Search results

Very cool! Let us know how they worked. I stumbled upon a website that stated if the used lids are boiled in water and baking soda for 15 minutes or so they can be reused. I have done this with success; the lids held the vacuum. I try to be very careful when I open a jar so as not to...

It can be saved Yes, you can still save it. I assume this is the primary fermentation? If so, this was caused by lack of headspace in the fermenter. You could transfer what you have now into a larger vessel or you could attache a blowoff tube to the set-up you have now. A google search will...

Mark Jenkins likes you on Facebook

John, I deal with Keystone Homebrew a lot. I think they are great. They have a new store now (they moved about a year ago) and it is a huge upgrade to their old digs. I don't have any experience with their on-line ordering process but if you give them a call, you would be able to...

Hello all, This was my second year making wine from fresh grapes. After we pressed last year and were left with all the skins, I felt bad throwing them out. I seemed like such a waste but I didn't know what to do with them. Someone advised me to make Grappa but I don't have a...

How fast could you cold stabilize at those temps?

Aging Cabernet Sauvignon from Lake County, Ca and Merlot from Yakima Valley, Wa from 2010. Planning on some Cabernet Sauvignon again from Lake County, Ca and some Pinot Grigio from Central Valley, Ca this year. We were planning on some Red Zinfandel from Lake County, Ca but were told that...

I get my marbles from the aquarium section of pet stores. I buy the clear glass ones.

Hello Paul, I would not add the MLB nutient at the start of MLF. When you first add the bacteria, you want it to start to work on the malolactic acid; essentially, you want almost a nutrient dessert. There will be some nutrient for the MLB in the sediment anyway. If you were to add...

I wouldn't use a white wine to top off a mead. If you were to rack the mead into another container, I would only use more mead or marbles to fill the head space. There is much debate about the use of marbles on this site. I have only made wine once and did use marbles to top off my 6...

Hello Paul, Last year we did Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. We picked up one batch about a week after the other so their primary fermentations were a bit staggered. Anyway, to answer your question, the Merlot grapes remained in the primary for 4 weeks and it was reading 0.996 Brix 6...

Hello jtstar, Jack Keller has a ton of yeast info on his site but that may be sensory overload since you aren't sure of the type of grapes you have. Most of that page is an attempt to link wine type with yeast. Last year was my first year making wine from grapes. We did a...

I am from Philly and I'd be happy to let you know of tons of places but you'll have to narrow down where you're going exactly. Philly is both a big and small city in my opinion. You can get a hotel in a nice section of downtown (Old City, Rittenhouse Square, City Hall, etc) and be walking...

Thanks guys. I have avoided the twist off's but just became concerned about the variety of different bottles in the stash. Good to hear the consensus is not the cork when it comes to PITA situations.

What are the concerns with reusing wine bottles? I have 45 gallons of wine that I will be bottling in the coming months and have collected around 100 empty wine bottles. I still need about 150 by my estimation but my question lies around which corks to use and any other issues anyone else has...

I've gotten mine at a pet supply store. They were in the area with aquarium supplies.

This seems very cool but this is our first go at wine and we only have 40 gallons so I don't want to get too creative.

OK. It looks like I'll stick to the original plan of 3 different oaks. Bruno31, I don't have barrels, I am using oak spirals. I did plan on blending some of these but i was not going to mix the wood. For example, I was going to do 50/50 blends with cab/merlot with French Oak. I was not...

Hello all, I have merlot and cabernet sauvignon wines that I am getting ready to oak. I have three carboys of each grape and initially thought I would put French Oak in one, American Oak in another and Hungarian Oak in the last. Now I am thinking I shouldn't mess with anything and put...

So I spoke with the "wine guy" at my LHBS and he advised me to let MLF continue for another week or so and then run a chromatography test again and if I wanted to cold stabilize at that point, I should still have about 4 weeks of cold weather to get that done. In the spring time he said the mlf...