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I'm very new to grape growing and I have only 3 vines for consumption only. Last year I had a few problems with brown spots/mildew etc. I've never sprayed the vines so this year I decided to take care of them much better. The vines are Concord and Himrod. Do I spray them with anything in winter...

Yes. This is probably the worst thing. A few days ago I got covid. The first time since the beginning of the pandemic. I lost sense of smell and tatse. I took a few days off from work and I could take care of a few carboys but without being able to smell or taste anything it’s worthless. I...

I started my first merlot from juice March 2nd ’23. I really have high hopes but I would like to ask how to proceed at this point. It’s been 9 months since I started and I don’t have a problem with bulk aging longer but maybe there is something I need to include in the whole process. So here is...

I plan to ferment one more wine before the end of the year and I was thinking about WineXpert Chilean Merlot. I didn't see the option to get a skin pack when buying this kit. Do you think guys it is a good idea to get extra skin pack from Label Peelers? I don't mind extra aging time if using it...

I just wanted to share my experience with my 2nd strawberry wine I started at the beginning of December '22. I bottled the wine 2 days ago and to my surprise it still had a very small amount of lees at the bottom of the carboy even though the bottom looked perfectly clean. The wine was in the...

I will be starting a pear wine and I want to use an apple juice instead of water as a base but I’m not sure what juice would work best. I’m thinking about a supermarket juice but they are all pasteurized at least those on shelves. Could anyone recommend any brand or does it really matter? Mott’s?

A friend of mine who is not a member of this forum asked me to try to find out what is a legal way to advertise and sell 3 bottles of vintage champagne. It is Taittinger 1964 and 2 bottles of Cuvee Dom Perignon, one from 1964 and the other from 1966. I'm afraid selling alcohol without a license...

I bottled my Peach Frutta yesterday and I was a little disappointed that it turned out quite yeasty. It will need a long aging I guess but the kit is not intended for a long aging so I'm not sure what happened. I followed the recipe except bumping up the OG to 1.110. I started the wine 04.23.2023.

I recently backsweetened Chokeberry (aronia) wine and I found it still very astringent. I like the very earthy, full flavor, deep dark color and quite mouthful, but it's very astringent at the same time. I had about 2 liter extra that didn't fil the carboy so I decided to add several chips of...

I was fermenting FWK Black Cherry. After 15 days and reaching FG 0.996 (for 2 days didn’t move) I added packet D and superkleer. I degassed pretty well too. I added I bag of conditioner that contains sorbate. 2 days later I noticed it is still bubbling in the carboy. What did I do wrong? Should...

I'm pretty new to kit winemaking. Peach is my 3rd kit and it came with active carbon and bentonite. The must is totally black. I hope it is normal and the color will change to peach at some point but the instructions doesn't warn you. My heart almost attacked me! When the color is going to start...

I've made a Tart Cherry wine which stuck at 1.030 and the current ABV is only 9.1%. It's still not clear but I'm afraid keeping wine at this low ABV may be risky. It's topped off and resting but I was thinking I should fortify it to the final ABV, around 14.5% and then let it sit and clear. BTW...

I became tired of naming my wines "Blueberry Wine" or "Cherry Wine" or anything that will be duplicated probably pretty soon and then it's gonna be "Blueberry Wine II", "Cherry Wine II" and then the only difference will be batch # or year, so I came up with an idea of naming them more...

I didn't know one day I would be making Merlot! I always said, There are so many amazing Merlot wines you can buy for $20, $30 at stores that making another one doesn't make sense. It's different with country wines so I was making country wines only. Yesterday I ordered 2 gallons Merlot...

I’ve made 5 different batches of wine recently using Colomafrozen concentrates. Three of them were entirely from Coloma, one of them were made from Coloma concentrate and pressed juice and one from Coloma and Vintner’s Best. In all cases fermentation got stuck at some point or not fermented...

I will be starting a new wine over the weekend and I am looking for some tips from someone who tried Red Currant. It's going to be made from Colomafrozen concentrate. I know red currant are quite acidic in range of 2.5-3.2 so some pH tweaking will be probably necessary but anything else I should...

My concentrates from Colomafrozen are arriving tomorrow. I've ordered 2 gallons of Montmorency tart cherry concentrate with Brix68. This will give me enough "power" to dilute it and start around 6 gallons of must at a reasonable SG. I'm very excited. Sour cherries were always one of my favorite...

I will be starting a next wine today. This time Passion Fruit. It's going to be a combination of Vintners Best Passion Fruit base concentrate and 2 quarts of Coloma Frozen passion fruit concentrate (Brix 50). Vintners Best is for 5 gallons and gives 10%ABV so I decided to fortify the recipe with...

A few days ago I started a Kiwi Wine. I was planning this for some time and finally I found relatively inexpensive fresh kiwi fruits at a local store. I stored them in paper bags to be fully ripen. Total 24 lbs per 6 gallon primary. The recipe called for a can of frozen grape juice and I added...

I’ve used mostly ec1118 and champagne yeast and now I’m fermenting 2 wines with K1-V1116 wild blueberry and dragon blood ( quad berry). I’ve noticed fermentation with 1116 is not so vigorous, as with 1118. Less foam but yeasts still doing the job. 1118 at the rehydration process created a 1/2”...