Jack Keller says that potassium sorbate should always be closed tight and used or replaced every six months. If your sorbate was old it won't stabilize your wine. You end up throwing out a lot of sorbate but it's better than using an ineffective additive. If it was fresh sorbate you used...
I have my T'ej in the secondary right now. I picked up a 13oz. bag of gesho inchet at a store around the corner. So how could I refuse? I don't boil the gesho. But for this batch I did use a D47 yeast instead. It turned out dry so I sweetened it up with more honey. Maybe on the next batch...
My 2013 Pear wine turned out excellent. Everyone really enjoyed it. I did six gallons using 36 lbs. of Bartlett pears for a yield of 30 bottles. If I had to do it over again I'd use even more pears. The results using the ICV-D47 yeast were mighty good. My wine cleared on its own especially...
Don't add acid blend before fermentation has started. You'd be better off adding acid blend after fermentation is complete and the wine is clearing then only add it to taste. Check the acidity of your must. You are making it extremely hard for the yeast to live let alone thrive if you've made...
First question is what is your very dark honey? Will it make a good mead? Dark honey could be buckwheat honey which is very strong and not the best for making mead. Taste it and tell us if it tastes good to you. Ken Schramm, the author of the Compleat Meadmaker (a book every meadmaker should...
I think some of the bitterness or tartness you might taste is from acid additions if you made any. A pH of 3 is low (acidic), i'd prefer you to be more toward a pH of 3.8. Your yeast may be struggling in the acid environment. But with a gravity of 0.995 you are pretty dry. You must have used...
Charles with being six weeks out and still a 1.046 S.G. sounds like your fermentation got stuck at about 12% alcohol already. With that current %ABV I think pitching additional yeast is likely not to be successful. In my batch, starting with a 1.090 O.G. it was down to 1.040 in several days...
For my pear wine I used 36 lbs. of overripe Bartletts in the 6 gallons. A buddy did the same wine and he used on the order of 45 lbs. for his 6 gallons. The pear juice is subtle so f-packing it is completely understandable. I used grape juice or concentrate as I'm a renter and it's just way...
OK so here is what I'm looking at for my batch of this wine.
For 6 gallons:
3.875 gallons water (3 gallons + 7 pints)
Six - 30 oz cans of Swad Kesar Mango Pulp
36 cups white granulated sugar – (16.0 lbs. minus 1.83 cups)
2 – 64 fl oz. Welches White Grape Juice
1 – 12 oz. Old Orchard Frozen...
My pear wine (6 gallons) I started last September and I used at least one 12 oz. can of white grape juice concentrate per gallon in the fermentation to provide body. My must measured 1.092 after my sugar addition as I was attempting to get a 12% ABV which is good for a pear wine. I have been...