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I will get before and after photos. Trimming is supposed to happen Friday. Tree guy estimated about 50% less production. That would actually be good. I only want to make two 5 gallon batches and only need 40 pounds for that. Plus some to just eat when fresh. Must have had well over 200 pounds...

I used both when I did the initial setup. I knew about the alcohol skewing from before. You probably mentioned it in my plum thread :) So the numbers quoted above for progress are just the SG. I found the refractometer seems more accurate when doing the setup so I have been going by that when I...

My mead has been going for 14 days. It is making consistent progress albeit slower than what I saw with my plum wine. I stated with a brix of 26 and yesterday it was down to 9. I think in 4 or 5 days it may be ready to rack. As of this morning there was quite a layer of foam on top so not ready...

This is kind of confusing to me. My understanding, at least with fruit wines, is that all the nutrients are added before the 1/3 break point. The things I have read about mead say the same but suggest much higher amounts of Fermaid O or inorganic N. Both my honey must and Agave must are...

Per my other thread, K&C fining did a good job clearing my 6 month old plum wine. Just wondering if there is any downside to using K&C. Does it change the flavor at all? Anything else to consider? I can use it on my other batches or continue to wait for natural clearing.

Thanks for the kind words. I'll attach a photo of the tree in bloom. I probably have other photos if I can find them. We do get a crazy amount of plums. I believe the variety is Mariposa. One thing is that two years ago, my neighbor behind me cut down two trees that blocked late afternoon sun...

Bottled the first of seven, 5 gallon carboys. The cat was very interested in the process. Just want to say that this forum has been great. Really helped a lot.

Some interesting observations... The honey must and the agave must were set up just about the same except with the honey must I added 1.5 grams/gallon of Fermaid O at the start and with the agave, I only added half of that with the idea I would add the second half after a few days. Judging by...

what about the ones on Uline? https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-24387/Bottles/Wine-Corks I was thinking about trying them.

actually, SG of 1.160 is a brix between 36-and 37 with an alcohol potential of 25%. That is probably WAAAY to concentrated. Most of the guidance here is to fully ferment the wine and then back-sweeten to taste when you bottle. EC1118 is rated to an alcohol potential of 18%. I am shooting for...

Over the last week or so, I started two batches of wine. One is a true, simple mead. My son-in-law's father has some bee hives and he kindly supplied a few kilograms of his honey. It made about 3 gallons of must with a starting brix of about 26. But I am into tequila so I though I would also...

I didn't see much effect from adding some PE to a small sample, and I still contend the wine in two of the 1 gallon glass bottles cleared on its own (definite sediment on the bottom). So I doubted I was looking at pectic haze. The 5 gallon batches are just being slower to clear so few days...

I set up a little test. I put two samples side by side and put some pectic enzyme in one. We'll see if it clears. I also tried that test where you add some wine to some denatured alcohol. That turned pretty cloudy but I didn't see obvious chunks of stuff. Not sure it that told me anything.

Hi folks and happy holidays. Its been a few more months with my plum wine just sitting. Per the photo above, some of it is in glass 1 gallon bottles and some is in the 5 gallon plastic carboys. When I did a racking in September, I did some consolidating and I now have only two of the 1 gallon...

When I drink booze, 99% of the time it's tequila. Everyone knows me for this. I have an idea to maybe start a Tequila micro-distillery business in a few years when I retire. Seems like starting with fermenting agave is a good place to start.

After what appears to be a successful plum wine project in July I want to make Mead. I actually plan to use Agave nectar rather than honey but seems like it is still basically a mead-type thing. My questions is what additives are needed. I assume one doesn't use pectic enzyme or acid blend. I...

I get that a hydrometer doesn't know what it's measuring. Kind of why I am asking this. I used to have one for measuring battery acid. Sounds like we'd just use the same set up regardless of sugar type. Thanks guys. Better to ask and be sure.

Thanks for the reply. See from my perspective (which is a guy looking at his hydrometer), the relationship between Brix and SG is fixed. They are just different scales printed in the piece of paper inside my hydrometer. So from my perspective, they are interchangeable. That is kind of why I...

Maybe this should be in the Mead section but I want to make sure I understand how to setup up a must based on something other than fruit juice. I've mentioned before that many years ago I made Mead with simply honey. Now that I am all set up from my plum wine making efforts, I want to make...

What was the starting SG? Maybe you mentioned it but I didn't see it? I made plum wine in July with a starting SG of around 1.095. Only took 5 days to get down to 1.010 or so. So your time frame isn't off-normal. Did you add an actual wine yeast or just use the wild yeast on your grape. I used...