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Made about 25 pounds of bratwurst from scratch yesterday. Here's the recipe I followed. You should use 1 part beef to 3 parts pork. I kept the fat content low, probably 10-12 percent but I didn't measure. For 2lbs of ground meat 1) Fresh sage minced 1 tbsp. 2) Garlic minced 1 tbsp 3) Sea...

M&M is taking orders for fresh Chilean grapes. They're also offering a dollar a box less if you order and pay in full by March 15th. My guy says it'll be an earlier than normal season too with good quality. Just a heads up. I don't work for them, I just am a super loyal customer! They've...

After taking my 2011 Chilean Malbec out of the barrel and transferring it back to carboys about a month ago I noticed a slime on the top of my wine. After opening the bung and taking a whiff...WHOA! I believe I have a barnyard smell. The wine never had this when it was in the barrel and the...

After a discussion with my partner about barrel aging a question came up about the angel's share. While I know you concentrate flavors through evaporation, do you lose alcohol content? My partner is a very knowledgeable scotch aficionado and says scotch looses up to 2 percent in a year of it's...

Ran my numbers out for my Koch Cabernet this morning after almost 24 hours in Colorpro. 31 Brix, 3.98 pH and .76 TA. I checked it and have gotten consistent results with other winemakers on my other batches with the same chemicals, so I have to assume they're good. I plan on trying to get...

I'm currently still fermenting a cabernet that started around 26 brix. Added my yeast and let it get fermenting nicely. At about 1/3 fermentation I added 1g per gallon of fermaid k. Having had that be enough in the past I didn't think about adding any more. My fermentation slowed almost to a...

A while back in saw Dan's cool rollaway tool chest of wine making equipment and the seed was planted. Today I went to Harbor Freight and bought a beautiful 5 drawer chest and loaded all of my equipment in. Here's a few pictures. Dan your advice is welcome, I'm sure you've learned a trick or two...

I was in the area today and decided to get a part of my grape order that came in from M and M. I ordered 8 lugs of Lanza Cabernet Sauvignon and was able to fit 6 more in the car. These were some of the best looking grapes I've seen so far. 26 brix and 3.3 pH. Looking forward to the next 3...

I created my first label since I partnered with a friend from work. We made a California OVZ last year and bottled it last week. We chose the name "2 Fat Firemen" as a catchy and comical label name. We ended up splitting the batch 3 ways and leaving one part unoaked, and the other 2 parts...

I'm just getting towards the end of a book that I've found fascinating so far. It is "Wine: The 8,000 Year Old Story of the Wine Trade" by Thomas Pellechia. It is about trade and commerce related to wine more than actual winemaking but it has some excellent information and insight to the...

I've seen some people talking about how to cover carboys to keep out light and it got me thinking. I found a can of "Flexseal" at my local CVS store and gave it a try. I left the top area clear and a strip down the side to aid with racking. Flexseal is basically a rubber compound that sprays...

I've got my first 100L barrel sitting in the basement patiently waiting to be put to work. I think it would be prudent to assemble a barrel aging schedule and make it a sticky in this thread. I'd like to get schedules for all sizes of barrels from 5 to 60 gallons. For those of you who don't...

Has anybody had experience with chardonnay and higher temperatures? I plan on barrel fermenting a California Chardonnay but my fermentation temperature and aging temperature will be around 70-75 ambient. I'm in the process of buying a new house and plan on making a temperature controlled area...

I divided my batch of last year's old vine zinfandel into 4 different sections last year and did a little bit of experimentation. I bottled 15 gallons, saved 5 gallons, and oaked the other 15 gallons batches on both French and American Oak. They have sat for just over 2 months on oak cubes...

I tasted my latest batch of Bio Bio valley malbec and found a very slight odor of sulfide on it. I splash racked it over sanitized and scrubbed copper tubing and put it back in the stainless tank. Unfortunately it's still there and I have to go to plan B. What bothers me is that this is the...

Found this on facebook, thought it was worth a share

THIS IS AN EMAIL I GOT FROM MY OLD MAN. DEFINITELY WORTH A WATCH! Now THIS is FUN ! Whether you like basketball or not, this is well worth the time to watch... "Uncle Drew" takes the young studs to the cleaners. Kyrie Irving (rookie of the year from Cleveland that played at Duke last...

This question is aimed more at the experienced winemakers from grapes than kit winemakers. I have been house hunting for a while now and one of my biggest stipulations is having room for winemaking. I like the idea of a raised ranch because the basement is wide open and gives alot of room for...

Hey all, I was at one of my favorite local wineries and we got talking about wine making. While one of the owners was pouring me one of her reds, she talked about how she has some deposits on the bottle. She said she wasn't sure what it was but she said she does filter her wine. I was...

Not a good sign for Fall prices but it's encouraging to see wine making become more popular. I have heard that Chilean grapes are going to be difficult to come by if you didn't pre-order. I copied and pasted the press release below from M and M in Hartford. Fall Harvest Prospectus Dear...