Recent content by BeeWine

A good practice to fallow in wine making is to start a yeast starter using some of the must twelve to twenty four hours before you plan to pitch the yeast. High SG or OG must's can stress yeast due to the high sugar levels. Making a yeast starter acclimates the yeast to the must and also...

Ride Was your OG high. It could be your yeast died of alcoholic toxicity and fermentation will not continue. If it were mine and is at 1.000 I would leave it as is. John

The bottle probably was cracked or had a weak spot. When you corked the bottle the pressure created by the cork sliding into the bottle was enough to cause the bottle to fail. John .

The package of calcium carbonate I have calls for 1/2 TSP per gallon before fermentation to lower acidity .01%. John

Grapeman Gregin did not mention MLF so I wrote the post with that in mind. John

If they were mine I would ferment first and try to deal with the acid later . Asidex Super-K and cold stabilization should bring the acid in line. Marquette's are not high in flavor so adding water to the must would not be recomended! The Marquette's we grow here run about 11 plus G/L . John

Hector That small addition should not hurt. SO2 should protect a must for a couple of days. John

I rinse or wash well depending on what was in the carboy. I than add a half a gallon of hot tap water and half a teaspoon of kmeta. I than cap with a solid rubber bung. As the carboy sits a vacuum should form from the cooling of the warm water. Later when I am ready to reuse the carboy the...

Petey I fallow lon"s recipe and add three 12oz bags of crushed cranberries. Adds a nice light cranberry flavor. John

Try adding some other flavoring to your next batch. I add three 12 oz. bags of cranberries to mine. No complaints here!! John

You can ferment the wine using the stepped additions of sugar and end up with a sweet wine. There is an older [85 years i think} fellow living a few miles from me that makes wine this way!!!! It will work. Would I recommend making wine this way? No This will make a hot wine that takes a long...

Shane Please remember these old recipes were not written for modern fermenter sizes. They were just a recipe someone worked out by trial and error and were fermented in a crock jar. Sugar was continually added in small amounts until the yeast died of alcohol toxicity and the desired sweetness...

Thanks for your advise Turock. It will come in handy for future batches. John

Thanks Turock I am using 71B and my PH was 3.4. I am a little light in the fruit department though. I will add more fruit next time around. Also I do not use Go-Ferm but will give it a shot some time. I have always made a yeast starter with water,a small amount of the must, some yeast...

I have had issues in past years with my plum wines lacking flavor due in part to the high malic acid content, Has anyone tried melo-lactic fermentation to tone down the malic acid some. John