The kit is the most popular from WineXpert. I can see why. It is easy to make, quick, and tasty. It was originally supposed to be more of a wine cooler than a full blown Riesling. A little tinkering with the recipe and BAM full blown wine.

The OG was 1.082

It is now officially wine

I racked to secondary at about 1.032

Wine kit instructions have different steps that go for a predetermined amount of time. I was supposed to "stop" fermentation at a certain point, but I left it go as long as it wanted. It made it to .992 which will give me an ABV of about 12% (twice what the kit was made for).

Here is the Riesling and an Apflewein in secondary

Here is a vid of the degassing process

Degassing gets rid of the carbon dioxide that is a byproduct of fermentation (yeast eat sugar, excrete alcohol, and fart CO2). CO2 will eventually come out of  the wine on its own. But patience for the small / home winemaker is not in the vocabulary. Forcing the CO2 out of suspension by means of vacuum speeds the process. By getting the CO2 out, the wine clears quicker and is drinkable quicker.

Turned out very nice. Very clear

Nice collection

The label. Nothing fancy.

Had my first bottle of this wine last night. It wasn't all I had hoped for, but it was nice and drinkable. I was hoping for a sharp, crisp, very fruity almost granny smith tart kind of wine. This had some apple taste. I didn't add the entire F pack, and I added most of it at the beginning of fermentation and only a little at the end. I suppose there would be more apple flavour if I followed the instructions. But then I would be sitting with only half the ABV.

I can see making this in the future. Maybe adding a little more F pack at the end. I will definitely keep the ABV where it is.