) and then add sachet 1c (citric acid). Mix well and take a hydrometer reading. Although you can skip the hydrometer reading, it is good to have it for troubleshooting, calculation of alcohol etc.

C. Make sure that liquid temperature is below 30 C (86 F), then sprinkle (evenly over the surface to avoid clumping) sachets 1 (wine yeast) and 1d (bentonite) onto the surface. Leave for 15 minutes then mix well.

D. Leave the brew to ferment in room temperature, ideally 22-25C (72-77 F). Lower temperatures may increase the fermentation time. Do not use an airlock - the fruit may block it. Just put a clean cloth over the normal airlock hole. Place the fermenter on a chair, table etc to simplify racking off later. Always consider the risk of a leak, frothing etc when you choose where to put the fermenter. Fermentation should commence within 1-2 days and as a result you will see foam on the surface.

2. FERMENTATION 5-6 DAYS (10-15 DAYS FOR 5KGS OF SUGAR)

Leave to ferment for 5-6 days (10-15 if you added 5 kgs of sugar) at room temperature, ideally 22-25 C (72-77 F). At lower temperatures, fermentation may take longer. At the end of the period: check that fermentation is over with no visible activity, same hydrometer reading two days running (below 1000) and the wine should taste dry.

3. AFTER FERMENTATION

When you are absolutely certain that fermentation is over:

A. Rack off your wine, pouring it through a clean sieve or straining bag into another cleaned and sterilized vessel to remove the fruit.

B. Taste the wine to check the sweetness. If your wine is dry it is now time to add sachet 2 (stabiliser). Then remove CO2 from your wine by shaking or stirring vigorously for several minutes (even better is to transfer from one bucket to another several times). Leave the wine for an hour, then repeat the degassing. If some CO2 remains, clearing will become more difficult and in some cases fail altogether.

C. When all CO2 is removed: Add sachet 3 (finings A) and stir it in for 30 seconds. Leave until the next day.

4. ONE DAY LATER

Add sachet 4 (finings B) and stir it in slowly for 30 seconds. You should now stir up the sediment gently. Do not rack off between finings A and finings B and do not try to remove any CO2 at this stage. Leave to clear in a cool place if possible. Place your fermenter at a height suitable for racking off.

5. TIME TO BOTTLE

When your wine is clear - normally 1-2 days after finings B has been added - it is time to bottle. If you feel brave you can siphon it straight into bottles but a safer way is to rack off into another clean and sterilized vessel first and then bottle it. Use wine bottles and good quality wine corks which will improve the maturing. Your wine is now ready to drink and it will improve and mature with further ageing in bottles.

Please note: The information in these instructions are not owned by Brew2Bottle, and are obtained from suppliers of the kits.