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Hmmm. Good point. Availability may be an issue if done with kits. I do a lot of fruit wines, perhaps that might be the better route to go. Wild Blueberry would be interesting, and like you said, some years good and some years bad would even out in the long run. I think that in order for it to...

That time of year again for me. I always disappear from the forums as soon as the snow melts and come back when it returns. Well, I've got 2 inches of the stuff now, so here I am. In Minnesota you need to take advantage of the warm weather. Not really much time for indoor hobbies in the summer...

In a way, yes, you are reading it wrong. Hydrometers do not measure alcohol content, they measure potential alcohol. What it is telling you is that there is no more potential to make alcohol in your wine. In other words, all of the sugar is gone. Look at your notes and go by your initial...

Might I suggest that you "train" your palate to detect different flavors in wine. If you want to know how to do this and get a real good laugh at the same time, check out Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library TV episode 148. He's a little "over the top" but very educational and the last 10 minutes of...

Perhaps you should consider getting one of these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCh59r-1RyQ&feature=related

This isn't a "quote" per se, but it's still funny. Sing it to the tune of Do-Re-Me from the Sound of Music: Dough, the stuff that buys me beer Ray, the guy that sells me beer... Me, the one who drinks the beer Fa, the distance to my beer... So, I think I'll have a beer, La, la la la la...

I racked it into the secondary yesterday. SG was at 1.020. Almost had a volcano but it stopped just shy of going up the airlock. The foaming settled down after a few hours and today the airlock is bubbling away harmoniously. Not much to see, but here it is: Since my large primary...

Check the base of the threads for a hairline crack. I had one of these crack on me once and it was not able to maintain pressure and would not work any more. The base of the thread is poorly designed on the white pump housing. It has too sharp of an edge. They should have put a relief...

After some consideration, I am reluctantly going to downsize this to a 3 gallon batch and just use the berries. The ones I have were picked last summer up by International Falls. I'll probably pick up one bag of frozen berries at the grocery store to supplement or use for an F-pack. I do have...

I have a space heater in that room on "standby" if I need it. It's easier than plugging and unplugging a brew belt trying to keep the temp constant. Don't know if mine are defective (I have 3) but if you leave any of them on too long it seems to raise the wine too close to the 80° range for my...

Wine bottles, and brand new carboys Oak it along the way There's too many wines and not much time Look what's going on inside you Ooooh that smell Can't you smell that smell Ooooh that smell The smell of fermenting surrounds you..... Sorry 'bout that. Had a song stuck in my...

We've got a bona-fide heat wave headed here. Gonna be a blistering 20° tomorrow, which is about 43° warmer than it was this morning. They're saying we may even be in the 30's by Friday. Hasn't been that "warm" since early December. After a month of below zero temps the crazies will be...

Pinot Noir is a fairly common wine so you should be able to pick up a bottle without shelling out a lot of dough. Just stop by the liquor store tomorrow and find a decent one. You don't need a $30 bottle. You can probably find a decent one for $10 or less. If there's one out there that you...

Hmmm. I think you must have misunderstood my post. I do want a heavier bodied wine. As I said, I usually use 4 - 4.5 lbs per gallon. Thing is, I want to make 5 gallons and do not have enough fruit to do so. Yes, I could go to the local Wal-Mart and pick up some frozen blueberries, but I was...

I’ve made some super awesome blueberry wine in the past but I did not get that many berries last year, so this year’s batch will have to be “supplemented” somehow. I’ve got roughly 11 lbs of wild blueberries in the freezer from last year and I want to make a 5 gallon batch. I know this is...

Couple more. As you can tell I'm trying to make some space for new batches. The whites with the red caps are from a 1 gallon batch of Apple wine made from juice I bought at a local organic food mart. I like using this juice because it comes with a free carboy (1 gallon glass jug). The...

I'd get one of each....if I had the money that is. Actually, I'm rather fond of Malbec. If they have Old Vines Zinfandel, that's a favorite too. The real question is, what kind of wine do YOU like??? Whatever that is, get some. If it's under $75 it's free so why not??

I used fruit. I had 6 lbs of wild blueberries in the freezer and about 3 - 3.5 lbs of black currants. After finally fencing the currants in I'm finally starting to get some actual fruit off of them. I planted the things back in 2000 and every year the deer would eat the new growth down to...

I got those bottles from a local restaurant. They're from Concannon vineyard wines. Very thick and heavy bottles, some of the heaviest I've ever used. They seem to weigh almost twice what a normal bottle does. I used all I had on this batch. People must not drink that wine much at the...

Bottled 1 gallon of pomegranate and 2 gallons of Blueberry/Black Currant tonight: