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I have enough canned blackberries to make a 6 gallon batch. I also have a merlot kit and a castel del pape kit that haven't been started. who has an opinion on whether to use the blackberries to back sweeten the kit, or ferment the blackberries and use the grape concentrate to back sweeten...

I am looking for a second opinion or two. I have 6 gallons of skins and seeds from two or more batches of fresh grapes. I wanted to make a batch of "false wine" or second wine, so I brought home the pressings from someone elses batch. The recipes call for replacing the pressed off juice with an...

I was given more than eight one-gallon glass bottles with screw on caps (from commercial wine) that I would like to trade for something. Any one have anything to trade? Maybe 375 or 187 or ice wine bottles or Buon Vino Automatic Auto Bottle Gravity Filler? Make me an offer!</span>

On 9-23 I racked my skeeter pee off the sparkloid and added k meta and more pectinaise. At present it has about an inch of fluff in the bottom of the carbabies, that is showing NO indication of compacting. It also looks milky,and I am not sure if it still has pectin haze or what. 1 should I...

On 10-01-09 I started a three gallon batch of blueberry wine with 9 lbs of blueberries, and then decided the recipe I was using sounded a little weak and added 4 Tbsp of dried elderberries. By 10-30 the SG was down to 0.902. On 11-15 I added 1/4 tsp Kmeta at racking, and again on 4-24-10, when...

I just traded a couple of bottles of wine for someone's "garage refrigerator" to use as a cellar to store my wine. Set the warmest it can go it is at about 47 degrees. Do I still need to get a regulator to get it up to 55? Will storing my wine between 45 and 48 be too cold? I don't want it to...

Any body have bottling notes in the MM La Bodega port? What do you recommend as sweetener, and what target SG? I keep hearing to check the SG on something I like, then use that as a guideline. I have a Castel Del Papa kit and want to back sweeten half of to make port style. I planned to...

Wandering around the internet one night I remember seeing a thermostat to convert a regular refrigerator to wine temperature range. Now I can't find it. Anyone have any info about this? A friend offered me his "spare" refrigerator, a smallish old upright with no real freezer, just a space for...

I am thinking of trying a recipe that makes a dry red wine out of straight blackberry juice with no water. It doesn't say how much fruit, just one gallon of juice. How many gallons of berries would it take to make a gallon of juice? Sounded like a lot of work, but was considering doing two...

I have a lot of kitchen pots and kettles and I am interested in trying to rig a two gallon double boiler or steamer from equipment on hand. I don't have the money to buy a proper steam juicer. I plan to put a rack in the bottom of a canning kettle that is around 4 to 5 gallons. This will keep...

I have several friends who like "sweet" wines, either after dinner, or over ice as a "social" wine. I have a big red kit, and was thinking of back sweetening one or two gallons of it to give as gifts. Sacrilege, I know, but I am making wine so I can have what I want, not what "they" say we...

I recently bought a fired clay wine bucket that said wine brique on it at a thrift store. I can find listings on the net that say, "keep your wine cool the natural way." No instructions. Do I put it in the fridge, or put some water and ice in it? I like the fact that it doesn't have a cord to...

I have three one gallon jugs of blueberry wine bulk aging and am having trouble deciding where to go with it. After I started the recipe, I decided it didn't have enough fruit and added dried elderberries. It is now dry, and tastes like a fruity red dinner wine. Much better dry than I expected...

I experiment with developing recipes from various fruits adding either red or white wine for structure or vinous character. I am looking for which oak will add the "vanilla" flavors with a minimum of "chocolate" and no "leather". Also, which level of toast? In particular, I am currently working...

I recently met some one interested in making wine glasses and tumblers from old wine bottles. It got me thinking that that might be a novel thing to have. However, the hard part is making the cut edge of the glass safe. Sanding takes forever. The internet info says you can't just fire polish cut...

A couple of years ago I put rose petals in a gallon of Chardonnay. I could barely smell it, so at bottling I added a teaspoon of rose flavoring from the middle eastern spice store. I could just barely smell the roses, and no off taste. After six months I opened a bottle and it jumped out and...

I am having trouble figuring out how to estimate the alcohol level on my "brandywine". I started with SG 1.090 and then added 6 lbs of chopped raisins. Current SG is 1.014. Without the raisins that would be 10 %, but the yeast took nearly a week in the primary eating raisins before the SG...

Early in November I started a three gallon batch of caramel apple wine. Used a 96 oz. can of apple base, 146 oz of canned and bottled apple juice, 20 oz of malt syrup for body, and a Tbsp of med toast French Oak. I fed it along the way with 16 oz of cane syrup. It hasn't started clearing yet...

I have three gallons of blueberry wine that is in clearing stage. I divided it into one gallon jugs when I needed the three gallon carboy for another batch. I am thinking of adding Medium toast French Oak chips to one and bottle it off-dry, and want to back sweeten the other two. How much...

I will have access to some fresh and some frozen berries soon: strawberries, blueberries, and maybe blackberries and raspberries. Any one have a favorite recipe for a mixed berry fruit punch type wine? I will try a gallon of strawberry and a gallon of blueberry port and am looking for other ideas.