The 6 gallon fermenting buckets, having been washed and sanitized, await the addition of the bentonite clay, juice and water.

The new juice kit with yeast added on top. These Island Mist kits include a flavor pac and while the instructions say to add the pac after the fermentation is completed, I always add about half of the pac to the primary fermentation. She who drinks these wines likes them much better that way. The great thing about making your own wines is they can be made to suit the taste of the person who is going to drink that wine.

The juice of the older kit (bought in the spring of 2021) is much darker than the new kit. The yeast packet included with this old kit was past it’s use by date, so I used a new yeast packet along with a dose of yeast energizer. In four weeks we will have the answer as to how the two kits compare.