Frequent Questions

There are 3 basic wine bodies – light, medium or full (like the difference in feeling in your mouth between skim milk, whole milk and cream). As a wine contains more and more alcohol, it becomes more viscous (i.e., it becomes heavier, and thereby feels fuller in our mouths). This is why we call a heavily viscous wine full-bodied and a low viscosity wine light-bodied.

As a general guide:

• Wines under 12.5% alcohol are said to light-bodied and tend to be the white wines we think of as crisp and refreshing (Riesling, Italian Prosecco and Vinho Verde).
• Wines between 12.5% and 13.5% are considered medium-bodied (Rose, French Burgundy, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc).
• Wines over 13.5% alcohol are considered full-bodied (Zinfandel, Syrah/Shiraz, Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec or Chardonnay).

Wine should be transferred from the primary fermenter after fermentation is complete, typically 5-10 days.  Once it is in a glass carboy with a  bung & airlock or in a sealed bottle, it can sit for months or years, without any harm (Assuming proper conditions including: stable temperature of 20-24C, low sunlight, etc)

Yes, we sell a variety of bottles (glass wine-750 ml, glass beer-500ml, 750ml, 1,000ml, plastic-500ml, 1,000ml, and crown cap-355ml, 650 ml)

We sell the Global Vintners Vineco wine kits in: Original series, Estate series & Signature series.  We also carry the limited release Passport series and a selection of Fruit wines.

We sell Festabrew & Microbrew -wort kits, Munton’s and Black Rock -Malt extract kits.

Yes, we can make your wine, beer or cider kits for you.

Yes, we sell a variety of brewing equipment for the home brewer.

Yes, we sell a variety of labels and shrink tops, to give your wine that “Finished” look.

Making beer, wine or cider is quite simple. The time you’ll spend doing work is about 2 hours in total, depending on your setup. Our beer & cider kits take 4 weeks to age and 2 weeks to carbonate, our wines come in 4, 6 and 8-week timeframes. If we make the kits for you, you’ll spend less than 45 minutes in store, total!

If you make a four week kit at home, you’ll spend about 30 minutes to get things started on day 1, about 15 minutes racking/transferring on day 14, racking again on day 24 (15 mins), filtering on day 26 (30 minutes) and bottling on day 28 (30 minutes)

If you come prepared with 30, clean bottles per kit, you’ll be done bottling in about 30 minutes.  If you bring helpers, you can save 5-10 minutes per batch.

If you plan to cellar your wine, or age it, we recommend placing shrink tops on your bottles to be sure of a proper seal.

The Signature series does include labels, if you buy any other price level of wine, labels are not included.

Our wines are priced at $109.97(Original), $159.97(Estate), and $199.97(Signature) per kit, and the U-Vint service is priced at $54.97 for the basic service or $59.97 including corks.

Our ferment-on-Premise service makes the wine making process super simple for you!  You sprinkle the yeast and return to bottle your wine, we do all the lifting, transferring, and filtering.

We find that many of our FOP clients have: space challenges at home, their home isn’t setup for home brewing or they might have a physical challenge that prevents them from lifting heavy carboys.

We sell the “Crafted” series of ciders.

Yes, we are now able to make beer & cider kits on-site as well as wine.

The simple answer is no.  Using an airlock during primary makes absolutely certain that no contaminants enter your brew.  As long as you use proper care, you should not require an airlock during primary fermentation.

Malt Extract kits resemble a can of molasses.  They are the condensed version of Wort kits.

You can certainly split your batch with friends.  Our kits make 23L (30, 750 ml bottles of wine)

A typical 5 or 6 gallon glass carboy requires a size 6.5 bung.

A typical 5 or 6 gallon plastic carboy requires a size 10.5 bung.

They critical phase is during primary fermentation.  Once the majority of the yeast has been removed through sediment  (or Trub) you can leave your kit in secondary, or in the bottle for months.

Yeast is most efficient when the temperature of the liquid is between 20-24 deg C

Using a hydrometer will accomplish two things:

1. It will indicate when your primary fermentation is complete
2. It will allow you to calculate approximate Alcohol By Volume (ABV)

All of our beer, wine or cider kits make 23L.

Filtering your wine speeds up the clearing process.  If you plan to “Rack” your wine multiple times prior to bottling, filtering is not required.

If you plan to bottle condition your beer, do not filter it.  The residual yeast are required to produce carbonation.  If you plan to keg your beer, yeast are not required for carbonation, therefore you could filter your beer prior to kegging.