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I am currently working on wine batch #10, and for some reason I started using champagne yeast along about batch 3 or 4. (I believe it was all I had at the time) Anyway-I figured yeast was yeast, at least it was not bakers yeast. What I found is that when I open a bottle that was fermented up...

I'm curious how everyone degasses their wine. I have read various methods, and so purchased a piece of copper tubing-bent it a little-put it in my electric drill-and started degassing. I found that the faster I ran my drill, the more rapidly the bubbles broke free-and you could say-the more...

I've made a few batches of wine now-and I often make it with fruit. I recently made a batch of 'citrus' with Oranges, Lemons, and Grapefruit. I added a pack of Super-Kleer when it was through fermenting, bit I couldn't get the wine to come close to clearing, even a month after fermentation was...

I am on my 9th batch of wine-mostly fruit wines. My favorite batch so far was primarily Mango juice (made from store bought 100% juice) so I decided to try another batch with similar ingredients. After I started the batch-I realized that I didn't have enough sugar, so I decided to finish off...

I have heard of a method of making an alcoholic drink, where people put a starter mix of some sort into a pot, let it ferment for a while, and then periodically add more fruit to the mix and just letting the whole batch sit for months or years. They may have started out with fruit and rum, or...

I made up a batch of skeeter pee-using lemon juice and some other citris juices (pinapple, orange, & fruit punch). It has been over 6 months now since I started the batch. At 4 months I tested the acid and found it to be about 1% Tartarin-which i know is high. I added a campton tablet and 1/4...

I have read about a number of people using marbles to add filler to a partially full carboy to minimize the air. Tonight I was working on a batch, and sure enough-needed about 1 1/2 quarts more to top off the carboy. I had seen marbles in the house-so went and got them. I put them into a pan...

I have a batch of modified skeeter pee that is about 4 months old, and I sampled it-hoping it was ready to bottle. I started out with 2 ea 32 oz bottles of real lemon, but then added some frozen orange juice, fruit punch, and pinaple juice concentrate. The first drink wasn't too great, so I...

I have heard lots of bad things about fruit flies, and the DO seem to magically appear around anything with wine in it. I recently found one floating in the top of my primary, and just wanted to know when the flies actually become a problem for the wine. One fly in the primary doesn't seem...

I have read several times where some winemakers put Oak chips into their wine for flavoring. I understand that this gives roughly the same effect as againg in an Oak barrel. I always enjoy a Chardonay that has an oak flavor. What I am not sure about is how the oak is put into the wine...

I started a 6 gallon batch of grape/cranberry about 3 weeks ago. I used 100% juice (gallon jugs from the grocery store), added the sugar to get the sg where i wanted it, and then yeast etc. After the primary fermentation, I transfered to a carboy-and of course had some room at the top...

I was just wondering what a person would do if no yeast were comercially available. Is there some way to keep a culture of yeast alive from one batch to another, kind of like you can do with bread yeast where (I've been told) you can save part of the dough and freeze it for your next batch...

I have made and bottled a batch of peach, and have some elderberry/blueberry in secondary fermentation, both of which were made from fresh fruit. I decided to try a batch from just juice, so got 3 gallons of welches grape jucie and 2 gallons of Cranberry juice and put them into the primary (no...

I have two batches of wine in the works right now. Peach was started June 1 and Elderberry/blueberry started in early August. My recipe book does not call for using campden tablets other than before the yeast is added for primary fermentation. Most of what I read here in the forum says to use...

I have just started my second batch of wine, but haven't got to sample my first batch yet. Anyway, I am looking forward to my time here on the forum. When not making wine, I enjoy woodworking and riding my motorcycle.

I am fairly new to the wine making world, and new to this forum-so I don't know how to search to see if this question has been asked before. I picked enough Elderberries a few weeks to make a couple of gallons of wine. I wound up short by about a pound, so supplimented blue berries for the...

Greetings all, I am a novice wine maker, and am looking forward to learning a lot from this forum. If there are any others here who are from the Lafayette, La area-could you let me know of any meetings that might be regularly occuring in our area. Thanks in advance for what I am sure will...