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2024 is starting out as a weird year. We set a February record high temperature of 70 and again daily temperature records in first week of March. Our local winery started pruning grapes mid way through February since the daytime was averaging in the 50s, this was a month ahead of normal. I...

Many of the wines I did in 2022 had a percentage of fresh/ unpasteurized apple juice in them. That seemed OK since juice would have more fruit impact than formulating country wines with water. BUT now that I am clearing out the carboys I am seeing all the pH numbers have drifted up...

I have been running Yeast Nitrogen for a while and am frustrated that there isn't more about what is normal. As a start I contribute this: Deetzil in 2013 had a thread which is a good intro to nitrogen calculations for yeast https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/yeast-nutrients.39655/...

The intent on this thread is to periodically brag a bit about the wine making clubs here. Prairie Home Vinters had a Chilean juice buy last wednesday, my role in club juice buys is to generate QA numbers and make suggestions on how to make the best wine. (and also familiarizes newbies with...

Two interesting ways to increase esters/ fruity aromatics. First is supplement the must with amino acids aspartate, glutamate, and asparagine which the yeast use to produce extra aroma compounds. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jib.318 And “new to me” amino acid products /...

I am curious if anyone has had bubble gum flavor in their wine? if so what conditions produced it? background; in January in preparation for spring contest I am leading a wine defect class trying to show all the flavors mentioned in November ‘22 Winemaker Magazine. Reductive and VA and...

This is an heirloom which I have been trying to get operational. When last posted on WMT I had fabricated a new basket/ collection basket and discovered that it sheds dust/ greasy stuff when pressing, ,,, (so the obvious is clean that off outside since the wife doesn’t like solvent in the house)...

Well egg on my face time! I have never put a kit together. AND next thursday I will find myself on the demonstration stage at state fair with a “Wine Expert LE Torrentes & Muscat” kit. ,, AND to complicate this the kit is already waiting at state fair. Does anyone have the instruction sheet for...

I have been making black raspberry wine with 100% juice for years. At one year post ferment, in contest it can be a blue ribbon or at wine maker magazine a silver medal. BUT,, Normally a year to year and a half after bottling off flavors dominate and the raspberry/ fresh fruit flavor is gone...

Well today was delivery day for Chilean juice buckets. The numbers from the white grape are finished so I am tempted to crowd source an answer for the vinters club, ,,,, what would you do if you got ont or one each of these named varieties? . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .pH .. . . .. ...

This post is eight “BOOK REVIEWs” on YouTube webinars related to fermentation microbiology. This is intended to let you know the good info is out there whether you just read summaries or watch as you need the vendor's answer. ~MY OPINIONs~ are in italic followed by the link to the webinar and...

an interesting test; An easy way to start a bochet is with a slow cooker, no monitoring a boil, can leave it for a few hours, and easy to melt back into a must/ wine since it is hot. When I do this again I will stop ar the six hour point where the room smells like cooked honey (about 200F). The...

Has anyone come across a design for a tool which can crush grapes as well as mush up apple? Any commercial tool which can do small volumes?

The techie committee from the wine club has started a project to demo argon vs carboy half filled with air vs properly topped carboy. Does anyone have a hardware setup that we should copy? (the person encouraging project probably has 150 lbs of marbles and wants to get rid of them) Looking...