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It's been a while since I posted, but I'm still here and I still have a ton of wine aging beautifully right next to me. I recently obtained some of my grandpa's wine. My grandpa is the inspiration for how I got started in winemaking. He passed away 21 years ago. He lived down the street from...

I've had this clear 3L wine bottle (double magnum I think it's called) for a while and I've been looking to purpose it. I have a new friend who does does glass and stone etching and she offered to do a design of my choice for free on the bottle. I gave her one of my other 3L bottles as...

Some of you may remember my angst begging for bottles when I first got started a few years ago. Since then I've been pretty good at having enough bottles. This past weekend I made a major score off craigslist. 79 boxes of empties - 980 bottles total. All from the same winery and they all...

I would like to bottle into one of my oversized bottles. It is one of the 3 liter bottles. My mother and I want to use the wine for a party where it will be entirely consumed. The inside diameter opening is 7/8 inches. It looks like the standard wine bottle opening is 3/4 (6/8) inches. What...

I am doing a single gallon batch of peach wine from scratch. I thawed my sliced peaches and I have a little over a gallon of pure juice. But when I checked it today, it had started fermenting by itself. It was sitting there for 2 days. I don't know how far along it is. I tasted it and it...

The LHBS has a paper posted on their board from someone selling fresh grapes locally which should be ready around July 4. It says 90lbs should make 5 gallons and the price is $0.60/lb for the grapes. Is that a good price? Is 90lbs sufficient? I didn't notice the variety, but it was on there.

I made the chocolate strawberry port recipe. I used Super Kleer on April 2 as a clearing agent. This is the first time I've used Super Kleer. I usually use Sparkalloid. It settled down quite a bit, but it is definitely not clear. I test my carboys by shining an LED flashlight through them...

I have processed a lot of loquats to get the juice and pulp. I did it all by hand, squeezing out the seeds and the pulp/juice. I had a little more than 2 full 5 gallon buckets of loquats. Now that I've got just the juice and pulp, I froze 3 bags of the stuff, each with 5 lbs. I'm hoping to...

I had an overflow and the little round hydrophobic filter in-line to my vacuum pump got soaked with wine and debris. I blew it out with my mouth to get the gunk out just to finish racking that batch. But now I'm wondering, do I need to get a new one or can this one be cleaned? I blew it out...

I saw these on Northern Brewer: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/winemaking/wine-equipment/wine-bottling/wine-bottles/750-green-claret-screw.html Has anyone used these? Different question: How much difference is there in quality between the $12.50/dozen claret bottles without punt...

I had another bottling party today and it was so much fun! I bottled my Chianti (kit), lemon raspberry, raspberry, blackberry, black currant, jalapeno, serrano, skeeter pee, and vanilla infused vodka. My guests really liked the jalapeno the most. They were drinking it straight... I made it...

I bought a pump on ebay. It sucks. :) I have a question about how to connect the suction tube to the pump. I have a collection jar for it already and I know how to put the tubing from carboy to carboy to collection. But what do I need to get to connect the tube to the vacuum inlet? It is...

I made a raspberry pee and something seems "off". It hasn't been sweetened. It tastes strong, but sort of mild. There is a definite raspberry flavor. I'm wondering if it is just a lack of sweetening, or a lack of acid. Is it possible to add acid at the end of the process? This one has been...

I want to make my 2nd SP with raspberries. I need help with the recipe. Should I ferment with the raspberries? Should I press the juice out of them and then add it at the end? I'm making 5 gallons and I have 15 pounds of frozen costco organic raspberries. I've used these to infuse vodka and...

In honor of my first (and highly successful) bottling party (17 gallons!) this past weekend, my 73 year old uncle produced a bottle of my grandfather's homemade raspberry wine. Now many of you may have seen my introductory post on here about how my grandfather, who died in 1992 at the age...

I made Apfelwein using Ed's recipe here. It is about 8% ABV. It was started on Dec 21 2010. Yesterday I bottled it. I kind of wish I hadn't. It tastes disappointing. It is very weak tasting. Almost no apple flavor and very little body. It isn't dry and it isn't sweet. Tastes similar to...

I bought a can of VR blackberry juice. It had a fair amount of blackberries in it. Smelled great. I followed the 3 gallon recipe. I added EC-1122 yeast on May 14 with an SG of 1.080. I checked daily and pushed down the cap of blackberries. Then yesterday May 19 I checked the SG and it is...

My SP just went out of control today. I started it at 1.076. It stayed there over 6 days including yesterday night, no activity. I was worried because I started it with a yeast starter of EC-1122. I figured I'd stop at LHBS today and pick up another packet of yeast and try again, but I...

I have a quick question about flavoring pee. I have a clear raspberry flavoring additive I bought from LHBS for wine flavoring. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it is in a 3oz-ish clear bottle and the liquid within is clear and syrup-like and says it is for adding raspberry flavor into up...

I have been spending a lot of time in the past couple of months turning my thumb green. I planted a blackberry & blueberry garden. I put in 7 arapaho blackberry, 7 brazos blackberry, and 3 various blueberries. Almost all of them are budding already and it's only been 3 weeks since I put them...