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Half of Cab Sauv (with Dates & Raisins) batch has been bottled over the weekend. The color of the Cab is much more 'brown' color than anticipated but taste is nice and light. From the first (and only) taste-glass from the racking: I don't really get any hint of date in the wine but flavor is...

I made mine mid-last year as a 5gal. I've only about 4-5 bottles left of it. It does not taste sweet but, rather, a little fruity. I'm not a fan of the scent of Merlot in general but the wine tastes, to me, like I would expect of a mid-priced generic Merlot (true to form). It's garnered nothing...

This logic could be extended to anything. Beer, burger or bacon tasting would also fall under that umbrella.

Where West? How about looking up a winery in West Texas and seeing if you can get some of their harvest/grapes? e.g. here's a winery near Lubbock https://www.pheasantridgewinery.com/directions/

Basement. Probably around 16-18C (60-65F) depending if it's on the concrete floor or up from it. The kit's instructions (Brewer's Best) called for 1 week fermentation and, prime and then bottle but had optional instructions for secondary for ~2 weeks. In either case: fermentation would...

Not to mention that my recollection of the Festa Juice kit instructions are a 4month timeframe before bottling.

I've an extract kit (English Pale Ale) I want to make, a 5G kit, but I'm travelling next week for business. Can I make it on Saturday afternoon, let it ferment in primary for the week , and return to rack/bottle it? Or should I keep an eye on it? And, for primary, should I be using a...

More aggressive degassing and/or more time for the CO2 to dissipate while it's in a carboy. How long are you ageing in a carboy and how are you currently degassing?

That's actually my plan with a local vineyard come September/October: they're on my list to order a few buckets of red & white and make it an annual thing. I made a Baco Noir (which did not turn out well) and a Sauv Blanc (which turned out well) last year from the vineyard. It's all about...

I was a newbie into this last winter. I started with a simple boxwine kit off Amazon and a trip to the local HBS where they did all the work for my first few batches. Now, a year into it, I understand all the comments about "let it sit", "give it a few months", and the like. Because, today, I...

My guess would be the same as above that it wasn't fully degassed. Decanting or those bottle-mounted-aerators would work to help this situation on your wine. Now, I assume you're buying the pasteurized versions of the Festa Juice? I've only ever got the pre-inoculated version with, what I...

I think the WE 10L GSM kit comes with skins for less than the Amarone. I would get it next time instead myself. I have a some posts somewhere in the cheap kit thread on it. IIRC: it was a cup of dates to primary and some raisins (I added fresh cranberries but I didn't chop or crush them so I...

The two arm corker isn't bad once you get your technique down. My wife isn't strong enough for it so it was my job. With the floor corker, I have a Portuguese one bought used of Kijiji, anyone can do it with minimal practice. Very worthwhile.

@Putterrr has a point with the Costco kits. It's that they're cheap. But, on the plus side, they're cheap. So experiment with them! The Costco Merlot I made has won a number of fans from guests asking for it specifically (over other kits and commercial wines that I have in my basement). The...

I just opened a bottle of the Amarone a week ago and it 'shows promise'. It needs more time, to me, but isn't terrible.

I've only ever seen red Zin >12% while the 'white' Zin are usually <12% (commercially).

Quick update. Still can't find a penny. But I did pull a bottle sample from the carboy to taste that's been sitting on the counter for the past week. My first glass of it: the sock-scent is mostly gone. Whether it was the Cu pipe stirring, the KMS dose, the racking or just some more time...

It's pretty much finished at this point fermenting and I'll take a SG reading and likely rack it tonight. The raspberry scent has really died off and it's much more mellow and 'together'. I think that some Lemon Wine (SP) would actually be a good topper for this beverage if I need to add some...

It's was a cheap kit. We're no fan of sweet wines so I added half the F-pack into primary and fermented it and used the second half to back-sweeten and it still turned out a little too sweet for our tastes. We mix it with juice when we drink it but some of my wife's friends love it as-is. I...

As an update to the recipe: 6kg Honey 4kg Mixed-Berries 1tsp Tannin 3tsp Pectic Enzyme 1tsp Yeast Energizer 3tsp Yeast Nutrient (staggered) Handful raisins EC-1118 Yeast 1 Can of Grape Juice concentrate (Welch's) I've found the lemon juice in the cupboard (or, rather, the missus found it for...