I also agree with getting a floor corker. I had this problem with both my 2 lever and floor corker. I put thread lock on both and never had any problems afterwards. by far the floor corker is far easier to use and is a more consistant machine.
As Julie has said. You are going to have a wine like Mogan David (MD20/20). It will still be a wine and may make great wine coolers. If this is not what you want you could go out and get you more grape juice and cut your must still you get the SG your looking for.
I believe if you get a couple of stoppers with two holes in them and rig up an air tight line set you could vacuum rack your wine using that little hand pump. this will release more co2 and less work. Then later down the road you may be able to afford a better pump. good luck
I have used Bentonite, ussually in the primary due to it being part of the recipe. I do not ussually use anything at the end unless it is a white and/or time has failed to deliver.
Ok, the wife and I hit three of the lucky7 wineries in this area. Started off at The Village Vineyard & Winery in Camp Point, then to Spirit Knob in Ursa and then over to Lake Hill in Carthage. Unfortunantly for me none of the proprietors were available for questions and answers. Figures the...
I have only had this problem once but had already made a racking tube out of 3/8" copper tubing and just used it when vacuum racking took care of it emediately.
Wineguy,
You may search this forum for recipes, equipment and special instructions. Read and search, it will help answer a lot of your questions. Gallon batches are a lot less cost when beginning and soon enough you will be doing 5 gallon batches or several different 1gallon batches...
Dragon, I am sure it is the fact that you are not sorbating the wine before you add the conditioner. Like a few others have hit on, the conditioner has sorbate to prevent the conditioner from fermenting but not to stop your wine from renewing fermentation.